2004
Coaster Trips: 2004: Tripsdrill
Saturday August 1st
Tripsdrill
Getting up this morning was very difficult. On the one hand, this evening I do fly back to civilization (with a brief stop in London on the way). On the other, a cold I began to develop yesterday had finally hit me full blast, and I felt absolutely rotten. Two paracetamols with my breakfast made me feel somewhat human again, though that's a short term fix and I'm sure I'll pay the price tomorrow.
Leaving the hotel at 7:00am, we arrived at Tripsdrill a little after 8:00am for an ERS on G'sengte Sau (#335), the first roller coaster built by Gerstlauer. Not a bad ride at all really; it has a lot in common with the one at Klotten earlier in the week. After three circuits I joined the line of people waiting to operate the ride controls, as that's not something you get the chance to do every day. At the end of the ERS, the entire group was ushered into the ladies toilets (don't ask) in order to admire some rather unique artwork located on the reverse of the toilet stalls. I found the whole experience slightly surreal, but I dutifully followed the crowd. The artwork would not have been out of place on the third page of certain tabloid newspapers.
The other coaster at the park is Rasender Tausendfüßler (#336), a custom design by Zierer that takes advantage of the terrain for maximum effect. Like many other Zierer coasters, the train is sufficiently long that front seat riders are already all the way down the first drop before the train picks up any speed.
A group of us did three consecutive circuits on the Rapids, as there was nobody waiting to take over our boat and it seemed rude not to stay on!
After a second go on the Rasender Tausendfüßler, I tried out the park's small Drop Tower. While not half as unusual as the tower ride at Skyline Park yesterday, this one is different from the usual, with a lap bar instead of an over the shoulder restraint, and a tilt at the top. As with any tilting ride though, this wasn't very comfortable.
Our final ride before lunch, and as it turned out the final ride of the day was on the Jungbrunnen flume ride. This is a standard flume with two turntables and a large backwards drop. Following the theme introduced earlier in the day, the flume travels through some scenes which would never pass the censors in some countries! What makes it stand out from the crowd is the theming; all the boats look like bathtubs, with a rusting radiator and shower hanging over the back of the boat. The wettest part of the ride by far is the queue line, as the splash from the major drop sprays over the entire queueing area.
Lunch was provided by the park, but due to horrendously slow service (nearly 45 minutes) we were finally served just ten minutes before we had to run to the coach. Some otherwise good food had to be gobbled pretty quickly so as to not hold up everyone else. I suppose I should be grateful; five minutes later and I would have had to leave without eating anything.
The drive to Stuttgart Airport was reasonably quick. After repeated scans by airport security (even a dirty handkerchief set off the beeper!) I finally cleared, and spent some time reading people's camera cards for the trip DVD.
At the end of a hectic ten days of theme parks I am absolutely drained. My cold doesn't help the situation of course, but even without it I don't think I could face a whole lot more right away. In four weeks time I will be hitting a few parks in France, but until then I think I'd better go back to my day job! Thanks to Justin, Mark, and everyone else invovled in organising the trip. Until next time!