Richard Bannister

Our trip to Germany this weekend was planned around the opening of Ring Racer, a new roller coaster at the Nürburgring race track, which is expected to take the record for the fastest on the planet. The new coaster was originally scheduled to open in June, before being postponed to today. Late last week however it got postponed once more due to technical problems discovered during testing. The end result of this was some last minute replanning, not an easy task for an enthusiast who already has almost all of the credits in southern Germany!

George commented that anywhere in Germany is reachable within twenty minutes on the Autobahn. While that might be a slight exaggeration it is more accurate than foreigners appreciate. There are few things more disconcerting than driving at speeds approaching two hundred kilometers per hour, only to be overtaken by those going much faster. Sedate drivers need not apply.

Trampolino is a family entertainment centre built in and around a large barn that still bears the signage for a local tennis club. Towards the end of last year the park added Flotte Biene (#1420), a small coaster from ABC Rides with two three-seater cars. It is perhaps most distinctive for the fact that riders board at the top of the lift hill and disembark at the base, which allows for a relatively small (and thus cheap) lift hill motor. The ride is short but a lot of fun, and perfect for the park.

Enthusiasts should be aware that the coaster operates a very limited schedule; today it was open from 13:00-14:00, then again from 15:00-17:00. We would not have been happy if we'd arrived at the park for opening!

We made a flying visit into Mondo Verde purely because it was less than twenty minutes away from our next stop, taking only a few minutes to catch a quick lap on the recently relocated Wilde Tijger Achtbaan. There were no other worthwhile rides, and it's fair to say that one mediocre coaster on a concrete base didn't hold our attention for very long.

Our first fair of the evening was the Sommerbend, temporary home to Berg & Tal (#1421). Though the ride clearly pales in comparison to some of the other coasters travelling in Germany it was still a fun experience mostly due to the cars having no restraints whatsoever, something that is rarely seen these days.

Neither of us had anticipated quite how busy the Cranger Kirmes would actually be, and more to the point what an absolute nightmare it would be to find a parking space. We seriously considered giving up on it outright, but in the end elected to park on the footpath for a short period in order to make a flying visit to one of the new attractions on the German fair circuit this year.

The ride in question was The Tower, a large vertical construction with five attractions in one, namely a fun house, a haunted walkthrough, an observation platform, a bar, and a restroom. The fun house section was somewhere between average and poor, and the haunted section was too short to be even remotely significant. The observation platform might have been more effective if it hadn't been half the hight of the Bellevue fifty metres away. As for the bar and bathroom, any German fair has a considerable amount of competition for both at ground level!

In an ideal world we'd have spent an entire evening at the fair, and next time our trip plan will definitely allow for this. The enthusiast in me was utterly dismayed at not catching a lap on Olympia Looping, but with the alternative being a parking ticket (which we missed by seconds!) we decided it was safer not to risk it.

Our final fair of the evening was also ridiculously busy, but aided somewhat by plentiful car parking. We didn't have to wait too long to obtain our credit on Wilde Maus (Barth) (#1422), before wandering around to see what else might be present. The lions share of space was occupied by food and drink stalls, though we did catch up with the amazing Lach & Freu Haus, easily my favourite fun house on the German fair circuit. Sadly we were not given psychedelic glasses today, though the experience without them was still worth a nine out of ten.