Richard Bannister

The first stop for today marked a new low in my quest for riding coasters around the world. Hoge Boekel Speelpark is a children's playground that just happens to have a Butterfly (#1562). Fortunately for us there were almost no other guests at the time of our visit, allowing us to quickly claim the credit and escape with minimal embarrassment.

Three years ago it was my privilege to visit Plopsa Indoor Hasselt, a beautifully themed indoor park in Belgium. Plopsa Indoor Coevorden is new this year, and is very similar without being a direct clone. The overall quality of the experience can be judged by the fact that the large paid car park was almost full today despite the place being in what can only be described as the middle of nowhere.

The main reason for our visit was always going to be Piratenbaan (#1563), an identical installation to the sister park in Hasselt. With that cleared, I also took the opportunity to ride the spinning drop ride, which remains one of my favourite family attractions. The park is home to a miniature pendulum ride in the style of the Huss Frisbee that looked ridiculously intense for a park of this size, though the children on board seemed to be enjoying it. I'm not at all sure whether my stomach would have coped; I am getting old.

Speelstad Oranje retired its ageing Tornado powered coaster at the end of last year, replacing it with a smaller Wacky Worm (#1564). The new coaster occupies the same site as its predecessor, a shed on the far left hand side of the park that is also home to a miniature train ride.

Though outwardly similar to every other coaster of this layout, a closer inspection reveals a number of differences with the train; shark fins on the seats, and a soft padded lap bar that ends up resting right across the lap. Once the ride gets going, the train moves a lot faster than every other Big Apple out there, perhaps even double the speed. The result is surprisingly thrilling; who'd ever have expected airtime on one of these rides? Hard as it may be to believe, this coaster is much more than another tick box; enthusiasts in the area shouldn't miss it!

The last stop for the day was another children's park, albeit one that was slightly less embarrassing than Hoge Boekel. It only took us a few minutes to tick off Vlinderbaan (#1565), allowing us to claim (for the moment at least) that we've been on all the known roller coasters in the Netherlands!