Richard Bannister

Our beloved GPS found a particularly interesting driving route to Tosselilla that took us along a number of roads that stretched the definition of the word. Nevertheless we still managed to arrive just before opening. The park was split into three sections; a playground area, a small water park, and a medium sized ride area. The latter had a definite fairground feel about it, with most of the attractions being portable models (albeit with grass growing up around them). These were all included in the admission price, though there were also a few coin-operated attractions from the Heege range, including a Nautic Jet. We elected to skip these today, though we did watch a slightly heavier passenger get soaked!

The larger of two coasters was Mad Mouse (#1654), a Fabbri spinning coaster with extremely aggressive braking that stopped the car dead in every single block section. As a consequence the cars never managed to build up much speed, and the spinning was relatively tame. It was interesting to note almost nobody riding a second time despite this being the largest attraction in the park; presumably the other passengers were as bored as we were. At the risk of offending someone, I found Kålmasken (#1655) to be just as thrilling, probably because the brakes were not quite up to the job; on our ride the front car of the train ended up parked beyond the station!

There was a distinct sense of déjà vu in the air as we walked into Malmö Folkets Park (my six hundredth amusement park!) to find a Fabbri spinning coaster and a Big Apple. In this case the roles were reversed; Batman (#1656) wasn't stopping in any of the brakes, other than the final one which we hit sideways at full speed, the resulting impact being broadly akin to a car crash. Kålmasken (#1657) on the other hand felt like it was barely making it around the track, though this was probably because we were on the first train of the morning and the wheels were cold.

Liseberg is a park that deserves a full day and a wristband to enjoy properly. Unfortunately we simply didn't have enough time in our schedule to spend more than a few hours in the park, which we planned to use to try out the new attractions added since our last visit. The latest addition to the park is an Intamin Gyro Drop named Atmosfear, which was built on the tower that once held an observation deck. Sadly it was stängt today for unknown reasons, leaving us with the consolation prize of Rabalder (#1658).

The new coaster is a family ride built by Zierer which is surprisingly bumpy considering its size. Worse yet, the seats include shark fins for younger riders which are placed just a tiny bit too far to the side for anyone over the age of twelve to be comfortable. The reader might legitimately point out that the hardware wasn't designed with adult riders in mind, but it's worth calling out that the vast majority of trains I saw had parents riding with their children. Given how rough it was today I'd be amazed if it last the thirty-something years achieved by its predecessor, which was still pretty smooth in its final years.

We finished up our visit with a glorious lap on Lisebergbanan.