Richard Bannister

Weather conditions for day eight of my trip were not even remotely good, with heavy rain predicted from dawn to dusk. In an ideal world I'd have changed plans on the fly, but it wasn't practical to do that as there were no other credits (or indeed interesting tourist sights) within sensible driving range of my overnight hotel. With no better options available I decided to stick with my original route and hope for the best, and was very pleasantly surprised when I managed to tick off three of the four coasters I'd hoped for. The only miss was Rügen Park, which was closed entirely due to what Google Translate described as trendy weather.

It was grey and overcast for my arrival at Karls Erlebnis-Dorf, but it was quickly evident that the threatened downpour wasn't keeping the punters away. The car park was nearly full, and though the vast majority of the guests were apparently in the market area, there were still plenty of people willing to brave the weather. It was hardly a surprise to find a short queue for the Erdbeer Raupenbahn (#2893). My three lap cycle costing €3 was completed successfully before the rain started.

The closure of Rügen Park (see above) put me well ahead of my planned schedule, and as the day was already very short I decided to use some of the new-found slack time to detour past an alpine coaster that I'd ridden back in 2016. I'd not expected the machine in question to be open, but it was, and there was even another group of guests at the cash desk ahead of me.

Inselrodelbahn Bergen remains one of the shortest rides of its type ever built; as of this writing it is twenty places from the bottom among the 361 alpine coasters listed on RCDB. Despite its brevity, however, it is a respectable enough experience with airtime bumps and forceful turns along its forty second descent. I'd have done a second and possibly a third €2.50 lap in better conditions.

The Rövershagen branch of Karls Erlebnis-Dorf is the oldest in the chain and the largest by some margin. At present the facilties stretch to approximately 50,000 square metres, and an undeveloped area of land to the west of the existing buildings should allow some expansion in the future. The site contains both the standard market area and a wide selection of additional retail and food offerings, not least a dinner buffet that looked absolutely delicious.

My first stop was at the third Erdbeer Raupenbahn (#2894) in thirty-six hours, this one located outside near the back of the park. The theming on this version looked a little shabby comparead to the newer installations, though my guess is that this was a temporary situation given how well presented the rest of the site is. As with its brothers the ride was being run with a three lap cycle that cost €3, and all day pass was available for those young enough to appreciate one.

The most interesting ride in the park as of this writing (and I use that adjective with feeling) is Kaffeekannen-Express (#2895), an indoor "monorail coaster" manufactured by SBF Rides. The layout when viewed from above looks much the same as 110 film: it consists of two lengthy parallel straight sections connected at each end by a circular piece of track featuring a tyre-drive lift and descent. There are minor undulations enroute, but it would be thoroughly dishonest to describe them as airtime hills as they are traversed much too slowly to be noticeable. The route is lined with thousands of coffee pots of all shapes and sizes (seriously...), providing a very different visual to the norm. The result is a fun novelty, and while not a thrill ride I can heartily recommend it. Today each dispatch was for two laps, and I bought a second ticket just so I could experience it again.