Following on from a refreshing night on a train, I met up with Owain and Ian to go and drop stuff in our hotel room. A few hours to go until the live: ripe for some brief sightseeing. I followed the horde to the Palace.

Horse Horse

Conor peers into the gardens while Jordan enjoys a delicious invisible sandwich

The palace is as grand as most European palaces, but the real treasure is the Schönbrunner Schlosspark behind the palace. You could spend a good couple of hours walking around, looking at the various statues, fountains and optionally the zoo nearby (we didn’t fancy spending the extra money).

Lots of intricate and well crafted details, but all I can see is the WHARRGABL at the top

Bloody tourists!

Back by the palace was a market, ready to lighten our wallets. I grabbed an early lunch from a Spätzle stall, which was cheesy, oniony and incredibly filling.

No Easter fair is complete without the Easter Chicken

But enough of that culture rubbish. Lord Morton and Tilen B were waiting for us at Wiener Prater, so off we went. Wiener Prater is a fascinating park. The entrance is exactly as pretty and dignified as you’d expect for a traditional city park. The 100 year old Wiener Riesenrad (Ferris wheel) stands proudly at the front of the park, with a multitude of coasters and dark ride facades stretching out in every direction.

Adventuring further, we discover what a patchwork this park is. You can start in the vibrant forecourt of the area by the wheel, walk a couple of minutes and find yourself in a travelling fair with blaring dance music and bright colours.

oonts oonts oonts oonts

Now, if Bobbejaanland was a park with many poor to mediocre creds, this is in another league. One of the better ones is the above pictured Boomerang, which is enjoyably disorientating and doesn’t feature OTSRs (though pure metal lap bars were not a good idea)

Prater really loves its Wild Mice. Four of them up for offer, three of which spin. All I noted down for the regular mouse was “no,” and the spinning Reverchon model was generic, but in an incredibly spinny mood.

You spin me right round baby right round oh GOD MAKE IT STOP

Best for onride experience was Maskerade, a bizarre little thing that had something of a glittery pink “preshow” and a literal lift.

Fabulous!

Insider was a Maurer spinner with generic Mouse layout (relocated from Tokyo), but prides itself with the best queue in the park. Mirror maze, lasers, and far too dark to see half the time. Plus the lasers on ride jazz up an otherwise dull ride into something far more exciting

Maybe this sign looks really exotic if you don’t speak English

Continuing the spinner theme, Höllenblitz was in town! To be honest, not really feeling the love. The frontage with the waterfall and the first drop is excellent, and popping briefly outside was a good choice for the first drop. But the rest felt like a vaguely uncomfortble spinner.

The name translates to Hell Lightning though, which is awesome

The Volare: exactly as bad as I remember the last one to be

GROẞ

“Jesus Owain, it’s just a tree, it doesn’t have whimsy”

Megablitz: a Vekoma sitdown that became a surprise highlight - very intense helices (and sudden brakes)

Sehr gut!

Halfway through the day (what does it matter, this report’s not in any sort of order), we took a break. People who hadn’t eaten grabbed food from a pub, and Dave sodded off to do the wheel. I won’t lie, even after the Spätzle, I was a little envious of Conor and Jordan’s huge pile of meat.

While others eat lunch, Tilen extracts cash from the stomach of a fiberglass pig

Every historic city park needs a classic woodie, and Vienna’s is from 1909! Or at least it would be if the original didn’t burn down in 1944. So the replacement is from the 50s. It’s a perfect quirky little installation, complete with water jets and a gnome garden

Yes, I did just say gnome garden - note the one in yellow

Zug des Manitu: Covered family coaster that starts off rolling backwards, then proceeds to roll through an incredibly jerky course with bonus wheel squeal

Scream if the bearings sound like they’re giving out!

There’s also a kiddie cred and a Pinfari looking thing whose lapbar strut dug into my leg. I try to forget those.

Being a pay-per-ride park meant our wallets were feeling light, so we limited the number of non-coasters. The star flyer was worth it for the look over Vienna, and there were a couple of dark walkthroughs on offer: a dinosaur themed one, which kept on delivering surprises, and a horror walkthrough, which couldn’t really make up its mind on what its theme was.

This wasn’t ridden. Was it relocated from Drayton? Old images suggest the theming is the same

Finally the Hotel Psycho ghost train. I don’t do well with excessive jump scares, so I did this mostly out of peer pressure, and seemed to survive. I can certainly appreciate the high quality thing at least.

End of the night, most of us trudged over to our hotel, where Conor preached to Ian the good news about our lord and saviour Uber. Being on the train the next day, I was zoning out most of the transport talk and resigning myself to an early start.