Time to leave Austria behind and head over the border to Munich. Linz didn’t provide me with any burning reason to stick around, and Bavarian creds were calling my name.

So far, much of the rail travel was fairly uneventful romps through cities and countryside, but Salzburg, not wishing to be forgotten, announces itself proudly as “this is where the photo opportunities start!”

Salzburg starts the bidding for “most scenic station” award

If you’re ever going to visit Munich and Salzburg, I would recommend doing this train journey. It’s essentially a one-and-a-half hour tour through various Bavarian postcard scenes

The tragedy of the landscape photos is that I have a phone camera, which does not do justice to the scenery

Lots of quaint little Bavarian houses scattered around

Quick check in and bag dump at the hostel, then on to the theme park of the day.

Brushie Brushie Brushie

Skyline park is easily reachable by train: a short walk from Rammingen station. As you find yourself walking towards the park, take a moment to notice how peaceful and serene it is.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with EURGH

Relax and let the atmosphere soak in as you put off getting closer to Skyline Park

It’s amazing how this entrance doesn’t look good even in bright sunlight

Skyline Park opens with its best cards. As you walk in, there are various water features and rides that try and implant the idea in your head that this is actually going to be a good park. Unfortunately all the creds were located further back in the unfotunate half of the park.

Let’s enjoy this walkway while we can

Shipping containers. Must not make a Merlin joke

Bench: the ride

Maybe during my research, I could’ve realised that two of the coasters I was looking at here were actually Butterflies, which I don’t count. Still, five to go, and I started with the unorthodox one.

It looks exciting but it’s really not

Sky Spin is a spinning, swinging, suspended coaster. The park’s operations were in full flow here. A guy on the ride lost his cap and the ride-ops just paused the ride while he ran through the ride area to retrieve it.

And who needs drive tyres when you can just pull the train along

Sky Spin was one of those rides that I don’t remember a huge amount of the actual layout. It circles around gently, before hitting its peak near the end. Most notably to me was all of the noises it made during the ride layout. I have high levels of trust in all rides on a conscious level but there’s a sort of ride that induces a deep sensation of unease.

Sky Wheel next (who needs originality when you can just name everything after your park?). I found Ukko at Särkänniemi largely unpleasant, and this wasn’t much better.

Who invented hangtime?

Back when I was 10, my favourite ride in the whole world was Whirlwind at Camelot, an MS spinner. Returning with CoasterForce in 2007 proved how rough it had become. Turns out, it had been bought by Skyline Park. Had it improved?

Nope!

Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain

All I can say in its defence, is that the ride-op was having a great time. On a well maintained MS Spinner, every twist and turn is an energetic but graceful dance. On this, you grimace and brace for it.

The “Nostalgische Achterbahn” had a couple of minor airtime pops, but was otherwise unremarkable

There looked to be some intriguing stuff over the hill. I forgot that Skyline were testing the new Spike Coaster, possibly because I’d decided that something so weird couldn’t have been found here. A group of techy looking people stood around while the train slowly crawled through the circuit.

Cred, or not a cred? For now, the answer was “Who cares, it’s closed”

Things I could not be arsed with

Skyline Park had bob karts, which I would usually do, but didn’t bother with once I saw that the queue was moving at a snail’s pace

I’m sure they were fine

On Saturday, I’d been intrigued by the Storm Surge-esque ride at Prater. My choice to ignore it (on account of Prater rapidly unloading my wallet) was rewarded - there was one at Skyline Park! It’s fine.

A big solid 5 out of 10

Last cred. Oh no…

I do what I must because I can

Rerides? Screw that, there’s a train waiting.

Vroom vroom - take me away from this place

Is Skyline the worst park I’ve been to yet? There are patches where it looks like they’ve tried to make it look nice, but overall it just feels like a lot of nothing. The ride selection ranges from poor to mediocre (ignoring the ignored bob karts) and there’s a sketchy undertone to the whole place. Still, it felt more worthwhile than Schwaben Park, and doesn’t have the downside of sad animals. Would recommend only for the +5 (or +7 if you count Butterflies).

Happy, Magic, Fun!

I camped out in the hostel bar and went to a nearby pizzeria for dinner. Munich is well catered for pizza, which I guess makes sense given Italy is nearby. This is the only picture I took of Munich from this day.

I want an Auto Wolf

On day six, I’ll be going to a real theme park. It’s owned by Merlin and everything.