Scenery and culture is great and all, but I was itching to get back on the park scene, so up next, two days of Europa Park (which will be split in twain, because I found more to say).

People have always said that it needs a couple of days to do properly, so gave myself plenty of time (and the option of ditching the second day).

Train from Freiburg to Ringsheim, bus to the park. You get a great view of Silver Star as you go in, and the trees and scenery obscure the rest of the goodness inside. First port of call: to the back of the park for Blue Fire.

BLUE FIRE MEGACOASTER powered by GAZPROM, as its full title reads

Blue Fire is a decent coaster. Nice launch that keeps on going, and lots of that floaty Mack goodness in the inversions. Not a fan of the opening stall turn and has some distinct dead spots.

There’s an inconspicuous door leading to a view of the launch track

Here, I got my first taste of Europa’s famously good batching. I opted for the single-rider queue, which ended up being about the same as the regular queue (at 40-ish minutes). The guy on the turnstile barked orders at the passengers, grabbing the occasional single rider. Suddenly any hold-up felt like a grave upset to the system. Alles in Ordnung!

Nearby is Wodan Timbur Coaster, the GCI woodie. Again opting for the single rider, I boarded swiftly in the pleasant wooden station, complete with a fab soundtrack and wooden goddesses turning their heads to watch the train arrive and leave.

The torches at the top are a nice touch

Understated but effective

Wodan: brilliant! Didn’t expect to really love this one, but I think I have a thing for this kind of twisting and diving woodie layout. The way the first drop keeps feeling steeper and steeper as the structure envelopes the train - the way you briefly fly over the water coaster’s drop, all fabulous. I’d contrast it with something like Wildfire. Wildfire is a friend leading you on a scenic tour of breathtaking landscapes. Wodan is a friend grabbing you by the collar and dragging you erratically through the wild.

I still prefer Wildfire for the record

As it was a cred, I had to tick off Atlantica SuperSplash, even though it was freezing (no queue) and I didn’t wanna. Good views from the top, but felt like a prototype. Why does it just go backwards for no reason? Who knows.

At least it looks great

Box ticking hat back on, charged over to do Euro-Mir and Euro-Sat (whose names I get endlessly confused). Europa Park sure do love their spiral lift hills.

This is Euro-Mir

Euro Mir is weird. Disco rave lift hill with rocket! High exposed Wild Mouse section! Then the trains stop spinning and the coaster section is poo.

I planned to walk around the actual Euro-Mir the next day, but it was shut :(

This is Euro-Sat

After the novelty of ascending to the indoor queue on an escalator, this didn’t offer me much of anything except corners that were far too uncomfortable and lots of laser effects that didn’t stick the landing.

There’s loads of rides here that seem to chuck you straight into the next entrance queue. Silver Star next. It’s themed to Formula One. Did you know Mercedes won three world titles? You will after they bat you over the head with it constantly.

Guys guys guys! We’re so awesome! Notice us!

We have a cool car that goes whoosh and everything

Silver Star in the second-to-back row was a disappointment. Whether it was trims, the cold, or too early in the day, the train was crawling over hills, leading my favourite part of the ride to be the flicky S-bend at the end.

Oh, and it was hailing. So that was great.

Why must you be so?

Next up, Pegasus, which was like Götterblitz at Familypark, but not as good. There was VR. I didn’t bother.

You were fine, probably

Poseidon - oh yay, another wet coaster in the cold. Actually, this one is much better - for a start, the theming is expansive and atmospheric.

Poseidon’s station is underrated

The coaster section wasn’t particularly exciting, and a little uncomfortable, but today, I was grateful for the weediness of the splash, which wasn’t up to much.

Pictured: nobody getting wet

Love the dive-under

By this point, I was making good time on aim number one of getting all the coasters done on the first day, so I added in a couple of other rides. Curse of Kassandra is a mad house. Not great. No pre-show and some unpleasant 4D-esque effects.

Disappointing

There’s also a nearby dark ride shooter, themed to an under-sea adventure. It’s got a unique cartoony style, which probably means it’s cheap, but it owns it at least.

Matterhorn Blitz: quirky lift, but mostly forgettable.

But it has a horse in the queue, which is something

More dark ride times: the Ghost Train (Geisterschloss). It’s… Haunted Mansion. It’s so obviously just nicked all the ideas from a ride I’ve not even ridden, but recognise one or two references from.

There’s a lot of Disney ripoffs at Europa Park, though with a better standard than Movieland

Took a short diversion to take care of the kiddie creds. Unfortunately, no luck in walking straight onto the Ba-a-a Express. Had to wait in the kiddie queue of shame.

But shameful as it was, there’s a load of really cute scenery in the new Ireland area.

Anyway, here’s Wonderwall

Next up, another surprise coaster. Arthur is an inverted, partially indoor coaster/dark ride hybrid. Lots of big set pieces from the film (with unfortunate use of occasional screens), the inverted coaster allows the floor to be themed too.

This seems familiar somehow

The highlight of this ride though, is where the train pops out into the main atrium and circles above the crowds below. There’s something genuinely adventurous and whimsical about it all. Using a powered coaster system allows for some more dynamic movement too. Big thumbs up!

Wheeee

Two more to go. Schweizer Bobbahn is a Mack bobsled, and that’s about all you need to know. If you’ve been on Avalanche, you’ve been on this too.

Lastly, I finally get a chance to do VR. I’ve been putting off doing upcharge VR, but I desperately wanted to have an opinion on it, so I opted to do Alpinexpressen without VR, then again with.

Without VR: One of the better mine trains. The Mine Train shares space with the log flume and a walkthrough in a sort of gem mine dark ride area. It’s got moments of speed and lots to look at. Why this coaster for VR? Why? Well…

With VR: Got to admit, I kind of enjoyed this. The graphics were basic, and I couldn’t get properly immersive focus, but there was lots to enjoy, with progression through a mine to a ride on a dragon. Still, feels like the wrong ride to receive this treatment. Much more receptive to the news of Euro-Sat getting VR since it’s entirely indoors.

In conslusion of day one: great success! Two new rides to grace my top twenty (granted Blue Fire just squeaked in) and all of the rest of the coasters done! Europa Park is a solid park with a huge lineup, but still not enough to beat my favourite.