Surprise! This extra post will reveal something that I wanted to save for somewhere in the project, the addition of an extra realm to the park(which btw will not be the only new realm to this version of the park). Hope you'll enjoy!
With our visit to Heksenketel and Heksenkelder, we conclude our tour of Tough Realm, for now at least… From here we travel towards ‘De Siervijver’ (The Ornamental Pond), a large water feature on the east side of the Efteling Park. Attractions and hiking trails are located around the pond, in the middle an inaccessible island. It is covered with trees and shrubs and is home to waterfowl that live in the pond. A waterfall has been built of natural stone on the west side. Although normally, we find little excitement adjacent to Symbolica, next to Tough Realm, I would like to surprise you all with a completely new Realm for the Efteling Park, which will find its entrance on this space. This area stretches from the former location of D’oude Tuffers to the strip of land next to the Efteling Hotel and will be known as ‘Het Vergeten Rijk’ (The Forgotten Realm). This future expansion of the park is an area dedicated to stories, legends and myths related to the theme of being forgotten, lost or mysteriously disappeared. Just as every other area in the park, it offers a collection of loose stories under a branched theme. However, something that is quite interesting to this area is the fact that most of its attractions find its origins in Dutch folklore.
With its living drifting sand, De Loonse en Drunense Duinen is a unique nature reserve, both in the Dutch province of Brabant, as well as the whole of Europe, which is rightly cherished in 2020. At the same time, there is something ironic about this. The dunes are also the remnants of an environmental disaster that took place in the Late Middle Ages. The consequences of this were also experienced at the time by the residents of Westloon, forerunner of today’s Loon op Zand. When a group of archaeologists in Loon op Zand (municipality that also includes Kaatsheuvel) excavated on a meadow in the Loonse en Drunense Duinen in the 1950s, they came across a gruesome find: human bones were found under the sand. Now it was this meadow where the former village of Westloon was located, but the archaeologists had expected that the skeletons moved with them when the populations left the village in 1391. Then the Westloners founded the Southwestern Westloon op ‘t Zand a few hundred meters away, later corrupted into Loon op Zand. They built a new church here, but the counts of Westloon did not move to this church. In fact, the old church of Westloon remained standing for centuries…
The big question is whether the drifting sand was the reason why the inhabitants of Westloon fled their village. The legend of the ‘Ses Boogscheuten Weeghs’ says so. Threatened by the drifting sand, the Westloners would have fired six arrows to determine where their new church, that of present Loon op Zand should be built. However, the legend does not reveal anything about the fact that the Westloners did indeed go into combat with the drifting sand. The dune, which is now located on the far side of the meadow, is the wall that the Westloners erected at the time to protect their village against the drifting sand. There were more such ramparts in the Loonse en Drunense Duinen, they were often planted with oaks. Now in terms of the Efteling, this is how their story developed.
Westloon is the predecessor of the village of Loon op Zand, but it was west of where Loon op Zand is now. This was a hamlet or village and at some point it completely disappeared from the map and probably completely submerged in shifting sand, but mysteriously little can be found about how that hamlet of Westloon actually disappeared. In that hamlet there was a church, the church of Saint Willibrord, which overshadowed the entire village. Guests arrive at an area that has been themed into a dune area, similar in style to the nearby Loonse and Drunense Duinen. Here we see a lot of shifting sand with high drifting dunes and pine trees. And what happens to be going on here? The Efteling would like to build an attraction here in this area. While they are digging and making way for the attraction, they come across the church of Westloon under the drifting sand. We as visitors have no choice but to move towards the protruding church tower standing tall at 183 feet.
Here we see that the church tower is still half hidden under the shifting sand and we are actually looking at the back of the church, so let's say the nave of the church. Further on is the church tower itself. The sand has definitely taken its toll on the church as can be seen by the cracked walls and shattered windows – suggesting a tortured past. It is an old church from 1269, styled in early Gothic features and quite austere. As a reference, you can think of some tougher and more robust churches that can be found in Brabant, such as the one in Oosterhout, but on the other hand it is very dilapidated after all the hundreds of years under the shifting sand. The building itself is still somewhat covered in sand. It turns out that archaeological excavations are underway in preparation for the new Efteling attraction and to everyone's surprise, the village of Westloon has come up with it. This is where the meandering towards the church begins and in that meandering that runs there, you can see that hard work is being done to uncover the remains of the old village of Westloon. So here you see some explicit storytelling and there are some ruins popping up everywhere among the dune landscape. Archaeologists are at it, we're seeing some map material and some deposits, so it looks like real hard work is being done to excavate that village that has so weirdly disappeared.
We are lucky because we can go and have a look inside the church. So through double doors, we enter the nave of the church. Inside we see that it is still partly covered in drifting sand on the inside, with whole piles of sand scattered around the room, causing us to be on about half the height of what the church would normally be. There is a very strange atmosphere in that church. Here, you walk over the sand on wooden planks through this very dusty and very musty hall. There are some work lights here and there that pulse slightly. The stained glass windows are cracked, some religious artifacts can be found among the piles of sand and there are countless cobwebs. Here and there are still some archaeologists and historians who are busy with research. As we wait here, we can already feel some mysterious wind now and then, the lights flicker a little dimly and if you listen very carefully you can hear some ominous cries that want us to turn around from the church.
However, we do not care about this and continue with our visit in a pre-show room themed to a briefing room where Guests will be informed about their ascend. Lights dim and we are informed by a briefing video set up by the archeologists, revealing parts of the backstory about Westloon. They have given us the privilege of entering the tower of the church. They have now been able to remove the sand completely, so we are really looking into a deep well there. Scaffolding has been set up in that tower with a number of construction lifts, because the church must of course be examined, but first it must be cleared by means of those scaffolding. We as guests are allowed to go with those construction lifts to view the church tower from the inside. However, the video gets interrupted, a dread wind blows and the lights start to flicker on their own. Projection effects bring the room to uncanny life. Drifting sand dances on the walls and reveals the legend of Westloon as the backstory is told on the video. Near the end, faces are formed in the sand, presumably of the lost Westloners, who shout ‘Leave us Alone!’ and Guests are plunged into darkness.
Guests continue, fearfully into a maze of hallways on the construction site. The sounds of equipment constantly reverberate. Lights flicker under ghostly influence. At last the path leads to an elevator door. Dare we continue? We all take a seat inside one of the construction lifts and the stirrups close, reversing into darkness. At first there is nothing wrong; we just take the elevator up to see what beauty has been discovered in the church tower. Then suddenly an ominous wind picks up, the lighting starts flashing violently and then you notice that the construction elevator is snagging in front of a stained-glass window that cracks violently. A ghostly red smoke invades the tower, distorting Guests’ reflections into phantasmagorical otherworldly silhouettes. The elevator descends one floor, as the tower starts to rumble due to the heavy winds that howl within. A long hallway shakes – the elevator shakes too. Doors fall from their frames. Marble statues of angels holding up the ceiling both crumble in a projection mapping effect. Drifting sand floats inside and forms into the shape of ghostly figures that seem to pursue us. They all turn and face the riders, slowly and with substantial menace. The ghosts all thrust out their ghostly hands in accusation of crossing their church territory. Soon we hear some horrifying sounds and screams. And then we shoot up out of nowhere, we fall down and special effects happens around us, caused by the old residents of Westloon. Drops and ascents are randomized. The elevator falls faster than gravity, pulled downwards by powerful cables, as seen in Disney’s Tower of Terror attractions and Mission: Breakout!
Occassionally, randomly, the elevator will pause within the shaft for incredible brief show scenes such as crumbling walls, gusts of dust and sand flying around the tower or the ghostly faces appearing within the sand. The highlight of any drop sequence is the whole-tower drop. The elevator pauses at the tower’s highest point – a disintegrating wall reveals panoramic views of The Forgotten Realm. Then a faux-drop… then the elevator hurtles down. Fortunately, we eventually come to a stop again, but then again at the bottom of the church tower in a deep well. Guests all catch their breath as lights turn on. Guests exit via hallways formed of lath-and-plaster drywall interiors. On-ride photo display within a series of wall-mounted picture frames belonging to the archeological team can be seen next in a ‘temporary’ excavation tent. And just before we exit, we hear a few snippets of voices saying, ‘Leave us alone!’.
Hurtle up and down aboard a cursed construction lift...
With our visit to Heksenketel and Heksenkelder, we conclude our tour of Tough Realm, for now at least… From here we travel towards ‘De Siervijver’ (The Ornamental Pond), a large water feature on the east side of the Efteling Park. Attractions and hiking trails are located around the pond, in the middle an inaccessible island. It is covered with trees and shrubs and is home to waterfowl that live in the pond. A waterfall has been built of natural stone on the west side. Although normally, we find little excitement adjacent to Symbolica, next to Tough Realm, I would like to surprise you all with a completely new Realm for the Efteling Park, which will find its entrance on this space. This area stretches from the former location of D’oude Tuffers to the strip of land next to the Efteling Hotel and will be known as ‘Het Vergeten Rijk’ (The Forgotten Realm). This future expansion of the park is an area dedicated to stories, legends and myths related to the theme of being forgotten, lost or mysteriously disappeared. Just as every other area in the park, it offers a collection of loose stories under a branched theme. However, something that is quite interesting to this area is the fact that most of its attractions find its origins in Dutch folklore.
