World Cup soccer had just ended the weekend before, so there was a whole display.
View attachment 308928
There's a kind of train thing that they CALL a monorail, and I suppose it is, but it's more like a track ride like...Winnie the Pooh, but on a track up above and it goes around the one section of the park. DS REALLY wanted to do it, so we did. I did not enjoy it at all.
View attachment 308929
DD and DH did a thing where you are in a chair and you pull yourself up and let yourself fall.
View attachment 308930
There was a balloon performer who did audience participation based on Star Wars, with all the props made out of balloon creations. It was pretty funny. I don't have any pictures of it though. We came in and it had already started and we were up in a back corner. We also did a fun house mirror maze thing while DH went on a thrill ride...I went in with the kids and somehow we got split up and I kept getting stuck in this one spot over and over and couldn't find the kids, which is AWFUL and I was worried DS was getting stuck and panicking. Oddly, he LOVED it and wanted to do it again, and I told him he was welcome to, but I had no desire, and he didn't want to do it alone...he did it alone the first time, so I don't know why he didn't want to go without us the second time, but instead we stayed in the lego creation room and built things. Then we moved on.
The kids got to pan for "gold". We wrapped DS's cast in seran wrap for this one. They loved it.
View attachment 308931
There was also a sort of SDMT ride with a dragon, but the wait time was too long and the kids didn't want to wait. We went and got some waffles for a light snack before we left the park. DD and I ordered one cherry one and one strawberry one and shared. DS got chocolate on his and I don't remember what DH got, but we were pleasantly surprised...they were really good.
We left around 3 because we had a 2 hour drive to Frankfort...well, it was SUPPOSED to be 2 hours, and because we had had so much trouble with traffic jams due to construction, we wanted to allow some extra time. We had to pick up the key to the apartment and the last appointment was at 8. We figured leave at three, stop somewhere on the way and have dinner, be there around 6 or so and I would spend the evening doing laundry. Best laid plans.
We got in the car and kept getting stuck in traffic. The deal was we were supposed to send a text to the guy 30 minutes before we wanted to pick up the key. Last time to pick up the key was 8. We ended up with me being dropped off near the appartment because there was no place to park and we had about 5 minutes to spare. But all communication had been with DH, so the guy was looking for a man, not a woman. And he was a french native who spoke some german, but apparently no English, and I don't know a word in French and my German is poor at best. So DH is trying to find a place to park, the guy shows me up to the apartment, is giving me a quick tour, when he realizes there's been a miscommunication. We have 4 people and they only gave us bedding for 2. There was a double bed, and a single bed in the one bedroom and that's it. I didn't realize the bedding on the double bed was only single person....so the guy is calling the agency to ask about the other bedding. It's locked in a sort of trunk being used as a coffee table....he doesn't have the key. So he's trying to tell me to wait there, he'll be back in 10 minutes with the key to the trunk, but I was thinking we were going to switch apartments because there were only the 2 beds. Turns out, one person was supposed to sleep on the couch. And the listing had said washer and dryer, but there was only a washer. It was already much later than we had thought, and we still hadn't eaten. We got everything settled, we went and grabbed all our luggage and realized I had left my pillows in Neu Ulm. Too late....we couldn't drive back there for them. I started some laundry, we went in search of food. I thought I had taken pictures of our food, but I can only find our desserts. I know DD and I shared again....one of us ordered a chicken dish and the other some sort of fancy mac n cheese, but DD didn't like the pasta. I didn't love it, the chicken was great, but DD has a tendency to be self sacrificing and just wouldn't have eaten because I was the one who ordered the chicken. So I told her I wanted the pasta when she said she didn't like it, and gave her my chicken just so she would eat.
I was up well into the night doing laundry and hanging it everywhere I could find, then DH found a rack, so I got everything washed and hung up to dry and I crashed. We wanted to make rope drop for our second day at Phantasialand so we could do the water raft ride before the line got too long.
Now, I don't know if DH just was lying to me, or if he really didn't realize how far Frankfort is from Phantasialand...he said it was about half an hour, but I remembered it being much farther. But he had booked the apartment just so I could do laundry and I kind of suspect he only told me it was so close to the park so I wouldn't tell him to find something else. But the park opened at 9, and it's actually more than a 2 hour drive, so I was up at 5:30 showering and repacking all the clothes so we could be on the road at 7.
We hadn't even been driving long before we were at a complete standstill. We had seen some smoke up ahead, but couldn't tell how far it was...then came the fire trucks. We were stopped for about an hour. A semi had caught fire. Once it was put out and traffic got going, we saw what little remained. It was less than a kilometer in front of us...and all that was left was the metal frame of the trailer.
http://www.feuerwehr-mogendorf.de/i...and-bab-3-dernbacher-dreieck-km-80-5-fr-koeln
So much for making rope drop. We arrived somewhere around 10 I think....and I forgot my camera, so all the pictures are from phones.
This is the water ride. I took this from the line, as well as the selfie with DD.
View attachment 308934View attachment 308935
You can't really tell from the photo because there was only a tiny little bit on my side that did not get wet, but I am SOAKED...look at DH's shirt and you can see how wet he was, which was about half of what I got. I managed to hit every splash right on. It was AWESOME though...so much fun and it was sweltering hot that day, so I was grateful to be soaked. It took the whole day to dry and I stayed nice and cool. DS did not go on this ride because he hates getting wet. He took this picture.
View attachment 308936
After that, most of what we did was watch shows. There was a stunt show with people doing tricks on bikes, on trampolines, and breakdancing. There was an ice show that was pretty cool, and then the Museart, which we had watched on our first day, but DS wanted to watch it again. We noticed there were some changes...must change depending on who's there that day. Still great though. DD wasn't feeling well when we left to drive home. We stopped to eat at McD's on the way and she was trying so hard to throw up, but couldn't get anything out. She finally did start to feel a bit better though. And that's pretty much the trip. I didn't take many pictures because I had forgotten my camera in the car and we were just watching shows anyway.
DH did this coaster....he loved it.
View attachment 308938
And that was it. We left the park and headed home. It's only an hour and a half drive from home, so we didn't bother to stay in a hotel that night. We got home and had to go buy me new pillows the next day.
So...overall, our favorite part was Bavaria and we want to go back and stay in the Hotel Schnöller again. Highly recommend it. The parks were fun, the driving was NOT fun. But a nice little vacation.
