Efteling Theme Park, part 2

Sigh.  My camera has still not turned up.

 The good news is that most of the Eftling photos had been downloaded to one of our facebook pages already (I just hadn't realized it until last night).  So, I do get to finish telling you about the magical little park in Holland--with photos!

We did start with the best, and it turned out that our favourite two rides in the park were those first two.  Though we found plenty else to enjoy throughout the day.

The three big coasters are clumped together, so we next headed over to "The Python" which was one of the only rides in the park with minimal theming.  Other than the coaster cars looking like a giant snake, there wasn't much to distinguish this from any other steel coaster out there.

The kids were excited by the complete lack of a line though!

If you like being tumbled about on loops and barrel rolls it was a perfectly nice time.  The kids loved it.  Dave and I were fine with it--but as a once in a day at most sort of thing.

Continuing in the area, the kids rode the swinging ship ride (billed as the largest in use--it has 7 rows out from the center in either direction) and a spinning ride which we assumed would go fast, but actually was slower and more oriented towards younger travelers.

While the kids were spinning and swinging, Dave and I took another ride on the awesome Viking coaster.

Having pretty much exhausted that section of the park, and with Rio (the perpetually hungry teen) already asking about lunch, we decided to work our way towards the indoor coaster (so Dave and I could get all coasters done BEFORE eating lunch!), stopping at a couple of other attractions on the way.

First up, in more or less the center of the park, we took a ride on the flying Pagoda.  It is an observation tower type ride in which you are allowed to walk around and look over the railing, etc.  

There are some good views of both the park, and the town, from up there.

Near the Pagoda, was the boat launch.  We just assumed this would be a story book boat ride or something similar  but it turned out to have no actual theme--just a meandering ride through the area, passing near many little islands or banks and with the tons of local waterfowl swimming around you and up to the boat, etc.  We later noticed that several of the locals brought breadcrumbs for the ride.  It wasn't what we were expecting, but it was actually quite enjoyable.  On a busy day at the park it would be a particularly nice way to feel like you were getting a break from the crowds and environment of a theme park.  Notice all of the ice on the waterfall!  That is the real thing.  Many of the falls and fountains throughout the park were frozen--it really was still winter weather.

We also sailed by the edge of a more "kiddie land" area.  It is hard to see in the photos, but the train ride had pedals on it and the little ones propel themselves around the track.  It was very cute and seemed to be a big hit with the children on it.

After the gentle boat ride, we made it over to the fully indoor coaster.  The theme on this is that you are a vulture swooping in and stealing eggs from some other large bird.  It was pretty well done too.  A fun ride.  Relatively short; which would have made it disappointing after a long wait, but with almost non existent lines it was a kick.

In the upper left of this photo, that blurry image is the nest full of eggs--I wasn't able to get a clear shot:

By the time we got off the coaster  Rio was "starving" and it WAS past noon, so we checked the menus of the restaurants near the coaster.  Both were a little too "Dutch" for our tastes, but we were pointed in the direction of pasta and off we went towards "Octopus" (we gather that it was a seafood place initially  but has become a pasta place to appease all the non locals who visit).  The theming was pretty cool, up inside a large  rock/cave.

The pasta was very yummy, prepared fresh for you when you order from the line.  There was a choice of three different noodles, three different sauces, you could add freshly sauteed veggies at no additional charge, and there was a "toppings bar" with cheeses, peppers, etc.  Salads, drinks, desserts etc were also available.  We had no complaints at all about our meal.  The building was huge and in the back was an indoor playground themed around ecosystems of the world.  It was the kind of elaborate and well themed play space that makes you wish you were 7 again.

We were realizing that we still had a heck of a lot of park to see and by then only about four and a half hours to closing time, so we did not dawdle there.  We headed out to the haunted house.

Again, this was totally not what we were expecting, but it was pretty interesting none the less.  It turns out that this is not a ride.  Inside the "house" you are ushered into a viewing room with various levels  where everyone can see the glass wall in front.  The show starts and it is about 5 minutes of various effects taking place in the "house" and "courtyard" visible through the glass--all set to a classical music piece.  If you can imagine all the various effects in something like Disney's Haunted Mansion (minus any screaming), modernized to look more realistic, and all set to a music--it was sort of like that.  We enjoyed it overall.

Continuing on, we hit the bobsled ride--which is your basic bobsled style ride.  Fun, weird feeling to have no "track" holding your car on, but not overly thrilling.  The theming was basic Nordic/ski themed, which fits both the area and the weather that day.

Next we headed over to the Arabian Nights boat ride.  This is a standard dark ride with an Arabian Nights theme.  It was fun--and there was a hooka shop at the end!  

We took a break from rides and headed into the Fairy Tale forest, which first opened with 10 attractions in 1952.  This is one of the places Walt Disney visited when he came to Europe for inspiration while planning Disneyland.  I can imagine how enthralled he must have been with the, cutting edge for its time technology of "the dancing shoes"

Here is the link to the story on Efteling's website, they have the stories there for all of the fairy tales presented in the forest, so you can read up on the ones you do not recognize: 

http://www.efteling.com/EN/attractions/attractions-Sprookjesbos/attractions-Sprookjesbos-De-Rode-Schoentjes.html

and a video of the shoes dancing that I found online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYBrDVUnRNM (note, blogger will not let me directly insert this one, so you have to click on the link--sorry).

The forest, which is truly a large, treed area, has several paths which weave around and through it.  We got a bit lost, and we KNOW we did not see everything (though we never repeated anything either) and did not dawdle very long, just strolling past or through most attractions without trying to listen to the stories (in Dutch).  Even at this pace we spent over an hour in there!  This is BIG.  Here are just a few photos of some of the many places we came upon (and one meant to show how forested it was; how, even without leaves out yet on the trees, it was not possible to see what was coming next, etc):

The witch was actually climbing up to Rapunzel, not a still life.

Typical of our forest surroundings   

I think she'd have to have some seashells up top if this were the US.

This one was fun!  If a child reached over the rail to try to snatch some gold from the treasure chest, the dragon would swoop his head down, roar and puff smoke out of his nose.

There were just these three birds, out of hundreds that we saw, sporting brightly colored dyes.  We hope, geiven that there were only three, that the park did not dye them but rather perhaps they were escapees from somewhere.  Hard to say though.

It was really a pretty cool place and we took photos of less than half of the areas/buildings and, sadly,  none of the interiors came out (you'll see some more photos later, we cut through a corner we had missed on our way out of the park--but still missed some.  we are sure of that because one fairy tale "LongNeck" is featured on most of their posters and brochures and we never found it.  

Look for the final installment of my Efteling report tomorrow.  

--Hadley

#efteling