Germany 03/16 – Schwaben Park
2016 marked the beginning of a significant change in my theme park visiting habits. Rather than just fitting them around general travel plans with the other half, this trip with cred buddy Mega-Lite was my very first that was entirely dedicated to visiting multiple parks abroad – nothing else was on the agenda.
This particular area of Germany seemed like a good starting point for the two of us. Home to one of the most highly regarded and major theme parks in Europe as well as 9000-time winner of various greatest steel coaster in the world polls.
Today being a flight day, things began a little more low key. We started in Stuttgart and made our debut on the fabulous Autobahn.
Day 1 – Schwaben Park
This was a quaint little cred run for an afternoon and a good way to whet our appetite.
The star attraction dominates the view as you pull into the tiniest of car parks – using the term loosely, some stones in a field.
This brightly coloured Zierer has very comfortable trains and is the most significant ride I have encounted by the manufacturer, being more used to their common Tivoli models that are nothing more than filler.
The coaster packs a surprising punch with some decent twists and turns, some particularly low to the ground and almost scraping the grass in a rather thrilling fashion. Because the park is so tiny and there was almost no one else around, we took the opportunity for plenty of laps. It’s a solid entry and justifies a visit to the park a little more than the simple transaction of €20 for a +2.
Talking of Zierer Tivolis, this appears to be one. The track is a slightly newer style but it follows the layout of a Tivoli Small. Still relatively new to the slightly more questionable side of cred hunting, this would have been an opportunity for testing our embarassment as we boarded this childrens coaster, but with still virtually no one around it was all too easy.
Took a wander to see if there was anything else worth our attention.
Aside from construction sites and goats, we stumbled across one of these marvellous inventions.
I really enjoyed my last Bobkart so jumped at the opportunity to try another. The rate of acceleration, all controlled by your own two hands still catches me off guard and no one has yet confirmed to me whether these tracks are intelligently built to handle full speed at all times. There’s always that slight apprehension that if you give it max from start to finish, you could just come out of the tube and die and some point. I like it that way.
Great way to kill a couple of hours before the hotel. From all that land and digging I think the park is on the up, will be interesting to see where they go from here.
Day 2