Germany 03/16 – Tripsdrill
Our final visit of the trip took us deep into the countryside for what seemed like several hours. We still made good time and arrived at the park before opening. This may have been unnecessary.
Day 5 – Erlebnispark Tripsdrill
Upon entering the park we discovered that nothing was open yet and that all the rides were planned to open at staggered intervals.
While clearly a very attractive place to be, this made for a lot of hanging around in rather cold and slightly miserable weather, waiting for things to happen.
The first attraction that came available was this unusual drop tower set into a tree. It had a bit of a bonus surprise in the sequence that involved tilting forward but it left me more confused than thrilled. What just happened?
One by one, the rest of the coasters opened up, each with a good half an hour interval. We spent most of this time sitting on a bench and snacking on our food and drink rations to save fitting them on the plane that evening.
The smallest cred in the park is a Tivoli Large. The length of the trains on these Zierers always amuses me and their momentum makes for some strange moments in certain seats, seemingly defying physics by losing speed downhill or gaining speed uphill.
This was the first rollercoaster ever built by manufacturer Gerstlauer. Their bobsled coaster is like an upgraded wild mouse, taking certain manoeuvres like banked drops and helices that those would never attempt but also mimicking the high unbanked turns that provide strong laterals.
Though beautifully blended into the environment, the ride itself was a little underwhelming. The highlight of the ride was a sharp turn through a building with a prompt sign appearing out of nowhere, reading something like ‘Du Wessen?’ I couldn’t help but shout the question upon seeing it and the resulting hilarity was the best entertainment on the ride.
The Gerstlauer Infinity coaster starts indoors and navigates around a quirky set piece before a slow inversion in the dark catches you off guard. Following this, it drops awkwardly into a fast launch to the outside world, pitching you forward and then slamming you back again rather uncomfortably.
The strangely shaped top hat wobbles unnervingly as cars traverse it and the remainder of the layout is a mix of turns, hills and inversions with varying impact. There were no particularly notable moments for me other than the speed with which it whipped into the dive loop underground. The best time we had with the ride was an unexpected lap in the hail, being blinded and pelted with ice is surprisingly beneficial.
Completing the park’s Gerstlauer trilogy we have the only wooden coaster they’ve ever built. Before taking the lift hill, the ride has a little preshow section in a shed with some effects which was a pleasant surprise – not often you see that level of detail on this type of attraction.
It’s a surprisingly smooth ride for a woodie and like the other rides in the park, lacks any real moments of significance. I liked it enough, but wanted a little more out of it to be honest.
Which is a good parallel for my thoughts on the park. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the place, it just failed to inspire any real sense of significance. Each ride that became available would satisfy us for a short while, but we’d soon end up back on a bench waiting for the next rather than continuing with many more laps.
Sadly all of the water rides were shut due to poor weather as well so we were left with little to do other than kill time before returning to the airport. Most of this time was spent in a lovely little sandwich shop that we had all to ourselves. Finally a warm place to sit down, eat some hot food and watch the rain outside.