Europe 09/21 – Erlebniswelt Seilbahnen Thale

Day 16

Thanks to last night’s shenanigans, we decided we’d make the most of our hotel until they kicked us out at check out. This meant sleeping until the last second, getting ready in record time, then meeting Heartline in his room for some intense last minute ticket purchasing.

Due to Efteling selling out (in more ways than one) the day we were visiting would need to change, as would Movie Park Germany, which for reasons unknown was no longer open on the day we planned to visit.

Laptop closed seconds before house keeping booted the door down, it was time to get back on the road, God help us all…

The revised plan for today was now just a visit to Erlebniswelt Seilbahnen Thale, which from this moment onwards shall be referred to as simply Thale.

This plan sounds a bit lame on paper but was actually both a really good idea and very enjoyable visit.

Erlebniswelt Seilbahnen Thale

The sat nav took us to a large car park surrounded on 2 sides by stunning mountains with at least 2 cable cars travelling up them. Where we went from here was completely guess work but eventually we found our way to the park.

I knew from reading the park’s website that the local area has ties to witchcraft but I wasn’t expecting the small park you walk past on your way to the park itself to have embraced the idea as much as it did.

The Devil himself chilling in the park, I’m down with whatever happens next because that is awesome.

Shortly after seeing the Devil, we arrived at the park itself.

Is that the witch herself? Or just a decoy?

Under the gaze of the witch (or decoy) you have a choice to make, turn left and down to enter the main park or turn right and up and head to the cable car station which takes you to the top of the mountain to ride the alpine coaster.

We opted to start at the bottom, mostly through lack of understanding the set up yet.

Unless my memory is spiting me again, all of the rides in the bottom main park are self operated, which for the record I enjoy massively.

This meant you had to purchase a “points card” from a little ticket office, which we eventually did after confusing every member of staff in the area and at one point being quoted a price that was almost 10 times the price it should have been.

Boderitt

Points card in hand, we first started with a ride over the Bode in a witches cauldron on Boderitt.

This wacky suspended Wiegand single rail coaster was good fun, made better by getting to operate it yourself, which was done by tapping your points card on a reader, pulling the lapbar down and then pressing a button when you get the green light, which of course I managed to do wrong, but I enjoyed it so it’s fine.

Next up Heartline and his wife went to ride Hexenbesen.

Hexenbesen, which I forgot to take a photo of, is an even more wacky suspended single rail Wiegand coaster where 1 rider at a time lays down, unrestrained, in a metal tube, that then goes flying around the course. You board the ride at the top of a flight of stairs, then exit before it goes back up to the start position at the end.

I was slightly too heavy for the posted max weight, so told myself before the trip that I wouldn’t attempt it. I did however see that many credit hunters (currently 241) had got a ride in and no doubt many of them had been cheeky with that restriction. I therefore told myself if the opportunity presented itself I was open to the idea.

Now was not the time though. Heartline and his wife accidentally ended up riding the coaster with a group of children infront and behind them, with parents given them disapproving looks, and they were below the listed weight limit, Heartline is rather tall though.

Butterfly

To cheer myself up I rode my first Butterfly. I won’t rant about how even after riding one they clearly aren’t a coaster, instead I’ll once again praise how much I enjoy self operated rides.

While Heartline and his wife were riding the Butterfly I noticed via the Coaster-Count app that 2 more credit hunters had added Hexenbesen to their count today, stop tempting me temptation.

In the end though, it proved too much.

While wandering around the park trying to find something to spend the last of our points on, Heartline noticed that Hexenbesen and the area around it were completely empty, so we launched.

Hexenbesen

We ran up the stairs, I slid into the tube, Heartline scanned the card, I pressed the button and there was no turning back.

Did the coaster collapse into a fireball? No. Was I arrested on the spot? Also no. Am I recommending you repeat my actions? Certainly not.

Hexenbesen was really good fun. Sliding about while laying on your stomach in a metal tube just feels so wrong it’s right.

No one had even noticed or cared that I rode Hexenbesen, but in my head I was now Germany’s most wanted, so we made a quick escape to the cable car station, so I could hide at the top of the mountain, oh and ride the alpine coaster.

How great it was to have clearly printed and displayed packages for the cable car and alpine coaster, I’m looking at you Andorra…

We lucked out and managed to get the glass bottomed cable car on the way up, which is apparently highly sought after.

After a leisurely walk through stunning scenery we stumbled on the alpine coaster, named Harzbob.

Harzbob

I really enjoyed Harzbob and it reminded me of a situation that was very simular to our last major Europe trip.

You start the trip by riding several large famous alpine coasters, think the little ones later in the trip are going to be fairly boring and tame, then they absolutely kick your ass.

This was certainly the case with Harzbob which was viciously throwing me around in the woodland, where I was half expecting the witch to appear at any minute.

Another leisurely walk took us back to the cable car station, the fresh air melting away the stress of the night previous.

We got another glass bottomed cable car on our descent, either we are extremely lucky or they aren’t that difficult to obtain.

As we walked back past the small park with the devil on the bench, there was an old lady chanting to the passers by, I think the witch has arrived, let’s get out of here before she finds out I rode Hexenbesen.

I really enjoyed my visit to Thale, it was the perfect relaxing way to recover after last night’s incident and we were now charged back up and ready to experience the final leg of intense days that the trip had to offer.

Thank you for reading, click here for day 17 of my trip report, where we visit Phantasialand to ride F.L.Y. and see if Taron needs to move further down my top 25.