Since I had to make turkeys & hams for 3 different Thanksgiving dinners this year (church, squadron, & 1st grade), I decided I was not going to make a 4th Thanksgiving dinner & instead we were going to take a much needed family vacation to Europa Park in Rust, Germany.
Europa Park is the biggest theme park in Germany & it is very similar to the Epcot Center at Disneyworld, Florida. It consists of several "lands" around the park all of which are countries part of Europe. We laughed because a lot of the rides were similar to disney rides (Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, 3 Callaberos, etc.) & there's even a big golf ball monument thing like the one at Epcot. But there were a lot of neat differences too.
We went during the winter season which was half the price it would have been had we gone in the summer AND it was cold, rainy, & wet which meant there was literally NOBODY there. We had the park almost all to ourselves for the most part. After all,
"There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad preparation!"
It made it SO MUCH FUN. There were absolutely NO lines whatsoever. (We had friends tell us they waited 2-3 hours in lines for bigger rides like roller coasters when they went last summer). We walked onto every ride & even had the attendants ask us if we just wanted to stay on & ride it a bunch of times. . . or until we puked. ha ha ha. It was AWESOME.
So we bundled up in 4 layers of clothes, armed ourselves with raincoats & umbrellas, & had the time of our lives.
It was beautiful in the park. They had it all decked out for winter/Christmas. There were trees & lights everywhere, even in the daytime. It was gorgeous.
Since the park was basically empty, we decided we were going to ride every single ride in the park at least once. . . even the little kid dumb baby rides (as my kids put it). Our first ride was this cute little car ride.
There were 2 Christmas markets inside the park as well. You know I loved that! One was a normal Christmas market & the 2nd was a alt (old) Christmas market where people dressed up in Renaissance clothing & sold goods like pickles, flint, swords, & other time period goods. Both were located in the Germany section of the park.
Trek is always our master cartographer. He's the only one that can seem to make sense of a map. I have no sense of direction whatsoever. Thank heavens I have him to take me where I want to go.
One of the kids' favorite rides was in Italy. It was the DaVinci ride & it was really fun. We flew through the sky in DaVinci's flying machine. You had to pedal to make the umbrella spin & your speed was based on how fast you were pedaling. It was a great ride that took you to the sky where you could overlook part of the park to see where you wanted to explore next.
We rode so many fun things. The roller coasters were our favorite, but only the big kids could go on those (height restrictions . . . Bladen is finally tall enough to ride). Trek & I would take turns riding the roller coasters while the other would take the littles on little kid rides, then we'd swap so we all got to ride the cool coasters.
We laughed when we saw the big golf ball in France. It made me feel like I was in Epcot.
Lorien & Bladen's favorite ride in the park was "Poseidan" in the Greece section of the park. It was literally 10 below 0 (Celcius) & they wanted to ride the ride that gets you soaking wet. Weirdos. They managed to get Trek & Cadence to go with them. After the first time, Lo & Bladen kept riding while everyone else decided it was WAY TOO COLD for that.
I hate water rides so I stayed off with Taya, Craiger, & Canyon (Taya scares easily & chooses not to ride anything that looks even remotely like a roller coaster). I was laughing SO hard because they came down the drop in their raft & went around this nice leisurely bend cheering that they made it, but what they didn't see was that the ride was only half way done. There was another drop through roaring rapids & it was a doozy. See their happy faces in the pictures? That was before they realized there was another drop.
Yep, it was wet.
In Switzerland, we had the opportunity to try Raclette! I've been wanting to try it FOREVER. It's a type of soft cheese that they set underneath a broiler until the top melts & bubbles, then they scrape the cheese off onto a plate of potatoes & veggies. It's like a full plate of melted cheese & it's amazing.
I loved Italy. I loved the Venice bridge. There were only a handful of rides in Italy, but the kids especially thought the haunted ghost ride was funny. It was SO much like the Haunted Mansion, but gorier. They all liked the DaVinci ride too. It was a beautiful area.
I loved the roller coasters. Cadence, Lorien, Bladen, & Craiger loved them too. Craiger was the funniest! He was scared to death of them & would cry the entire time he was on them, then would immediately ask to ride it again. We were filming him on the roller coasters because he was so funny.
While Trek & I took turns on the big coasters, we enjoyed playing with Taya & Canyon outside the coasters while we waited too.
Once it started to get dark, we made our way to the big ferris wheel to look at the entire park lit up at night.
It was BEAUTIFUL.
I especially enjoyed the Norway section of the park where they actually brought in snow for snomobiles, skiing, ice skating, & tubing. It was just gorgeous from the ferris wheel.
Again, the magic of twinkle lights. I just love lights. They make everything so magical.
Craiger & Taya were the only 2 kids who were within the height limit for driving the snowmobile. I got a kick out of how they let little kids just get on a piece of equipment without any training or instruction whatsoever. They had a BLAST.
We also loved the many many many chocolate shops in the park & stopped at every one we came across. Chocolate is heaven.
The Christmas market was beautiful in the park at night, & it had some beautiful ornaments, delicious cheese, & awesome crafts.
For our Thanksgiving dinner we had Döner & Pizza! Happy Thanksgiving!
It was a great first day of vacation. There is SO much to be thankful for. I'm thankful for my wonderful family & all the many blessings I've been blessed with in my life.
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