Day 9 - Tripsdrill

The final day of the trip, and what a gem of a park to end with! Unfortunately, we didn't have a full day here. Then again, we started early enough! Tripsdrill is a lovely park, although maybe with a slightly confusing layout and it takes a long time to get to where you want to get to even if you can see it. Very picturesque and leafy, and lots of traditional-style buildings both modern and original.

The Coasters

The big attraction in Tripsdrill is G'sengte Sau. This is a Gerstlauer bobsled coaster similar to the one we'd encountered earlier in the trip at Wild und Freizeitpark. We knew we were in for a treat during our early ERS! Part of the coaster winds in an out of a Bavarian castle which is in fact shared with the park's log flume. A sharp drop off the lift hill directs the small 4-seater car into a series of wild mouse style hairpin turns around the castle's turrets. Followed by some twisted dives and highly banked corners within the castle itself sending the car in all directions and at all angles, and at a tremendous speed. Appearing out of the castle again, the ride's character changes slightly as we enter a series of very sharp bunny hops over some prettily landscaped hills and flower beds giving some really fun airtime. In particular, the third drop is larger than the others and gives you a surprise as you can't see it coming over the grassy hills! The ride ends with a couple of fast and extremely tight helixes banked at an unfeasible angle. What a superb "feel good" ride!

We are also given the opportunity of actually operating the ride from inside the control booth. Well, it consists of pushing buttons in sequence really, but even that caused some people problems! And also a visit to the workshops underneath the station. In fact, underneath the track, while the ride was still running, with the upstop wheels inches from your head! (See the photos...) Amazing.

An honourable mention to the park's other coaster Rasender Tausendfüssler which is a standard Zierer Tivoli family coaster.

Other attractions

There is a river rapids ride at the park, featuring a whirlpool and spectator-operated water jets, and around several corners can be seen animated tableaux of various descriptions. An old windmill houses a fun-house style attraction, and another old mill contains a basement where visitors can sample various fruit drinks and wines from dispensers taking 1 Euro in the slot!

One of my favourite rides here was the treetops tower ride. Cunningly disguised as a lift up tree trunks to a tree house (actually, the disguise does work very well indeed and a great way to theme this sort of ride!), they are a pair of small drop towers facing each other. Family-friendly of course, the experience is not too intense, but with tilting seats and a nice cycle of several short drops before the big one, it provided lots of laughs and screams. One unexpected moment is when the vehicle pops up above the height of the treehouse on a protruding arm!

Finally, the aforementioned bathtub ride is a flume which takes you on a journey up through the castle and around its roof. There are some very suspect scenes in there! It features a reversing section and a couple of drops before the final, main, wet drop. Note that the queue line runs alongside the splash area of the final drop. I can't see how anyone can be taken by surprise though - one look at the floor will show what happens!

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