Hansa Park is another park I'd visited on the 2004 trip and like Heide Park had transformed itself since then.
This is the new entrance to the park, which is a replica of the Holstenstor gateway I'd failed to reach that morning. Sometimes things work out for the better.
The rain had continued to fall but didn't dampen our spirits. We were met by the park manager who couldn't spend too much time with us as she had to head off to the funeral of Phantasialand founder Gottlieb Loffelhardt who had died a few days into the trip.
After giving him a minutes silence (the least we could do) we then headed through the nicely themed entrance square towards the new coaster, Die Schlange Von Midgard (the Midgard Serpent)
The queueline is nicely themed and the ride tells the story of two mischevious kids who are told the tale of the serpent and undertake a boat journey to visit it. So mischevious are they that they hide in the queue line occasionally popping up to spit on the people in it. Loved it!
The ride itself is fine for a large kids coaster. You get 2 laps due its short length, which is more than enough.
Interesting wood carving, note that the main body and neck is a single piece of wood. There must be a lot of worried bent trees out there knowing this'll happen to them.
The park has improved on its theming since last time. This skeleton violinist occasionally got passers by wet. I wonder if Hansa means "spit"?
We thought we'd pretend the mouse coaster was more entertaining than we thought it would be by going "whoo" and "ahh" at the right points on the ride. However the "ahh"s became "argh"s as the turns were taken at a pretty brisk speed. It's a surprising coaster considering many of these exist but I don't mean surprise in a pleasant way.
Part of the park has been given a pueblo theme, which is different.
Another part of the park had been given a western theme, which isn't.
The Rio Grande is one of those "is it a coaster or not" rides. Last time I rode this there was no theming whatsoever and I like what they've done with it.
Hansa is unique in that it tries to incorporate themed exit lines. This one on the Rio Grande was a waterbased assault course. For those hydrophobes amongst us it's possible to leave the ride with no risk of getting wet. Chickens!
Fluch Von Novgorod opened in 2009 and is an extremely well themed Eurofighter coaster (similar to Saw at Thorpe Park). It contains a superb dark ride introduction and uses 4d effects extremely well to the point that this ride jumped into my top 10.
The park very kindly allowed us to ride this for an hour, and I think everyone liked it. (Don't worry Gus always looks like that in the morning). One trick for this is that the cars have 2 rows and there are 2 queue lines. Funnily the group all queued for the back row allowing us to just walk up and ride in the front.
An impressive looking attraction with a major throughput problem. Even with a two dozen people in the queue you would be left waiting for quite some time. Unfortunately there's nothing you can do to make this any quicker. People who are dumb enough to queue for this are entitled to be caused bellends.
Rasender Roland is unique in that it is the only coaster that goes through the loop of another rollercoaster twice. That piece of trivia is of no use to anyone whatsover.
The coaster was alright, just alright. Alright?
Nessie is actually a very good ride and as my 200th coaster a long time ago it was nice to reride it. It hasn't got any worse in the years since I first rode it, which I guess is a testament to the ride and its maintenance.
The Nessie seen from the observation tower. We'd now seen 3 Nessies in as many days, this one being the only one we were allowed to ride.
Here's a time-shift taken from the tower too.
From the same observation platform that's the Flucht ride. Imagine if you'd travelled thousands of miles to visit this park and the ride was down. You'd be well fucht off!
The outdoor section is pretty good but it's really the hidden indoor sections that make this ride superb, and I wasn't going to spoil those sections by breaking into the buildings and taking photos of that.
If you're going to attempt the metal slides, ensure you can slide down it and not stick as happened to Kat. From the waist up this looks like she's giving birth.
Starflyer rides. I ride them but I hate them as I have a major fear I'll snap the chains. This particular ride didn't go too well mostly in part to Patrick who was telling me how insecure the whole structure and restraint system looked.
What exactly is a kunterbunter? (It actually translates as motley or multicoloured) and I also misread the first sign to "Sammy's grope adventure".
Sophie rocking out the bouncy trampoline mat thing!
The park had this jungle playground area, which was quite good. No jungle music though, a little bit of drum and bass would have been quite a nice escape.
and another pun waiting for us outside of the park
I actually have a soft spot for Hansa Park. They've done a really good job with the theming and Flucht Von Novgorod was a ride that far exceeded my expectations, which is rare these days. I've not spoiled anything for those that have yet to ride it, and if you've not, you should. When the bad weather doesn't dampen your day you know you've found a good place.
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