TR: Scandinavia, Day 10 BonBon-Land and Tivoli again
We had one last new park to get to, BonBon-Land in Holme-Olstrup. When
Tim was originally doing the planning, he couldn't figure out quite how
to fit it into the schedule. I was one of those who hoped we could
work something out, because from what I'd heard of the park, I got the
impression it would be unique and have a bizarre sensibility. It also
had an interesting new coaster. Fortunately, Tim managed to alter the
plans so that we could make it to the park. It meant getting up early
in the morning (though not our earliest day of the trip), and taking
two trains--this time with unreserved seats. It took us some time to
be able to find seats together in a nonsmoking section. It can be
useful to have reserved seats sometimes!
The station for Holme-Olstrup looked like it was in the middle of
nowhere. We had to walk along a path, then along some suburban roads
before we got to a main road leading to the park. Even this looked
like a country road, with hardly anything around.
I think it was about 20 minutes from the station to the park. With our
park admission we got a little lollipop stick--with no sucker on it.
There was a building in the park in which we could get the candy put on
the stick.
Though it had been sunny while we were walking over, some dark clouds
were on the horizon. The rain blew in fast. The entire entrance area
to the park was in an enclosed rotunda--the ticket sales, a souvenir
shop, a carousel with the park's various characters--so we stayed there
for a while to look around.
One of the first things we noticed were the restroom signs. The men's
room sign had a peeing ant (a Piss-Ant), and the woman's room sign had
a pig with her skirt being blown up. The entire park was done up in
this way, with odd characters doing not entirely respectable things.
Other characters we'd see throughout the day were a bawling baby hippo
with a wet diaper, a cow with huge (bare) breasts, an animal I couldn't
quite identify that cleaned its ears by putting a stick in one ear and
pushing it all the way through the other. Very goofy, with a European
sensibility toward bodily functions not likely to be seen over here.
All of this is a co-marketing campaign by the BonBon candy company, so
all of these characters had something to do with candy they sold. The
shop had plenty of this on sale, but I didn't try any. They also had a
lot of T-shirts. I really wanted to buy one, but couldn't find
anything I liked that was in my size. What I really wanted was a shirt
with one or two of the park's characters. Everything they had was
really busy and garish. I guess that was to be expected for this park,
though.
Tne park's map was also busy and garish, and made the place look big
and full of all sorts of attractions. This was more or less an
illusion, though. The park isn't exactly small, but it isn't huge, and
it's certainly not as densely packed as it looked on the map,
particularly in the outlying regions. We tried to scout out where the
attractions we wanted to see were while we waited out the rain, but we
couldn't even find one of the coasters we had on our list (more on that
later).
Finally the rain blew away, so we headed out into the park. We took in
a few sights before riding anything. For instance, there was a big rat
statue with rabbits on a grassy island beneath. I presume the rat was
one of the BonBon characters--there wasn't much to tell us what
anything was.
Near the front of the park was something I'd never seen at an amusement
park before. It was called Schwebebanen, or aerial ropeway. A car was
suspended from a cable, which was lifted in such a way to make the car
freely roll back and forth. Each ride consisted of two trips each way.
There was no operator. Instead, patrons would board it themselves and
activate it by hand, simply by pushing a button. It wasn't always
reliable. One girl got stuck in the middle and had to have somebody
else push the button to give her another ride and get her back to the
unloading area. On my own second trip, I didn't make it all the way to
the far end of the cable. We'd find several of these button-operated
rides throughout the park. This made it feel almost as much like we
were at a playground rather than an amusement park.
Our first coaster credit was the infamous Hundeprut, which literally
translates to "dog fart". This is apparently a variety of BonBon
candy, and they decided it would also be a good idea to theme a coaster
after it. The theming consists of some sound effects, a big statue of
a dog (with little brown piles around its feet), and a dog house that
the track winds through. The coaster itself was a family ride, not
much to speak of.
Nearby we found the mysterious coaster we hadn't been able to locate on
the map. On rcdb.com it's called Hvin & Hyl Rutsch, but on the park
map it's called Kreisch & Heul Rutsche. On the park's Web site it's
Hyl-og-hvin-rutsch. In English, it was called the Scream and Screech
Slide. With a different name on the map from what we were expecting,
along with a small icon, it's no wonder we didn't see it at first. In
any case it didn't look much like a coaster. But the real ride wasn't
much like a coaster either. In fact, I wouldn't blame anybody for
*not* considering it a coaster. It is essentially a V-shaped ramp,
with a single car pulled backwards up one side, then released until it
settles back in the crook of the V. For me it was a unique experience
because I'd never seen anything like it, but I guess they're all over
small parks in Europe. Simple, fun, but dubiously a coaster. I did
count it, but I felt guilty about doing so.
Like the aerial ropeway, it was a push-button ride. In fact, operation
required coordination between riders and the next people in line. We
wound up "breaking" the ride...for some reason the lap bar wouldn't
release and the gate wouldn't open when Dana and Dooley rode. Some
maintenance men came over and had a look. The ride was closed after
that, apparently for the day.
Our next ride was more indisputably a coaster, the Vild-Svinet (Wild
Boar). It's a very unusual coaster in that the first drop is *greater*
than 90 degrees--it undercuts slightly before going over the drop.
There are also some very highly banked turns and a loop. Tim's comment
as we approached the vertical lift hill was, "This is seriously messed
up". So it appeared, but actually it wasn't all that high-intensity.
It was fun but not really very challenging. Then again, we were
getting the clear impression that we were at a family park. As such,
it was a good choice of a ride--it looked nice and thrilling, but was
mild enough for the park's main audience of kids eating candy. I had
two rides that day, in the front and the back. Both were fun, but not
earth-shattering.
While others were shopping for bon-bons at the souvenir store at the
ride's exit, I looked at the park map. I noticed a ride called
"Dillen". Remembering our great Dillen rides from Bakken, we were all
eager to see if BonBon-Land had one of these installations.
In the meantime, though, there was a closer ride that we all wanted to
try, the Alba-Tossen. This is an installation of the Zamperla Disk-O,
which has generated a lot of buzz on rec.roller-coaster. Their Rockin'
Tug had been a very popular ride, and Disk-O looked like a larger
version of that (something I myself had thought would be a good idea
after my first Rockin' Tug ride). The ride motion is actually similar
to a pendulum--combining swinging and spinning--but instead of being
suspended from above, it rolls back and forth on a track (kind of like
Hvin & Hyl, in fact!). Frankly I found it a bit of a letdown. It has
a novel seating concept, with riders facing outward and the movable
restraint against their back. It's not entirely comfortable, and the
ride forces didn't live up to expectations. I didn't hate it, but I
was looking for a little more out of it.
We wandered around toward the back of the park, just looking at some of
the sights. There was yet another aerial ropeway ride. There was also
a big cushion that kids could bounce on. Kind of like one of those
bouncy castles, but without the enclosure. It was another of the
things that made the park seem more like a highly themed playground
than an amusement park. Another example was a baby carousel that never
stopped turning--you just hopped on and off. But they did have more
traditional rides too. We found the Dillen was a simple Troika ride,
not what we'd hoped for. There was also a clever little ride in which
riders were supposed to be insects avoiding a fly swatter.
One of the park's more major attractions was a river rapids ride.
There were a few paths in this area of the park, which were much less
busy both in terms of patrons and attractions. It made a nice contrast
with the more populous areas of the park. There were some cherry trees
here, and Janna even picked and tried some. We also had to take
shelter from a little more rain before we moved back into the more
active area of the park.
We passed by a number of other attractions along our way. There was a
large water slide with a big shrimp figure at the top. It too was
entirely self-serve; patrons even had to put their rafts back on the
lift when they were done with them (imagine asking patrons over here to
do that). A Condor ride was called the Rubbish Dump. The Piss-ants
reappeared in the form of a slide--yet another playground-like touch.
Near the Cobratarnet drop ride we found a buffet, which is where I ate
(not all of us chose the same place). They had a wide selection of
meats--sausage, pork, ribs, meatballs (Danish meatballs?), and a
salsa-flavored chicken. Most distinctive of all were marinated garlic
cloves. It was an all-you-could-eat affair, and not too bad as such
things go.
We went over to their Cowboytown area. As I'd noticed before, the feel
of this area was just a little askew from what I'm used to in
Western-themed sections of American parks, though I'm hard pressed to
put my finger on exactly what's different about it. Perhaps it was the
"Red Indian toiletten" that were promoted as a feature of the area
(though they didn't look any different to me). There was a
gold-panning attraction, which some of us tried for kicks. Buddy was
very successful, whereas I could barely find anything (the prizes were
little "gold" ingots). When he was done he gave away his winnings to a
kid. I think they could be cashed in for prizes.
At the far end of this section of the park was a strange ride, again
operated by hand--this time by human power. It was like a big rocking
cow. People would sit or stand on either side and by pumping by hand
to get it to rock back and forth. One kid, clearly knowing what he was
doing, stood in the middle and pushed off the entrance gate with his
feet.
Though the park had its unique feel, there were not really a lot of
attractions that we were interested in. We agreed to split up to do a
few last-minute things, and then head back to Copenhagen. Janna and I
went over to try the rapids ride, which looked pretty good. It was
called Baeverrafting. It really wasn't very wet, but it was a nice
relaxing ride because it passed through the quiet back area of the
park. It also had a very impressive waterfall tunnel, which we
threaded through in just the right way to avoid getting soaked.
We also took another Vild-Svinet ride before heading over to the
lollipop factory, where we could get fresh candy put on the lollipop
sticks we'd gotten when we entered the park. There was a big crowd
there, but all we had to do was find enough space to put our sticks on
a table, and a guy came around with a long string of warm and still
soft candy. He snipped small pieces onto each person's stick. Yum!
That was it for our day at BonBon-Land. It was a fun park, and
certainly had a unique sensibility, but there's just not enough there
to keep a thrill-seeker busy for more than a couple of hours. We
didn't even quite see the whole park (there was a pirate section
somewhere that we didn't ever get to) but it was clear we'd really
gotten our fill of it after only a few hours. I don't regret going
there, but for anybody else who might be taking the trip, don't plan a
whole day around it. It would be easier to fit into a bus tour, where
there would be no worries about catching trains and the bus could go
directly to the next destination.
We did manage to catch an early train, saving us a 50 minute wait in
the middle-of-nowhere Holme-Olstrup station. This left us with the
late afternoon and evening to do what we wanted. Since everybody had
slightly different ideas about how to spend the evening, we went our
own ways. Janna and I wandered around Copenhagen a little more,
walking in the opposite direction from the way we'd gone the day
before, arriving at a waterfront. We didn't see any particular tourist
attractions; we were just getting a feel for the city. No, we never
saw the Little Mermaid, but we did walk back up Hans Christian Andersen
Boulevard. This took us back to Tivoli, and we decided that we might
as well spend the evening there.
We entered through a gate at the far corner of the park from the main
entrance, under the Dragen ride. When we'd been in that part of the
park before we'd seen a cute little carousel with horses that rocked
and the like (not ordinary jumper horses; these would rock freely with
the rider's movements. We'd been intrigued by it but hadn't had the
chance to ride that day, so we took our opportunity to ride it this
time, in a little moving chariot.
After this we went over to another ride we'd been intrigued by but
hadn't had a chance to try, Monsunen. This is like an inverted version
of Kennywood's Flying Carpet. A flat platform moves in a circle,
always staying level with the ground, but in Kennywood's ride the
riders sit on top of the platform. Here they're suspended from below.
There are also water fountains to tease peoples' dangling feet.
While we were riding the carousel we saw Tim getting in line. We
surprised him by coming up behind him. I rode on an end seat. The
ride's action was very much like the Flying Carpet, and even had a
little bit of a "hitch". It took a long time of rocking back and forth
for it to finally go around in a complete circle. The water effects
turned out to be complete fake-outs. The fountains would always go
down when the riders' feet passed through the area, so we never got wet
besides a little bit of mist.
We spent some more time with Tim after this, heading over to Daemonen
for another ride, this time in the back seat. I liked it a little
better there than I had my previous ride. We ate again in the area
behind the station. I got a "French hot dog", which was a hot dog
wrapped in a piece of French bread. They added garlic sauce for mine.
We did a few other rerides, including Odinexpress, Rutschebanen, and
Minen. I tried to film the latter, but it didn't come out well. Then
we went over to Det gyldne Taarn (the Golden Tower), the park's Turbo
Drop ride. It was indeed painted a golden shade and had an ornate top.
The platform was also ornate, with tile designs on the floor. We had
to take the side facing away from the main part of the park, which I
regretted, but it had a very nice drop! It was funny to see a man
riding while wearing a suit.
We split up from Tim at this point and just wandered around the park
for a while, taking in more of the atmosphere aroudn the lake. We saw
a little garden with a stone path, which a sign said was a gift from
the Japanese for the park's 150th anniversary. We passed a large
restaurant shaped like a ship on the lake. We also passed a more
subdued restaurant where each table was lit softly by a different
colored light. I could just have spent many hours looking at all the
different little corners of the park, or just sitting at one of the
tables eating, drinking, and soaking in the atmosphere.
But it was the end of the trip and we were tired. We took one more
ride on the Rutschebanen before leaving. This time I finally got up
the courage to try the technique of hopping in the train early to
guarantee the front seat. It was more challenging than I thought,
particularly since both Janna and I had to be able to hop in. A guy
who was waiting toward the front of the station said, "That's a smoooth
one there" in an exasperated way, but didn't do anything else.
Once again, I absolutely loved Tivoli, and was glad we returned for one
more evening. There's so much to do there--ride the rides, eat at the
restaurants, wander the gardens, dance to the music, watch the
fireworks. We still missed the illuminations show. I definitely
intend to come back some day and see it. Since it happens so late in
the evening on summer nights, I guess I should make Tivoli the middle
part of a trip. Too early and you're still jetlagged. Too late and
you're just tired from all the travel. But all that matters is that I
get back to spend more time in this fabulous park someday.
--
Dave Sandborg
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