Europa Park, Rust, Germany

Amusement Parks aren’t normally my cup of tea. Usually I like to go places to get away from the madding crowd, not to join it. But Europa Park is different.

First of all, it’s incredibly well designed architecturally. You can walk through the whole place and barely see the fast food, tacky souvenir shops or gambling arcades that are well hidden in the old-world architectural styles of many different world cultures.

Secondly, it has some excellent rides, including Europe’s largest Roller Coaster which greets you as you arrive at the car park. As you walk towards the main entrance the screams of riders hurtling past you lifts your excitement levels from the beginning. This level is maintained by the music that is piped along your way towards the entrance. The sound system isn’t at all tacky, and the sounds of the recordings – naturally with lots of major chords to get the adrenalin up – is really quite good.

But Europa Park isn’t all about adrenalin and excitement – you can have quite a relaxing time there too, which is what we went for. Once inside and past the entrance area one of the first rides is the Panoramabahn, a narrow-guage railway that transports you from place to place within the park, or gives you a quick overview as you complete a full circuit. There’s also an overhead monorail that performs the same function, but we opted for open carriages at ground level.

The train ride was really great fun. It passed through leafy glades, tree lined avenues, small tunnels and past beautiful rose gardens, the scent of which easily permeated the open carriages. My toddler loved it, repeatedly saying “Choo! Choo!” as we trundled through the different geographical regions that had representation in the park.

Our next ride was one we had seen from the train – a gentle water ride (no watersplash) that allowed up to four adults to sit in a round barrel type boat and drift lazily through a watery maze in the green and shady gardens as the sun glinted off the water around us. I never believed an amusement park could be so relaxing!

The next stop off was in the Netherlands (or at least the zone of the same name) but this was fairly boring and seemed to consist mainly of food outlets and shops. There was a protected area for small kids to play amongst a sea of brightly coloured plastic balls, but the kids that were enjoying this were closer to three and above.

So we wandered over to the lake, and got on a raft ride. The theme of the ride was Africa, so all manner of animals, tribespeople and even wildlife – in the form of some quite good mechanised models that popped up here and there such as hungry Hippos and snappy Crocodiles. There was a nice waterfall feature too, and all in all the atmosphere of the ride was relaxing for adults, interesting for children, but probably not for teenagers!

From here we walked through England and entered its neighbour Russia. As expected, this was rather dour and uninspiring, but there was a vicious looking roller coaster that would probably cheer up the teens. It wasn’t that it was so big, more that it was pretty vicious in the way it turned corners. Instead we went on a Russian sleigh ride through a grotto with all manner of ice loving creatures and peoples, with some excellent lighting and some realistic music. Even the air had been chilled, such was the attention to detail!

We were going to watch the water splash and the really big dipper before we left, but decided to take the kids to Vikingland which contained Kinderwelt. Surprisingly there was very little here for the under 3s, just a single water roundabout and a stream with stepping stones for paddling across. On a hot day this really took the heat out of our little one who didn’t want to come out.

The last rides were at 6pm, after which all the staff mysteriously disappeared except for those intent on ushering us out very gently. During the whole afternoon, we never had to queue once, nor did we have any problems with crowds or over officious staff. Quite the opposite in fact – not what we had expected at all.

The only fly in the ointment was when I tried to find somewhere that could sell me a banana, or any other fruit. We asked staff in one of the shops if they knew of anywhere, but they said there was only fast food – and nobody thought to mention the on-site vegetarian restaurant that might have had something suitable instead.

We would certainly visit this place again, although perhaps not at the weekend or during school holidays when it is bound to get more like the place you hear about on the traffic news with huge traffic jams to get in and get out. Our midweek visit was a complete success though, and we’re looking forward to going again – especially since all rides are free once you have been admitted.

Directions
Europa Park is located in Germany, 99km North of Basel. It’s just off the main A5 motorway roughly an hour’s drive away on the way towards Karlsruhe. Once past Freiburg you’re nearly there – Europa Park is even labelled on the roadsigns so you can’t miss the turning.

Indoor Karting, Bartenheim

10 rue Jean Monnet, F-68870 Bartenheim
Tel: +33 (0) 389 70 77 70
Fax: +33 (0) 389 70 77 71
E-mail : info@eurokarting.fr

Reviewed 16th September 2006

Great fun for all the family
If you’re looking for some high adrenalin indoor fun – for all ages – why not try the go-kart track at Bartenheim? It’s just 15 minutes by car from Basel across the border in the Alsace, and also has 8 lanes of bowling on two floors if karting isn’t your thing.

To be honest, I had been put off indoor karting by the track at Badischer Rheinfelden in Germany which runs petrol engined karts in a poorly ventilated warehouse. The fumes there had been pretty dire, but in Bartenheim the electric motors provide a clean air atmosphere suitable for everyone.

We went when it was quiet on a weekday with my two older girls, aged 10 and 12 who had never been before. They loved it! There are two sizes of karts, the cut off height being 1.40m tall so both girls were pleased to find they qualified for the larger size.

Because it was their first time in karts though, the supervisor put them on the lowest of the three speed settings to begin with. He has a nifty little remote control device that can alter the setting on a per kart basis as he watches you and establishes your competence level. he errs on the side of caution.

My oldest girl and I were soon elevated, me to fast and her to medium but he left the 10 year old on the slow setting for most of the first session, then at the end gave her a blast of speed down the pit straight before putting all karts into the “return to pits” very slow mode. It’s a really well thought out and implemented system.

If you have more than one session you can have them one after another, but in between stints you have to change kart. The old one is immediately plugged into the charger, presumably to keep power levels high. Which is of course good… high power means more speed!

The track itself is a medium level challenge of 400m length, consisting of a series of loops that loop inside each other without crossing and one high speed section around the outside. Barriers seem safely laid out, and manage to isolate different parts of the track well from each other. Speeds are kept down by the short straights and hairpin bends, but one of the karts has been clocked at 80 kmh! You don’t have to go that fast though. There is a really good run from a hairpin down the back straight, round a full speed left hander, another straight, and another fast left before a little chicane and hairpin. Great!

As it’s an indoor facility there is also an amusement arcade with pinball flipper, some simulators, jet ski, and a pool table. Meals for groups are available, but only by reservation.

Opening hours
Monday to Thursday: 4pm to 11pm / Wednesday: 2pm to 11pm / Friday and Saturday: 4pm to 1am / Sunday: 2pm to 8pm

Directions
Get onto the French A35 motorway out of Basel towards Mulhouse/Strasbourg. Go past the airport and take the exit “Bartenheim” which brings you to a ‘T’ junction. Turn left here so you cross over the motorway bridge. After about 500m you may see the site on your right through the trees. At the roundabout take the second exit, follow the road around, past the motel and to the right into the Eurokarting car park.

Added: Saturday, September 16, 2006
Reviewer: Nigel MacGeorge
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