Hey guys! Sorry for being MIA for the last few weeks.  Between having a busy week and then Muswiese (on top of getting a nasty cold) I have dropped the ball on some posts. But here I am!

As an American, I have spent a great deal of my summers in amusement parks.  I remember being terrified of roller coasters as a child but since I always went to King’s Island with older friends or my siblings (who are also older), I had to quickly get over my fear if I wanted to ride with the big kids.

I can’t tell you what was my first rollercoaster, but I remember being about 10 or so.  It may have been the King Cobra or the Racer, but I do distinctly recall working up to The Beast (the world’s longest wooden rollercoaster). Regardless, I have a blur of thousands of great memories at King’s Island.

But I haven’t been there in years.  The last amusement park I went to was Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana (oh yeah, it’s a real place, look it up). In terms of American amusement parks, it’s one of the few that hasn’t been bought by a film studio (King’s Island = Paramount, Six Flags = Warner Brothers, Universal Studios = obvious).  Holiday World’s themes are based on (you guessed it) holidays.  Super cute. But that’s not my point.

The last few times we have gone (mainly because of their water park Splashin’ Safari, which is one of the best water parks I have EVER been to), we would ride The Voyage and I found that I would get sick.  Maybe it was because we usually would ride it two or three times back to back but I was starting to get alarmed.  Was I getting too old for roller coasters?

Fast forward to a few weeks ago:

As a thank you for my sister-in-law and her family for all the super awesomeness they had done for our wedding (organizing a photo book and taking photos of each of the guests for example), we decided to take the whole family to the nearest amusement park: Europe Park.

The park itself was only two hours away from us in Überlingen and sits in Germany right on the France/Switzerland border.  I know, I know. The name doesn’t sound impressive but trust me, it’s worth seeing.  The theme of the park? Europe! Each area represents a different European country! I love it!

My sister-in-law has three boys and they were absolutely in LOVE with the idea of going to Europe Park (also known as Europapark in German). We had are reservations because the weather forecast wasn’t looking great but we were so lucky because it meant that not a lot of people were there that day! No long lines!

Then for the test – could I do roller coasters again? We started with Eurosat. In “France” there’s a huge globe with a dark, indoor roller coaster. Looks familiar? Yeah, I thought it reminded me of Disney World’s Epcot, as well. I was only a tad nervous, but I knew I could at least do one; the questions was: how many more after that?

Well, after a full day and five roller coasters later, the answer is YES I CAN! Oh I was so happy to be able to enjoy them again! I will admit that I did feel a little queasy after each ride, mainly due to the very abrupt stop at the end, but after a few minutes, that would subside and I was ready for the next one.

My favorites? Well, they were over in Scandinavia – Wuden and Blue Fire.  Wuden was a wooden roller coaster while Blue Fire was the only “looping” coaster in the park (which I thought was pretty cute since King’s Island hardly has any non-looping ones). What was even more shocking was that T had no experience with either looping or wooden!

I had actually voiced my concern over Wuden because of T’s neck problems.  If you haven’t been on a wooden rollercoaster – they are fun but they shake you really hard. T took one look at it and said, “it doesn’t look so bad.” My response, “Seeing it and riding it and two completely different things.”

Wuden turned out to be the least favorite of the group because of its jerkiness. I was the only one still riding with my hands in the air, but I knew what to expect. Fortunately T came away without neck problems. Phew!

Everyone was nervous about Blue Fire.  But I knew they would have fun.  The youngest nephew was unable to go because he was too small the older two loooooooooooved it! I hope one day, I can take them to King’s Island where they can ride more!!!!!

Overall, the day was a roaring success! Everyone had a great time and we all can’t wait to go and do it again!

Check out the gallery below of photos I took of the day!

Bis nächste Woche!