Day 5: Inside a Fairytale

Yesterday, November 13th, was Sarah's 25th birthday. After pancakes made by Niels (of course) and present unwrapping to start the day, we drove to The Netherlands to spend the day at Efteling, a fairytale theme park.

The blue sign on the right announces we are now in The Netherlands!

I had never been to a theme park before and Sarah had told me all about Efteling as they had been earlier in the year. Anything that is fairytale related appeals to me and Efteling was amazing! We walked towards the massive entrance to some kind of 'red-carpet royalty' instrumental music (how else do I explain that?). Because it is winter, the crowds were non-existent which meant we didn't have to queue for any of the rides and we didn't have to worry about waiting for people to get out of the way for our photos. It had also been transformed into a Winter wonderland with icicles and snow on the many of the displays. I should also mentioned that once you are in, everything is free (except for food of course) which was so awesome because my only experience with rides is the Royal Show which costs a bucket load. So the concept of being able to go on the rides as many times as we wanted was so cool.

Efteling!

First up, Sarah and I tested our fears on the ‘Halve Maen’ (half moon), a swinging ship. I was full of excitement and fearlessness until the boat did it's first big swing. I couldn't figure out why I had wanted to go on the ride in the first place. For those of you who are unaware, I hate heights, and scary rides in general. I hate that feeling of falling which is why you should all be very impressed about the rides I went on. So this boat thing scared the crap out of Sarah and I! Before it started Sarah suggested we sit at the back so we get the best view and the full effect. I said no and so we went in the middle but oh my god, if we felt like we were going to fall out in the middle, I can't imagine how much I would have peed my pants had we been on the end!

Half Moon Ship on it's way up

 All smiles before the ride

But that wasn't enough. The three of us went on a roller-coaster next. What the hell is wrong with us? I screamed the whole way (actually I think my scream got caught in my throat) and once again, still couldn't understand my lapse in judgement. Ironically I was also laughing manically throughout the ride. I think it is because I couldn't get a scream out once it got caught in my throat that I needed a way of letting out fear/emotion.We bought the hilarious photo that was taken of us but I don't have a scanner so you'll have to wait until I am home to see it.

'Joris en de Draak' roller coaster, the first wooden racer roller coaster in North-west Europe and has a max speed of 75km p/h.

Um, surely it couldn't be worse than the boat...right?

After our nerves were shot, Niels suggested a leisurely boat ride through the Forbidden City, influenced by the Tales of One Thousand and One Nights. I gotta say, the set designs here are amazing! My photos can not, in any way, do it justice. For this ride alone, there 106 scenes.

'Fata Morgana' scenes

Next we spent a couple of hours wandering through the fairytale forest, which recreates Hans Christian Anderson's stories. Each of the stories have buildings and also the scenes played out inside them, however the internal photos were difficult due to lighting and glass so you only get photos of the outside. They really were so cool and only pictures can attempt to explain them...

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Walking to Little Red Riding Hood

Hansel and Gretel

Sleep time! Can you spy Tom Thumb?

There was a beautiful old carousel that Sarah and I went on and while it wasn't a thrill like the other rides, it was absolutely charming.

The Carousel

Another section of Efteling is the village of the Laff People. Above the village, there is a monorail that lets you travel around with a birds-eye-view.

Laffland!

It was at this point that my camera battery died but do not fear, Sarah had her camera so I will get copies and put the rest of my photos (this is only a mini selection so you can get an idea) and some of hers on facebook later.

After the monorail ride, we went to an illusion house - Villa Volta. It was so trippy. They strap you into chairs and then the room starts to rotate, not horizontally, but vertically. It is so bizarre because you end up with the floor as the roof and then it rotates 360 degrees and you feel like you are going to fall out of the chair but you haven't actually moved even 180 degrees. I couldn't figure it out. It was one of my favourite attractions of the day. 

The next ride was a mystical fairyland realm, the ‘Droomvlucht’, where you travel through a type of fairy world in little pods. I can't describe it but it was amazing. Sarah and I then went on a spinning ride called 'Monsieur Cannibale', like the teapot ride which I believe is at the Royal Show, but these were cauldrons. It was simple but we had so much fun spinning around! For our last ride of the day, Sarah and I (Niels had had enough of roller-coasters) went on a roller-coaster, called 'Vogelrok,' that is all in the dark, except for a couple of times where the light is dim so you get even more scared. Even through you can''t see where you are going, I loved this one because it didn't enable me to look down and see how far I would fall. It was still really scary because there were lots of twists and turns and fast falls, but I really loved it. We went on it twice and my manic laughter returned :)

By now we had half an hour before the park closed so Sarah and Niels gave me the option of what I wanted to do next. I chose to do the illusion house again because I was still trying to figure it out. I still can't figure it out but it really was so much fun. I could honestly go back to Efteling again today and do it all again. It was all so much fun and I highly recommended it to anyone who loves fairytales.

After leaving Efteling, we stopped in Antwerp for a birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant in which my one cocktail, that I didn't even finish, put me to sleep for the drive home. Either the alcohol is better here or I have become even more of a cadbury than I was a week ago at home! I woke up as we pulled into our street and made a comment about the bread vending machine and in the time it took Niels to do a u-turn so we could park, I had fallen back asleep and dreamt I had a conversation with Sarah about bread vending machines (I checked with her and we never had a conversation, just me pointing out the machine)! Despite my desperate need for sleep, I was awake enough to sing happy birthday to Sarah, and Niels brought out a birthday cake he had made for her.

All in all, an excellent day!