^^Here it is
Day 2: Parque de Atracciones Madrid and Parque de Atracciones Zaragoza (aka Bouncy-Bouncy park)
The 2nd official day of the trip, and it was a busy one. We started the morning fairly late with a full breakfast buffet, and a bus ride back out to Parque de Atracciones Madrid. We had ERT (exclusive ride time) on Abismo and Tarantula before the park opened, a few hours at the park, and then a bus ride to Zaragoza for the 2nd park of the day, Parque de Atracciones Zaragoza. Sounds insane, but it was a pretty comfortable pace since I had already been to the Madrid park on day 0.
So I ended with going to bed at the end of Day 1 in my previous post, but I forgot I had a few pictures from that night.
Is this Ed before drinking or after drinking?
Inebriated elevator ride
This is what this is for, right Lou?
Ok, so the bus didn't leave very early the next morning, since the Spanish parks seem to open much later than us US folk are used to. In fact, there weren't that many early mornings for that reason, which was quite nice. The hotel had a full breakfast buffet laid out. Cereals, pastries, spanish cured meats, cheeses, bread, tortilla (the spanish variety, like a potato garlic quiche), bacon, sausage, eggs, etc.... It was really nice that we had this kind of spread at almost every hotel. I rarely eat a real breakfast most mornings (breakfast bar), so it was a nice change of pace.
We packed the bus with our luggage, and headed out to the first park of the day, Parque de Atracciones Madrid, which about 1/2 of us had managed to hit on day 0 as well.
Being as awesome as Robb is, he scored us ERT on both Abismo and Tarantula. Both are great coasters, though Tarantula really depends on the amount of spinning you get.
I posted enough of these the other day, but here's on more. ABISMO!
So I got 2 rides on Abismo during ERT, but I spent much more time over at Tarantula. I think I got 5 rides, 3 with insane spinning (and 2 with very little).
I really failed at getting pictures of the track layouts at this park
Hmmm...did Hector love it or hate it?
Yup, he loved it
Apparently Dave did too
The part that surprised me most about tarantula was how fast the lift was. HELLA fast. That and I also wasn't prepared for how fast it took the course. It was my first "banked turns" spinning mouse. I loved it.
This picture is why Lou is not allowed to point out guys for stalker pics..... not cute
Ok, now on to what had to be one of the funniest, and most painful rides of the trip.
So we saw that adults were allowed to ride the bouncy horses, and immediately piled in line. Basically they were horses that were powered around a track, and randomly bucked. Looked fairly gentle.
Away we go.
So far, so good
What we didn't realize though is the seat was situated in such away that there was a ridge right below your balls. So every time the horse bucked back and forth, the ridge would slam violently into them.
Hector and Dave have no idea what's in store
How's come it doesn't seem to be bothering Miles?
It sure seems to be bothering Jon
*photo credit to Dave Lawrence*
I don't feel the need to re-ride
Spanish parks sure know how to do theming. This was for the splashdown boat
REVENGE OF THE MULLETS
For all you that like your boys slim....
I think he needs to eat something, but he has a cute face.
Next on the rides left to hit is DESPERADO! Ok, really random ride. You go sit in this theater with a bunch of moving stools themed to horses. It's then a shooting dark "ride", where you try to shoot the outlaws in a western town on the screen. At the end of the first round, the leader has a spotlight shown on them and their photo shown on the screen. The player with the lowest score gets turned into a donkey. It was rather hilarious especially since no one understood enough Spanish to get the "plot" fully. After the first round there was a shootout on the street, a stagecoach chase, and a bar shootout. I didn't figure it out exactly until the last round, but still managed 2nd place.
Still haven't hit the frisbee.
I actually sat this one out. This model of frisbee spins too fast and makes me feel ill.
Time for one more ride....and it's the "ghetto Jungle Cruise"
It was actually fairly entertaining. No boat driver like at Disney, the animatronics were falling apart (you could see moving parts), and there was swearing in English in the soundtrack (well, just "dirty bastard"). It so rocked. Oh, it was another ride that used a cable to pull the boat through the ride.
You could see moving parts through the gorillas neck
Such a blatant rip-off
They were wiggling their ears and blowing bubbles
It was a pretty good length too, we had time to sit back and relax.
Well, time to go. A 3 hour or so bus ride to our next destination.
To pass the time, Dave explained Elissa Bingo!
The object was to catch Elissa doing and saying certain things. All that stuff she does all the time (like skinning hot dogs). He passed out cards to everyone, and the game started right away. There were also spots for other people's idiosyncrasies (like Ed drinking, Lou having a fag, etc). I didn't end up winning, but it was fun to watch others on the lookout.
Lou enjoying a fag
Robb and Elissa also had lots of TV shows on DVD to watch during the ride (Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Robot Chicken, Creature Comforts, Colbert Report, TPR clips, etc). We made a short rest stop, and were in Zaragoza in early evening.
Just in case you forgot where we were going
So the best way I can explain this park, as far as layout is "Spanish Knoebel's", but instead of really good wooden coasters, they had random steel coasters. It was very spread out, had a bit of a carnival made permanent feel, and had a large swimming pool. And it was AMAZING fun! I didn't expect much from this park, and it blew me away. Nothing was insanely thrilling, but everything was so much fun to ride.
Hmmm......I think I'll skip these this time
The first coaster at this park was a small kiddie coaster. We all had a ride. I forgot a picture though.
Onwards to their "big coaster".....a Galaxi
My first Galaxi credit, and it was pretty good. I still prefer a good Wildcat.
They also had a top spin (which I sat out since the ride op said he would run a special cycle, turns out it was pretty tame)
The best coaster at the park.....RAMSES
It was a huge surprise. It looked like crap. A pirate ship on a track, or a disko without the spinning. But it ended up being a lot of fun. It pulled you up one side of the V-shaped track with a cable, then let you go to rock back and forth for a long time. There was airtime on each transition to the upwards track, and the first drop had no warning. Great coaster for it's size and simplicity.
We also got a ride on "Bouncy-Bouncy" and the rapids ride before it was time to eat.
On to dinner.
They really pulled out all the stops. They started us with a plate of tapas type foods.
Prawns, smoked salmon, heart of palm, some sort of cheese, prawn salad torte, chorizo, and iberian ham.
"photo courtesy of Robb"
They also provided plenty of wine
And then came around with calamari, croquettes, and some other little fried food
"photo courtesy of Robb"
Have I mentioned lots of wine?
"photo courtesy of Robb"
So we all figured that was the meal. Oh no, no, no. They then brought around skillets full of leg of lamb, and potatoes & garlic in olive oil. It was heaven. I'm picky about eating lamb, and this lamb was amazing. I could have loaded up on potatoes too. YUM YUM YUM. There was also a chocolate mousse type dessert.
Now that we were all full, and slightly drunk, it was time to go do the mirror maze.
Hi Piers!
The maze was full of mirrors, but also clear plexiglass. I ran into one hard, hitting it with my forehead. And about 2 minutes later, so did Robb, as seen here.
Mirrors are fun
We also went in the funhouse and the haunted dark ride after dinner. Then on to the last few rides before it was time to leave. One more ride on the Galaxi (no lights), and then one more re-ride on the best flat ride of the trip.
BOUNCY-BOUNCY!!!
I never expected so much fun from such a simple concept. Basically the cars moved in a circle, and then the hydraulics kicked in. The cars bounced violently up and down. Throwing you out of your seat at the top, and throwing you around like a rag doll at the bottom. If you haven't watched the TPR video of it, you really need to. It's in the updates on the main page, under Zaragoza on the right side. I haven't cackled and giggled so hard on a ride ever.
We gave a huge thanks to all the park's staff, and then headed to our Holiday Inn Express in Zaragoza.
Lou assures me that this is the correct usage of this bathroom fixture
A phone call home, and then down to the bar for a couple drinks.
Jon is sure enjoying himself
Wow Chris, are you that drunk already?
So another fantastic ending to another fantastic day. The cool part as the trip went on is that we hung out with more and more people. We had a "group" that pretty much hung every day, but people moved in and out with ease. I think I got to hang out with almost everyone on the trip at some point. It really made the trip that much better.
