Lou's Year In Review: 2007

Updates so far!!

 

Arrival in Spain!

Spain Trip - Day Zero and Isla Magica

Spain Trip - Parque de Atracciones Madrid & Zaragoza

Spain Trip - Port Aventura

Spain Trip - Tibidabo (text only, no pictures!!)

Spain Trip - Benidorm (pics), and Terra Mitica (no pics)

Spain Trip - Parque Warner and the Last Night in Spain

 

My Few Mini-Europe Trip Pics, followed by Guess That Crotch!!

 

Mega August/September Trip - Arrival in Chicago, and SFGAm!

Mega August/September Trip - A Day in Chicago - 4 Million Tourist Snaps

Mega August/September Trip - Indiana Beach

 

Mega August/September Trip - First Day in California

Mega August/September Trip - Antelope Valley Fair, and party

Mega August/September Trip - SFMM and Universal Hollywood

Mega August/September Trip - Disneyland Resort and Knott's Berry Farm

Mega August/September Trip - Sightseeing in Hollywood

 

Japan Trip - Arrival/LaQua/Yomiuriland

Japan Trip - Space World, Uminonakamichi Seaside Park, and Yakatori in Fukuoka!

Japan Trip - Harmonyland, Wonder Rakutenchi, and Kijima!

Japan Trip - Mitsui Greenland!

Japan Trip - Central Park/Tegarayama Yuen (pfft!)/Kurashiki Tivoli!

Japan Trip - Universal Osaka!

Japan Trip - Parque España and a night in Nagoya!

Japan Trip - Nagashima Spaland, Lagunasia, Hamanako Pal Pal, random Nagoya stuff!

Japan Trip - Day One of TDR - DisneySea!!

Japan Trip - Day Two of TDR - Disneyland!!

Japan Trip - Day Three of TDR, plus Joypolis!!

Japan Trip - Final Day at Tokyo Disney Resort!!

Japan Trip - Fuji-Q!!

Japan Trip - Sea Paradise/Cosmoworld, and the last morning!

 

South Korea - Arrival, and Tongdo Fantasialand

South Korea - Gyeongju World!

South Korea - Woobang Towerland and Kumdori Land!

South Korea - Everland, Lotteworld, Seoul Land, and others!

 

One last day at DLR...

 

 

 

Arrival in Madrid, pre-Spain Trip!!

 

So the end of 2007 approaches, and upon reflection, I had a pretty awesome year. There was definitely some bad mixed in with the good, but as far as the travelling went, it was pretty much all awesome. So I decided to attempt a monster trip-report reflecting this.

 

A few disclaimers: Firstly, I take no geekshots. If you're looking for pictures of trains and wheels and brake-runs... Get out of my thread. I take all people pictures, and that's what this will be, along with Kyle/Chuck-style reviews. Second disclaimer, my memory is terrible, unless I really really love something, or it's fucked up enough to stand out, you may well read "yeah, I have no clue what I thought about this coaster". Thirdly, my photography inclination is pretty erratic, some days I take a hundred photos, other times my camera may not leave my hotel room for three days.

 

With all that said... On with the pictures!

 

I started my year with a few random park visits with Robb, which he very kindly documented so I don't have to.... See below:

 

Much fun behind the scenes of Infusion at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.... I still haven't ridden this damn thing!

 

A quick trip over to Camelot

 

Visiting Southport Pleasureland post-demolition.... So sad it almost made me cry!

 

Blackpool with Robb and Yeti Ball!

 

 

So all of that (along with two Alton visits, from which I have one single picture), was the beginning of my year!

 

 

 

Fast-forwarding a few months, we're now in June, and Ed (Ed) and I head off to East Midlands airport (because you can't fly to Madrid from Manchester) for a day's sightseeing in Spain before the rest of the crew arrive.

 

 

Our plane arrives, and we have to sit and look at it for forty minutes before they'll actually let us get on it.

 

 

But it's okay, we have a camera, and poseur-tendencies... Even if it is 5am. *yawn*

 

 

And we have supplies!

 

 

After a pretty uneventful flight, and then two hours trying to find our hotel, which was in a dodgy part of town nobody had ever heard of, we eventually made it (late, sorry guys!) to meet up with John (CreativeForce) and his wife Rebecca, who were organised enough to have an architectural walking tour printed out of a book for us to explore with! I have no idea what most of these buildings are, but they're all in the Old section of Madrid, which is a beautiful area, one of my favourite European cities now.

 

 

 

 

I imagine this is the door to Room uno-cero-uno or something.

 

 

I love it when cities do this, cover up construction with a projection of what the finished building will look like. Silly in a way, but far preferable to taking pictures of scaffolding!

 

 

I fell in love with this building and wanted to live there.

 

 

This church was beautiful, hard to photograph though as I couldn't get far away enough to fit what I wanted to in the frame.

 

 

After an hour or two of exploring in the heat (it was DAMN hot), the four of us settled in Plaza Mayor for a while with a few bottles of Coke and beer, soaking up the atmosphere. The Plaza is amazing, beautiful in and of itself, and surrounded by cool little shops (AMERICAN VIRGIN COMIC BOOK) and cafes, and there are artists and street musicians everywhere. And crazy dogs.

 

 

Views of the Plaza...

 

 

After a few drinks and a bit more wandering, we left John and Rebecca to their dinner (but sadly not show-seeing) plans, and headed back to our hotel, hoping to get off the Metro before dark, as it was quite a walk from the station, all down alleyways!! I'll take this opportunity to praise the Metro system, which is totally awesome. Now I've travelled by Shinkansen and the other Japanese train systems, I have to say the Spanish one pales in comparison, but it's extremely cool and convenient nonetheless, much better than anything we have.

 

All in all it was a fun and chilled-out arrival (excepting us getting lost..... Ed and I should NOT travel alone together, by the way), which we needed for the insanity that would ensue beginning the following day...

 

 

 

So Robb, Elissa, KidTums, Chris, Rich, Mel, Larry, and probably half a dozen others (it's been too long) were due to arrive at the trip starting point around 1pm the following day. Ed and I slept in, and awoke around 10 (allowing time to make it to that part of Madrid) to a text message from Robb saying they were delayed... We decided to make our way over to the Novotel anyway, dump our luggage and sit in the bar. Another text comes through, they're JUST boarding in New Jersey. Oops. After waiting around the hotel for a while we decided to do some wandering around the area where the hotel was, just see where we ended up. The hotel was right near a roundabout, from which you could walk in four directions, so basically we just walked a while in each direction to see what we came to!

 

This cool-looking sculpture was in the parking lot of what ended up being a pretty nice park with a great view! Now what was that park called.....

 

 

Oh that's right!

 

 

This was about five seconds before the wind changed and that waterfall soaked me.

 

 

Every time I see this picture I have to wonder if I have ever seen anything more gay. I think it was just about surpassed while I was in California though!

 

 

Random view of the area. That copper shiny building on the right has a hedgehog on it, I never did know why but thought that fact was gloriously random.

 

 

Lots of random sculptures, buildings, bridges, and fountains in this place. All felt sort of unfinished though, a little odd. I LOVED all the people in business-clothes sprawled out sleeping on the grass all over the park, a good siesta place near their offices, I assume.

 

 

You could see pretty far across the city!

 

 

I'm in Madrid. 'Sup.

 

 

BUST. No idea who he was, but I call him Johnny.

 

 

Going in a different direction now (one where there ended up being nothing and we turned around), I took this just to prove it was hot. Compared to the rest of my summer, this actually wasn't hot at all, but at the time, it seemed it. So there.

 

 

Everything is always so landscaped in Spain! And I see McDonald's in the distance!! That place was handy to have around on nights when we got back to the hotel late and were lazy and hungry.

 

 

Walking alongside the railroad tracks, we decided we were literally on the wrong side of them. But hey, the graffiti was even kinda arty looking and neat, so it's all good!

 

 

The tracks are down to the left there. Pretty place, and quite peaceful, but I imagine I wouldn't want to be in that area alone after dark.

 

 

The path shown above eventually leads to this street, again, very pretty, but still covered with graffiti and stuff. Landscaping is typically beautiful though, it being Spain and all.

 

 

Funky sculpture. I love the bench next to it so you can just.... sit.... and stare....

 

 

VOGUE. (See us posing?)

 

 

So that was our first day and a half in Madrid! Sorry that was such a long walk with all culture and no coasters. After we got back to the hotel, the poor Alveys and co. eventually made it after a 102 hour hellish journey, we all went for dinner, had a few drinks, then crashed, ready for Day Zero, meeting all the new faces, and Parque de Attracciones the following afternoon!

Wow, awesome photos. Really looking forward to the rest of it.

 

And as hot as it was in Spain, it seemed quite reasonable when compared to Japan...

 

dt

Thankyou for this and what's to come.

 

I am shocked that Kyle and I managed to find pretty much the sames stuff you did in old town given the fact that we just wanderied around.

^Agreed Larry led us around with that book we got from the Library and we also have tons of the same pictures.

I have tons of the same pictures too. I wonder why?

Every time I see this picture I have to wonder if I have ever seen anything more gay. I think it was just about surpassed while I was in California though!

 

Honey, come to Fort Lauderdale, we'll show you what "gay" really is. LOL

And as hot as it was in Spain, it seemed quite reasonable when compared to Japan...

 

dt

 

I sincerely believe that should hell exist, and should I ever end up there, having survived in Japanese and Korean heat and humidity for more three+ weeks, I will find it rather comfortable.

 

 

ETA: ^ You're speaking to a girl who has driven through West Hollywood in a convertible Jeep listening to a Cher CD! LOL!!!

LOU has driven thru West Hollywood listening to "Life After Love"? And why does it just have "Louise" and no other info?

Great pictures Lou, I don't think I'll ever get the chance to post mine with the crazy work schedule I'm on. This was just the 'pick me up' I needed to come back to work after Christmas, many thanks!

Awesome Lou, I can't wait until you get to the real trip pics, not this Spain stuff.

And as hot as it was in Spain, it seemed quite reasonable when compared to Japan...

 

dt

 

I sincerely believe that should hell exist, and should I ever end up there, having survived in Japanese and Korean heat and humidity for more three+ weeks, I will find it rather comfortable.

 

 

ETA: ^ You're speaking to a girl who has driven through West Hollywood in a convertible Jeep listening to a Cher CD! LOL!!!

 

Hmm, i wonder whose jeep that was. Does he wear turtle underwear?

I just want to know when the Steak & Shake pictures are up.

Bahahaha!! He does indeed, and he might possibly kill me when his turtle underwear is posted in this trip report...

oooo get to the pictures of me! lol

 

 

 

This is awesome so far, can't wait to se what kind of awesome adventures you'll get into next!

Louise,

I'm a contemporary art/decor/sculpture fan and some of those pics really make me want to go to Madrid. Didn't realize it was THAT awesome of a place to visit. Most impressive. You did good on the pics and looking forward to the next chapter.

Thanks for the pics so far Lou. It's definitely helping me get through my first day back to work post-Christmas. Can't wait to see more!

Damn LOU, this a really great report so far. I'd much rather see photos of the awesome buildings and statues then lame shots of Wacky Worms. Keep it up LOU, can't wait for the future installments.

I am salivating lasviciously as I await the following year in pictures! I have heard many stories, and participated in a few of them.

 

As Britney would say, "Ya'll I'm so drunk... ...er... ...Gimme More!"

 

Guy "I can't believe I just quoted Britney Spears." Koepp

Damn LOU, this a really great report so far. I'd much rather see photos of the awesome buildings and statues then lame shots of Wacky Worms. Keep it up LOU, can't wait for the future installments.

 

(Chuckling) Ok ok, I get it. Thanks.

 

LOU, great pics and forgive me.

^ That wasn't directed at you, dude. No worries.

More Lou, more!

 

ETA: ^ You're speaking to a girl who has driven through West Hollywood in a convertible Jeep listening to a Cher CD! LOL!!!

 

It could only be gayer if your were being driven around by a rainbow-feather-boa wearing drag queen, or big gay Rob!

^and dressed as Liza Minelli. Thanks for sharing the pics. Ed is funny. I hope his bladder is doing better.

Damn LOU, this a really great report so far. I'd much rather see photos of the awesome buildings and statues then lame shots of Wacky Worms. Keep it up LOU, can't wait for the future installments.

 

(Chuckling) Ok ok, I get it. Thanks.

 

LOU, great pics and forgive me.

 

LOL, Wes already covered it but no need for forgiveness, you weren't the target.

 

Thanks for all the positive comments guys, I much appreciate the love seeing as this is (shockingly, considering I've been around well over two years) my first trip report!

 

Part II to follow, I have an hour to kill before sleeping.

So Day Zero was spent getting up at a reasonable time and then hanging around in the lobby meeting everybody arriving, including Jon and Kyle, who I had known online forever and who annoyingly were late. Having finally met most of the group, I headed up to the pool with Jon and Kyle for a bit, then a few of us wandered down the street to "Spanish WalMart" to pick up some bits and pieces... Mostly for Jon as he had no luggage. Late afternoon about 25 of us headed over to Parque de Attracciones, which was MUCH fun and involved us "breaking" the first coaster of the trip. I took almost no pictures at the park this day so I won't bother doing my review right now, I'll save it for Day Two when we actually returned for a longer period... And I probably still didn't take many pictures. Anyway, enough rambling.

 

 

Having gotten used to seeing Robb every six weeks or so for a while when he was in the UK working, it was weird having not seen him for four months! Hence why I'm smiling. Either that or else it's because I was helping collect money from people, and I'm always happy when people give me cash.

 

 

Condor. Not sure why the horrific face, I was probably being groped.

 

 

Dave, Carl, Jay and Elz on "El It's A Small Worldo". Biggest rip-off ever. Well, apart from Korean Indy, but that's for later.

 

 

Chris and I. "Awwww" at our reunion!

 

 

I have no recollection of what we did that evening, probably just chilled in the nice hotel bar for a while, as we had an EARLY start the next day...

 

 

Day One - Isla Magica

 

I had already been surprised by the high standard set at Parque de Attracciones the previous day, but Isla Magica kinda exceeded it. Only two coasters (is that really right?? I was sure there were at least three, but rcdb only has the two current and one under construction listed...), but a decent selection of other rides, none of which were *amazing*, but most had their own value, and the park was really quite beautiful. The Spanish really do like their landscaping, and the fountains and lake and theming were really quite impressive. They even had a piece of the Berlin Wall!

 

Jaguar was an SLC... meh... With a BONUS HELIX!! Such an exciting addition... that nobody really cared about. No matter how much I try and turtle myself I always get the shit kicked out of me on SLCs, so I had the minor bruising, but it wasn't too brutal. Not special enough to warrant a re-ride.

 

The park also had a random family coaster with was fun enough, but did NOT warrant the 45+ minutes we waited for it, though we did have a laugh in the line, as we were all in that getting-to-know-you stage and chatting. This was the day that the now-famous "Panthers" really formed, a group which I'm proud to be an honourary member of!

 

As for the other rides, the park had a Maurer Sohne drop tower (proud that I know the manufacturer, anybody?!) which ran a different programme every hour, ranging from an observation mode (LOL to any of us who got stuck with that one unknowingly) to what I think they called a "Double Yoyo". We rode twice, once on medium and once on high programme, and it was actually pretty fun. The building you drop into is hexagonal and damn close to your feet, they have a "nobody over 6'3" in the end seats" rule for a reason on that thing. The splashdown boat was a good one and much welcomed on that day as it was another really hot one, got us nice and soaked in the morning (thank you Miles for being bag lady!), and there was a nice speedy Disk-o which thankfully didn't make Jon sick. Halfway through the afternoon, Kyle, Ed and myself decided to go and play in the fountains, resulting in all three of us getting soaked to the skin. I mean, DRENCHED. Felt great at the time but Ed and I were regretting it when our arses were still wet four hours later at the train station.

 

The only other thing springing to mind as worth writing about was the Flintstones/Indy/messed up obstacle-passing ride, which really has to be seen to be believed. I have no idea how to define it except to describe it as an outdoor dark ride with indoor sections, and the idea is that your car (which looks like a Flintstones car) has to pass through/by ten obstacles in order to get to... heaven/the buffet/insert answer of your choice here. The ride only opened late in the afternoon and we were leaving before closing, so there were a bunch of us sitting waiting for it to open, and it did not disappoint, becoming one of the WTF rides of the trip, despite me only being able to count 7 obstacles and being completely confused as to what the other 3 were, unless sets of doors counted.

 

Pictures!

 

 

Chris and I are NOT happy to be on a bus on the way to the train station at 5 in the morning... Though at least we actually MADE the bus on time... *cough*Steve Rob Trev*cough*

 

 

At Madrid train station waiting for our AVE train to Seville. Poor hippo has no idea of the molestation that awaits him on the train (see Kyle's trip report).

 

 

Me, Kyle, Jon and Miles on the train. Seriously, Jon's face cracks me up EVERY time I see this. He looks like he's about to cry, and it's just hysterical to me. I need to have it blown up and put on a T-shirt.

 

 

I swear the Panthers were drawn together by a common fudged-up sense of humour.

 

 

Lovely Miles made four attempts at this photo with my camera before any of us paid any attention. Thanks Miles!

 

 

Kristie seems to be having fun!

 

 

And so am I, I think!

 

 

On the weird Flintstones ride. I guess this was the Day of Horrible Unphotogenicness!!

 

 

And I leave you with this atrocity of photography, which was me trying to take a nice picture of a bridge, without realising that a) it was way out of focus, and b) there were sodding stickers on the glass.