Photo TR : Copenhagen, Bakken, Tivoli Gardens, Bon Bon Land

nice pics and video i got tickets to the U2 concert here in australia in december looking forward to that.....but first metallica next month

Hey Benny ! Glad you enjoyed. Didn't know you were a U2 fan, and I sometimes try to combine U2 and coasters. I saw them in 97 in Werchter for the Pop Mart Tour, then in 2005 in Brussels for Vertigo, saw them on a second venue for this tour in Madrid (guess why I chose to see them there ) and decided to skip this year because I saw the first leg of 360 Degree Tour in Paris (SDF) Hey, next time, let's see them together !

^^saw metallica on the world magnetic tour,they were awesome as usual,You are in for a treat!

Although the best show i saw them was the Black album tour,3 hrs no support,Fantastic

Edited September 29, 2010 by mousch

nice pics and video i got tickets to the U2 concert here in australia in december looking forward to that.....but first metallica next month

 

 

Saw them on the Sick of the Studio Tour 07 and went to the Album Launch party for Death Magnetic, awesome, you will love it!!!

 

Awesome TR, would have loved to see U2, couldn't get tickets, sold out too quickly!

^^^^^^ The area of Brussels ? It was at the northern side of the city of Brussels, in the Boudewijn Stadium (formerly known as the Heysel stadium). Is this what you wanted to know ?

 

^^^^^ Saw that tour too. And I agree, best U2 concert I saw so far.

 

^^^^ Yep, Australia/New Zealand is up next after they finish this european leg next week. I like the support act you will be having. Also saw Metallica World Magnetic concert when they were here. No Claw, but Metallica ruled the concerthall. You will enjoy their concert. I would love them passing by here once more with this same tour.

 

^^^ Hi Olivier, I used to be a huge U2 fan, but only started to do concerts (in general, not only U2) about 10 years ago. Saw them here in Antwerp with their Elevation tour, went to Amsterdam for their Vertigo tour, and now saw their latest tour in Brussels. I don't know but is it just me or are concerttickets really way too expensive nowadays. I mean, I got invited but we had seats which normally costed euro 150 per ticket. I can get any seasonpass I want for that money !! Prince is coming next month to Antwerp. I would love to see him again, but I simply refuse paying between euro 69 and 129 for 1 ticket. I'm very sorry Mr Prince, but you won't get my money. If other people want to pay that much, fine for me, but as long as people keep on paying no matter what ticketprice, the ticketprices WILL keep on rising.

Dammit, what is wrong with me. I end up ranting in almost every TR lately ;-( I seem to be in my life's rant period. So I will stop this rant here and end with a positive note : U2's Claw is AWESOME. And here are the pics to prove this.

 

^^ Same !

 

^ Thanks

A colleague from work went to see them the day before and got stuck at the parking for 2 hours after the concert. This was not going to happen to me as I have a secret parking spot nearby the stadion. Ok, it's 20 minutes walking but 20 minutes after the concert, I was on the highway already.

The limo-van bringing the band to the stadium.

We got something to drink at the normal parking (where we won't get stuck on). To be honest, this concert must be one of my first outside concerts. I don't like outside concerts because of the excellent climate we have here. The chance you might be in the rain is quite likely. And yes, I was very lucky that evening.

All this is at the parking lot. There was even a dj playing ... U2 songs.

But we arrived dry at the stadium.

Euro 150 ticket !!!

Merchandise

In 3 weeks I will be here again and take the same picture. You'll see.

Yay ! First encounter with the Claw. Interpol was support act.

My cool t-shirt.

Wow, 70000 people, that's a lot of people !!

Proof I was there

You can't imagine how glad I was I saw this when I looked up.

I see orange. I see a clock. It made me think of a movie, but I don't recall the name of the movie.

Wow, midnight already ?

Beautiful Day. The lightshow is breathtaking.

Yeah, all pics are taken from the same seat so all have the same angle. But still, every picture will be very different.

I'm impressed by my nightshot camera skills. I really am. Still trying to figure out how I managed to take such, for me, sharp pictures.

This will sound weird, but the top of the Claw made me think about the castle at Disneyland Paris a few times.

Another song, another color.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,

4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ...

and lift off ....

So that didn't happen .The Claw was still there. Don't worry.

I'm really proud of these pics

DLP

Stretching screens during City of blinding lights.

Probably the visual highlight of the evening.

Shrinking screens.

Less than during the previous tours, but Bono is still into politics. Probably the main reason why I became less of a fan than I ever was over the years.

I used the political moments to sit down for a few minutes. Luckily it didn't last very long and the music was again the most important. The music and the Claw that is.

DLP

Visually, it's probably the best concert I've ever seen.

Overall, it's only a top 10 concert.

Bono asked everybody to hold their cell up. Which was a great effect in the stadium.

End of my U2 show. Thanks for reading and comments.

Excellent pics,can't say i'm that much of a U2 fan,but you've got to be impressed with that setup!

Great photos. I saw them when the 360 tour hit my town last year (a year ago Friday actually!) and it was an unbelieveable experience. The thing that impressed me most, I think, was how their live music sounded very distinguishable and similar to the stuff you hear on CDs and the radio. A lot of bands seem to just pump out distortion and noise when they are live so much that it is hard to tell what song they are playing.

Wow. Wow. omg. Wow.

 

That was an amazing photo shoot you did of the U2 concert!

 

And it showed me how very long I haven't been to a live concert of anybody's in a long, long time

 

Still - quite the set (where's the band, ha ha) - and the lighting and effects! Amazing.

 

I think my last one was a Bowie concert - the Glass Spider Tour in 19-- ...? (eep)

 

Thanks for sharing all this.

 

(The U2 shoot made me totally forget your great photo 'tour' of the DLP hotel!)

^^^^nice pics im really looking forward to this concert especially after seeing the pics and as you said the support act for the Australian tour is good also Jay-Z, who supported them at the concert you went to?...

 

This is my third Metallica concert which in Australia they dont come round to often so i always make sure i go as they are so good live even if they play the newer stuff

Yes that is what I wanted to know.

Thanks :]

 

--James

^^ Interpol was the support act in Brussels

 

^^^ Talking about Bowie : he's part of the U2 show

 

On coastertube :

[coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=MOV00030_36qt[/coastertube]

On youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpLr3Xte3zo

I saw the U@ 360 Tour last October in Tampa with MUSE opening and it was an incredible show, one of my favorites that Ive been to. We were in the general admission right on the outer rail and had some great views of the band and the show. Nice TR, brought back some great memories of my trip last Fall.

Before moving on to the next update, here 2 more vids I shot during the U2 concert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My5FdWxY2q0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFrWVe-A8qU

Thanks for posting these Amazingly Awesome pics and footage, Benny!! You were right about the seats. Those are Great! I think I might have right around the same area of seats in Denver...

 

That area in the parking lot looks cool and you got a pic of the caravan driving in. How did you manage that one?? Really cool Trip Report. I have till May till I see them in Denver, then I'll be seeing them in Miami, Philly and Jersey. I can't freaking wait. It'll be a year now since the postponement of the tour, so were ready to get on with the show!! WooHoo!!

Thanks Roxanne.

 

The show was awesome. And since you are a U2 fan, you will absolutely love it.

 

The van wasn't the real U2 limo

Before spoiling you all with TRs of 8 German parks we went to last week, first a TR of a visit to the port of Antwerp last week Sunday.

 

All over Flanders (not sure whether it was something held all over belgium), companies opened their doors to the GP last Sunday.

 

The weather was really awesome that day, so I decided to visit MSC Home Terminal at the Port Of Antwerp.

 

This terminal is handling more than 50 % of all containers handled in the port of Antwerp. The terminal is one of the most importants hubs of the shipping line MSC.

 

On to the pictures.

MSC Home Terminal

The boat which would show us arround in the port.

My daugthers and I had an excellent seat in the back on the boat.

My other daughter

The weather was really great for the time of year.

The only pic of myself (in the sunglasses )

Love this picture

Ok, back to business : MSC Home Terminal

The MSC Palomo was loading during our visit.

It's HUGE 22 containers wide. One of the biggest container vessels in the world.

Some stats : 366.0 m/1,200.8 ft long, 51.0 m/167.3 ft beam, max 13,200 teu capacity.

Straddle carrier : they have 122 of those. Each costing 750000 euro.

Shore crane. They have 22 of those. Each costing 7.5 million euro.

Can't help it. It makes me think of the Empire Strikes Back.

There were some other MSC vessels in operation. Although they were huge too, they looked very small compared to the first one.

Hope you enjoyed these pics.

I finally had some time to sit down and look at this entire topic. Two words: absolutely incredible.

 

Eric

October 5, it was time for what seems to becoming a tradition : our autumn/halloween trip in Europe.

 

This year we headed to Northern Germany, hitting every park which would be open on weekdays that week.

 

Together with Hans, EB, Michael & Bart, we left Belgium/Holland quite early on Tuesday, heading to Fort Fun.

The initial plan was arriving at Fort Fun at opening time, leave before 1 pm and visit Serengeti Park still the same day, but lots of construction works on the Autobahn made us arrive at Fort Fun only at 11 am. While we left already again at 130 pm, we passed Serengeti only at about 5 pm, which was too late. Luckily, we could spend some time at the park 2 days later, so eventually we didn't have to miss anything that was planned.

Anyway, continue ranting about the road constructions, it seems the German government is investing a lot in roadconstructions, at least on the highways we drove on the first day. We even ended up in a traffic jam for about 2 hours on the highway very near to our hotel for the first 2 nights in Hamburg city, right next to the sinful mile, the Reperbahn.

I also learned that my car isn't suitable to transport 5 adults. Sorry about that Hans, EB, Bart and especially Michael. Next autumn I may already drive a bigger car, or if not, we have to find another solution because I agree, only 4 people fit into my car.

 

Ok, having said the above, the rest of the trip, was awesome fun and I managed to finally relax after some stressful times. Thanks Hans, EB, Michael and Bart. I'll already start planning the trip for next fall.

 

On to the pictures of the first park : Fort Fun.

Arrived at our first park of the trip. Probably it's just me, but their flag reminds me of a western movie village. If other people think the same, I would say : well done Fort Fun !!

Thank you.

Hans' start of the trip

As planned, every park on the trip was dead during our visit.

Every park had Halloween theming.

Crazy Washhouse = crazy attraction

Rent a horse. Yes, you read/see that right, you can rent a horse at the park.

First new credit of the trip.

This coaster probably has the weirdest waiting row I've ever seen.

Ready to ride

Here we go.

It was a nice little ride.

We all know what is inside now, but we all decided not to ride it.

Entance to what turned out to be THE ride of the trip.

On the lifthill, which kept on bringing you higher and higher, you had a good view on parts of the downhill track. This is going to be awesome.

Me. Behind me is Hans, behind Hans is EB, behind EB is ...

OMG !!

W T F was that ???

5 minutes later, daredevil Michael arrived.

Station

It really rocks the hill.

Logflume

It must have been about 20 years ago, since I last rode 1 of these. On this trip we would ride 2 different ones.

The rideop gave everybody 2 rides in a row. Thank you so much for that Mr Rideop.

To be honest, I expected it worse.

Parkmap

Next credit.

Michael isn't scared on double-8 coasters.

But is holding on tight when we are catching up speed.

See, I'm not scared.

WTF ...

I'm so organised. Forgot a logflume picture. As you can see, for the larger part, it's a terrainflumeride.

As Hans said, he didn't want to ride because he's dutch as there was an upcharge of 1 euro for this ride.

Well, if we would have known we wouldn't make it in time to Serengeti the same day, we would have ridden it. And we would have ridden the alpine slide at least another 5 times.

Rafting ride.

Michael was scared again. Bart too I think.

But again, he survived.

In danger again

But they all survived.

Not sure whether it is intended like it since it looks like needing a paintjob, but I really like this theming.

End of part 1 of our Germany trip. Hope you like it.

Edited November 9, 2010 by Groteslurf

Thank you for your update. I hope i can visit Fort Fun this year too. Because it´s only a 1 hour drive to Fort Fun.

Hi Benny,

 

I had a great time to that week. And no worries about your car. It was a small uncomfortable price to pay for a great week.

 

And I agree, trapper slider was the ride of the trip

After a first great night at the Reperbahn, we drove to Hansapark the second day. No construction works nor traffic jams and the weather was better than we could ever had hoped for. It was almost summer again.

Hooray ! Arrived.

We got our Club TPR discount without a problem

Again and empty park

I was looking forward to this ride.

Except for the fact it is a Eurofighter, I didn't know anything about the ride.

The ride is great with some nice surprises.

The exit is a real maze.

Again Halloween theming

Not sure whether Larry still needs this : entrance of the drop/shoot tower.

Another seacredit for me : the Ostsee.

Clocktime

It is weird.

It doesn't even have a capacity of 100 persons per hour.

Strange, REALLY strange and weird.

Starflyer on steroids

It is insanely fast.

Overview

Raftride and IC/DC

I love these raftrides. No chance of getting soaked but the spinning is awesome.

Next credit.

Going down .....

You can buy cars inside.

And bumpercars

Nessie

We had a 'Duelling Dragons' experience in the loop. Very weird to see the people on the other train from upside down.

IC/DC

Great ride though.

Rasender Roland

Time for something weird ...

Sturmvogel

Here you go Larry.

Flying Shark

Random slides

Digging the grave

Splash ride

Pretty curves

EB doing his excersises.

Didn't find the ridesign.

The weather was like in Italy. Oh wait, Italy. Great destination for a next fall trip.

Buenos dias

Great park, great weather, great friends, great beer.

Some more random pics of our second parklap.

Michael wanted to destroy something.

Fly Willy

"Hey Jim, I want you to spell something for me"

The covered lifthill doesn't really add something to the ride but it really make the ride a beauty.

This was a great little attraction

Hans made a new girlfriend. But since I drive a small car, we made him throw her back.

Time to head back to the hotel in Hamburg.

Edited November 9, 2010 by Groteslurf

Fun report. I'm still dreaming about the mermaid.

 

 

---Hans

After an awesome night at Hamburg, where we met up with some colleagues from work, drank a few beers at a very trendy place, had an excellent dinner at a Brauhouse, drank another few beesr in an Irish pub, saw the Hamburg city hall, found the Herbstrasse, drank a few other beers at a pub near the Herbstrasse, attended an amazing beat-party on the Reperbahn with all kind of beat music of the sixties, people dressed like the sixties, there even was a guy having Beatles-hair and we drank a lot of beers again ..... we drove in the morning to Hotel Port Royal @Heidepark where we would stay for the night after having visited Heidepark.

So, after checking in, we were at Heidepark well before 10 am

Let's start with the B&M construction site

It's really huge

A lot of pieces waiting.

My god .... we are real nerds. Because you'll admit, there is in fact nothing to see on this pic excpet for a buldozer paving the place for a B&M. And still I'm posting the pic

Divemachine station ??

The gyro drop is still awesome.

Baby drop right next to the real stuff.

Amazing bob.

Go Norway Go Norway ...

Go Germany Go Germany ...

Time for some Vekoma fun

Well, this is probably one of the smoothest ones.

All Vekoma

Great job on the extreme make over of the flatride section.

This could have been the best coaster on the trip. By far the best coaster....

if it would have run !!

But it was closed. I wanted to ride it at least 10 times that day ( On a positive note : this allowed us to visit the park we skipped 2 days earlier in the afternoon. More about that later.

Dessert race

Heidepark is beautiful

No idea how something like this is called.

Dessert race station

It's very obvious : EB is our leader.

Lego shop. We all love Lego. Especially since we know Renata, the german lady giving the backstage tours at Legoland California.

New credit for me.

We had a list of what Larry was missing for the index. Here you go Larry

Logflume nr 1

Halloween island

Splash battle

Michael is waiting for riders

She like Michael

MILF

Logflume 2

With the insane drop. Next up : Serengeti park.

thank Benny I had not seen many photos of the newly themed flats in HussLand

Because Colossos wasn't operating, we decided to leave Heide Park by 2 pm, and we drove to Serengeti, the park we didn't have time for on day 1. Serengeti is only approx 30 kms from Heidepark so shortly after leaving Heide, we arrived at Serengeti.

 

I took a lot of pictures at the this park so it will be a 2 parts report.

Finally

First part of Serengeti is a safari with your own car. You could take the bus too, but there was a charge up for that, and we only had limited time to discover the complete park, so we raced through the safari part.

In fact the safari was the best one I have ever done.

The safari was also very very long

Lots of animals and with EB in the car, we actually had live on board audio, with all we needed to know about the animals.

I had the great idea to race through that water on the road .... but that one animal didn't want to move.

Hi girls

Walibi Belgium

Droptower

EB sits the all-weather seat.

Serengeti is a very green park.

Swamp duckies

Flume ride

Batride

People mover

Although Serengeti is divided in different parts, the actual parts weren't really clear to me. Here we were heading to Freizeitland and Affenland

Ghetto arcade. But I love places like this

Swamp bridge

Credit time

Die !

Can't believe they actually want to kill this mousie.

The ride itself was awesome. Some hops at crazy speed.

2 of us

Kiddie rides

Biker Hans

There are actually quite some rides at Serengeti. And the owners are doing their best to safari-theme the rides

There weren't too many other visitors in the park

The insect animatronics were totally awesome. Very well done. Almost the real stuff.

Park overview

Random theming.

This was more or less the only attraction with a ridesign

Hey, other people !!

More rides

Bumpercars

Rammen verboten : so these are just cars, no bumpercars

Showtime.

High adventure

Oldtimers

More kiddie rides

End of part I.

Much more to come in part II

Edited December 11, 2010 by Groteslurf