Poohshoney
<font color=6666CC>Ya-ya sister!<br><font color=gr
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2001
The players
Carol (41, British) dangerously Disney obsessed.
Roland (36, German) puts up with me somehow.
I wrote a WDW trip report called Mickey & US if you missed it you might have trouble with some of the references!
27 August 2002
Part 7
Now today was a special day for me my birthday - and I'd been promised I could pick a birthday present for myself. Oooh goody!!!! I kept my eyes peeled all day for any possible acquisitions but the place I was most hopeful about was in Austria they had an attraction called the Magical World of Diamonds (my favourite D-word after Disney!) and it had a shop attached. I must admit, the quality of the other shops made me think I wasnt going to find the Koh-I-Noor but as the family optimist I couldnt help but feel excited!
We did the attraction first. We walked through a `diamond´ mine with lots of little gnome-like people in it more Emerald City than Snow White. And periodically a train rushed through with people screaming: it was very atmospheric and we liked it. My favourite scene was when we were coming out. It had three gnomes sitting at a conveyor belt with a gremlin-thingy behind them. It was obviously quality control and the expressions on the gnomes faces were just spot on. `Oh heck, this is SO boring. Hope I dont get fire breathed down my neck. When can we go home? ´
We exited into the shop. I'm so glad I didnt get my hopes up. It was more Woolworth's than Tiffany's. Roland cheered up a bit though lack of diamonds does that to him. An extensive search (went round three times!) failed to produce even a likely candidate for birthday present of the year but I did get a lot of reassuring hand-squeezing from Roland. (He also said not to worry, I could pick myself two presents when we went to the Disney Store in Frankfurt can you believe theyve closed it!!! Im so gutted )
Theres a ride in Austria called the Alpine Express AKA Big Thunder Mountain if youre a Mouseketeer. Thats one of Rolands favourite rides so we were a bit glum when we saw the 45 min queue sign. A quick con-fab and it was decided wed try again later. Besides which, we were hungry. BTM isnt good on an empty stomach.
A quick look at the map and we spotted the See-Restaurant nearby. According to the map it was in Adventureland but it was in Austria, looked like a Tyrolean chalet and the waitresses all wore Austrian national dress.
We got more water (in glass bottles not plastic cups like the rest of the park posh) and a goulash soup each and boy were they good!
We snagged a table out on the terrace overlooking the lake. We could see Elephant Rock (surprisingly, a group of rocks with fake elephants on we hadnt known what to expect) and EP's Jungle Cruise. This was a very slow moving raft ride. After watching the bored expressions as yet another raft crawled by, we decided to give it a miss. I wished wed done it now.
The lake also had a Mississippi steamer. We decided Adventureland was an EP synonym for `we havent got a country for this attraction, where can we put it?´ The steamer was smaller than Disneys. It looked surprisingly full.
The cabaret during our meal was provided by a family who arrived just before we left, two teenagers and their parents. The mum plonked her bags down and meaningfully muttered, I have to go somewhere. Great bellowed the teenagers indiscreetly, Well come too. The mum went as pink as her T-shirt! It reminded me so much of my own mums little ritual. Its always the same; she peers round to the left and then to the right before lowering her head, raising her eyebrows and using a stage whisper guaranteed to be heard in the back row asks, Is there ANYWHERE you need to go. It guarantees hysterics from the rest of us.
The plan when wed finished eating was to wander all the way along the top of the park and this time we stuck to it.
The first thing we saw looked at was a water power station (yawn). It was definitely working but as it was ancient we couldnt work out why. Roland reckoned the amount of energy it could produce would run the nearby lights but not much else. Unfortunately, the info wasnt very informative.
We continued down Fairy Tale Avenue I loved it! It had little booths down it with scenes from fairy tales such as Cat in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, etc. You pushed a button and then a narrator told the story. Unfortunately, I didnt reckon with one of the buttons being French anyone interested in Puss in Boots in French? No, neither were we. The German narrator had a wonderful voice I could have listened to for hours (once I'd worked out which buttons to push).
We had a nice surprise as we walked along: there were teenagers roller-skating along holding boards saying `Just for you, the park will remain open till 19:30. Thats 7:30 pm to the rest of us and as the park had been due to close at six we were well suited how nice of them to think of us like that!
I had been looking forward to the Gnome House its the kind of name that appeals to me. Roland was pleased to find it was a teeny tiny kiddie ride with height limits and we were too big.
And then we got to England. Note, not GB or UK or anything else, just England. And theyd even got the flag right.
England had my favourite loos. (I really regret not trying the ones in Adventureland they were called Tarzan and Jane.) The English ones were called, what else, Ladies & Gents. And when you got inside, each door had the name of a king or queen on it. I went in Charles II (I wanted a queen but they were all engaged) and on the back wall it said `The secret place of Charles II´ and had his coat of arms underneath see what I mean about EP doing a lot with imagination with just a little money?!
I was a bit miffed about Englands food. Not only wasnt it English (even though you can find burgers on every corner in England, I still dont think that makes it native cuisine) but the map actually told you it wasnt British. `Only the buildings are British, the cuisine is international´. No other country had that. Reminds me of the postcard we got from Rolands aunty last month, from England. `The weather and the food are surprisingly good´. And when she got home we still couldnt convince her that she hadnt been fed special `suitable for Germans´ food. Sigh. One of the things we both miss most about Britain is the food its better than its reputation, honest!
England boasts a reproduction of Shakespeares Globe theatre. It hosts a magic show we managed to miss this one by 50 mins. Pure natural talent.
So we went into Baron Williams Mystery Hall. Actually, we didnt get past the door for a good few minutes. It was so dark I couldn't see more than a few inches in front of me I was afraid the mystery was going to be `what have I fallen over?´ Eventually Roland shoved me in, promising me there wasnt anything to trip over and my eyes acclimatised and he was right. We think Baron William was the Phantom Of the Opera type character standing on the left waving a candelabra and wailing something very forgettable. Although he might have been the man sitting on the right who got beheaded. That was ever so well done, especially when the head disappeared backwards, rolled down and was held up by a ghoul when it got to the bottom. It got us talking again about the `will my children be frightened by Haunted Mansion?´ posts. Both ghoulish things at EP were MUCH worse than HM yet the kids didnt turn a hair. Will they grow up psychotic? Are they hardened by things theyve seen on TV? Is it adults subconsciously communicating their own anxieties which makes the kids flip? We came to no conclusions but it was an interesting conversation.
We didnt rate Englands attractions at all. A shooting range, radio-controlled boats and the Silverstone Arena (to be fair, we didnt look into that one). so we grabbed a Schokokuss (delicious German titbit of very thin chocolate over a sort of creamy centre) and moved on.
We moved on past Nivealand, aka Childrens World. Roland peered over the hedge and said it was all little kiddie things. I could hear a lot of happy little voices so I think it was a good place to be if youre knee-height.
And then we were in front of the castle.
To be continued
Carol (41, British) dangerously Disney obsessed.
Roland (36, German) puts up with me somehow.
I wrote a WDW trip report called Mickey & US if you missed it you might have trouble with some of the references!
27 August 2002
Part 7
Now today was a special day for me my birthday - and I'd been promised I could pick a birthday present for myself. Oooh goody!!!! I kept my eyes peeled all day for any possible acquisitions but the place I was most hopeful about was in Austria they had an attraction called the Magical World of Diamonds (my favourite D-word after Disney!) and it had a shop attached. I must admit, the quality of the other shops made me think I wasnt going to find the Koh-I-Noor but as the family optimist I couldnt help but feel excited!
We did the attraction first. We walked through a `diamond´ mine with lots of little gnome-like people in it more Emerald City than Snow White. And periodically a train rushed through with people screaming: it was very atmospheric and we liked it. My favourite scene was when we were coming out. It had three gnomes sitting at a conveyor belt with a gremlin-thingy behind them. It was obviously quality control and the expressions on the gnomes faces were just spot on. `Oh heck, this is SO boring. Hope I dont get fire breathed down my neck. When can we go home? ´
We exited into the shop. I'm so glad I didnt get my hopes up. It was more Woolworth's than Tiffany's. Roland cheered up a bit though lack of diamonds does that to him. An extensive search (went round three times!) failed to produce even a likely candidate for birthday present of the year but I did get a lot of reassuring hand-squeezing from Roland. (He also said not to worry, I could pick myself two presents when we went to the Disney Store in Frankfurt can you believe theyve closed it!!! Im so gutted )
Theres a ride in Austria called the Alpine Express AKA Big Thunder Mountain if youre a Mouseketeer. Thats one of Rolands favourite rides so we were a bit glum when we saw the 45 min queue sign. A quick con-fab and it was decided wed try again later. Besides which, we were hungry. BTM isnt good on an empty stomach.
A quick look at the map and we spotted the See-Restaurant nearby. According to the map it was in Adventureland but it was in Austria, looked like a Tyrolean chalet and the waitresses all wore Austrian national dress.
We got more water (in glass bottles not plastic cups like the rest of the park posh) and a goulash soup each and boy were they good!
We snagged a table out on the terrace overlooking the lake. We could see Elephant Rock (surprisingly, a group of rocks with fake elephants on we hadnt known what to expect) and EP's Jungle Cruise. This was a very slow moving raft ride. After watching the bored expressions as yet another raft crawled by, we decided to give it a miss. I wished wed done it now.
The lake also had a Mississippi steamer. We decided Adventureland was an EP synonym for `we havent got a country for this attraction, where can we put it?´ The steamer was smaller than Disneys. It looked surprisingly full.
The cabaret during our meal was provided by a family who arrived just before we left, two teenagers and their parents. The mum plonked her bags down and meaningfully muttered, I have to go somewhere. Great bellowed the teenagers indiscreetly, Well come too. The mum went as pink as her T-shirt! It reminded me so much of my own mums little ritual. Its always the same; she peers round to the left and then to the right before lowering her head, raising her eyebrows and using a stage whisper guaranteed to be heard in the back row asks, Is there ANYWHERE you need to go. It guarantees hysterics from the rest of us.
The plan when wed finished eating was to wander all the way along the top of the park and this time we stuck to it.
The first thing we saw looked at was a water power station (yawn). It was definitely working but as it was ancient we couldnt work out why. Roland reckoned the amount of energy it could produce would run the nearby lights but not much else. Unfortunately, the info wasnt very informative.
We continued down Fairy Tale Avenue I loved it! It had little booths down it with scenes from fairy tales such as Cat in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, etc. You pushed a button and then a narrator told the story. Unfortunately, I didnt reckon with one of the buttons being French anyone interested in Puss in Boots in French? No, neither were we. The German narrator had a wonderful voice I could have listened to for hours (once I'd worked out which buttons to push).
We had a nice surprise as we walked along: there were teenagers roller-skating along holding boards saying `Just for you, the park will remain open till 19:30. Thats 7:30 pm to the rest of us and as the park had been due to close at six we were well suited how nice of them to think of us like that!
I had been looking forward to the Gnome House its the kind of name that appeals to me. Roland was pleased to find it was a teeny tiny kiddie ride with height limits and we were too big.
And then we got to England. Note, not GB or UK or anything else, just England. And theyd even got the flag right.
England had my favourite loos. (I really regret not trying the ones in Adventureland they were called Tarzan and Jane.) The English ones were called, what else, Ladies & Gents. And when you got inside, each door had the name of a king or queen on it. I went in Charles II (I wanted a queen but they were all engaged) and on the back wall it said `The secret place of Charles II´ and had his coat of arms underneath see what I mean about EP doing a lot with imagination with just a little money?!
I was a bit miffed about Englands food. Not only wasnt it English (even though you can find burgers on every corner in England, I still dont think that makes it native cuisine) but the map actually told you it wasnt British. `Only the buildings are British, the cuisine is international´. No other country had that. Reminds me of the postcard we got from Rolands aunty last month, from England. `The weather and the food are surprisingly good´. And when she got home we still couldnt convince her that she hadnt been fed special `suitable for Germans´ food. Sigh. One of the things we both miss most about Britain is the food its better than its reputation, honest!
England boasts a reproduction of Shakespeares Globe theatre. It hosts a magic show we managed to miss this one by 50 mins. Pure natural talent.
So we went into Baron Williams Mystery Hall. Actually, we didnt get past the door for a good few minutes. It was so dark I couldn't see more than a few inches in front of me I was afraid the mystery was going to be `what have I fallen over?´ Eventually Roland shoved me in, promising me there wasnt anything to trip over and my eyes acclimatised and he was right. We think Baron William was the Phantom Of the Opera type character standing on the left waving a candelabra and wailing something very forgettable. Although he might have been the man sitting on the right who got beheaded. That was ever so well done, especially when the head disappeared backwards, rolled down and was held up by a ghoul when it got to the bottom. It got us talking again about the `will my children be frightened by Haunted Mansion?´ posts. Both ghoulish things at EP were MUCH worse than HM yet the kids didnt turn a hair. Will they grow up psychotic? Are they hardened by things theyve seen on TV? Is it adults subconsciously communicating their own anxieties which makes the kids flip? We came to no conclusions but it was an interesting conversation.
We didnt rate Englands attractions at all. A shooting range, radio-controlled boats and the Silverstone Arena (to be fair, we didnt look into that one). so we grabbed a Schokokuss (delicious German titbit of very thin chocolate over a sort of creamy centre) and moved on.
We moved on past Nivealand, aka Childrens World. Roland peered over the hedge and said it was all little kiddie things. I could hear a lot of happy little voices so I think it was a good place to be if youre knee-height.
And then we were in front of the castle.
To be continued
"gutted"? LOL
