Pursued by a Bear

Food Loop!

When I last left you, I indicated that Fred is, like, biologically programmed to try to hit every E ticket ride with maximum efficiency even though it's probably not possible...?

I would prefer to enjoy theme parks at a leisurely pace. You aren't going to get to ride every ride - obviously - so slow down! Geez, we live in NYC where every day is so amped. Must we muscle our way through vacation as well?

I got my wish this time as we found ourselves standing in front of Food Loop right at the time that Fred was hungry for lunch...

...and novelty.

So here's how it works:

1) they hand you a "credit card" when you walk in.

2) you stick the card in the side of a computer and place your order.

(The computer does not have any English instructions. Go, us!)

3) you wait as your order is sent to the basement kitchen...and marvel at all the tracks and food whizzing by.

4) here comes our food!

Fred ordered spaghetti:

I ordered schnitzel and frites:

(Ignore my scraggly hair - riding roller coasters, yanno.)

(Also, my meal came with a lollipop. Did I accidentally order off the "kinder" menu? I think I did.)

Schnnnnnnitzel and Frites!!!

Oh so good. I don't care if it is for the kinderen.

The schnitzel was tender, not overly chewy, and the frites were crispy and salty - just like I like them. Fred's spaghetti was good, too. The tomato sauce was tangy. Not bad for theme park fare!

5) when you are done eating, you take the card out of the computer and bring it up to the front register. The register-worker swipes the card and tells you how much you owe.

6) if you want to leave a tip, you can drop a euro or two in the bowl next to the register.

I assume (hope) the workers pool this tip money. I don't know about other areas of Germany, but the region that we are living in is kinda funny about tipping. It's okay to tip at the end of a meal over here, but only if you hand the money directly to the server. It's rude to leave it on the table. The Food Loop restaurant doesn't have "waiters" per se, but the patrons don't bus their own tables after eating, either. There were workers constantly clearing tables and a couple of them checked on us during our meal and asked if we were okay...so yeah, don't know where my 2 euros went at the end of the day, but I hope our table clearers saw a portion of it.

Care to share a novel place you've eaten a meal?

 

Europa Park is...European.

Last week, we enjoyed a day at the German amusement park, Europa Park.

Europa Park is broken down into "lands" - like Disneyland - except there's, like, TWENTY lands. And they are based on many different countries in Europe.

The lands are twisty and confusing and hard to navigate - just like Europe. Our day at the park was like our own mini "Amazing Race" as we consulted and argued over the map at least once every half hour. We have decided that we would not be good candidates for the show.

(...or would we?) (...care to watch us bicker?)

We started with the big ticket coaster -- The Silver Star. It is sponsored by Mercedes and (voila!) it's in "France-land". We were in a "Six Flags" frame of mind and thought we'd have to race around to all the big rides before the lines got to be 2 hours long each, but that is not so: Europa Park is very organized as far as the big roller coasters are concerned. We waited less than 25 minutes for rides all day. Each ride has three separate queues: one for single riders, one for front car riders, and then one for the rest of the rows. A line monitor keeps things moving, filling in empty seats by pulling single riders from their line and even pulling couples from the other two lines to fill in all rows. Very few cars went out of the gate without being completely full. Those Germans. So efficient.

The first coaster we went on was The Silver Star. It is similar to Six Flags' Nitro -- a big, slow, nerve-wracking climb followed by a huge pitch down and then a lot of rolling hills afterwards. I happen to get pretty urp-y every time I ride Nitro. I love roller coasters, but I love them for the big nerve-wracking climb and first big hill. And I love going upside down. But, I do not love rolling hills. Rolling hills make me sick.

It was early in the morning and I was not ready to stomach The Silver Star as our first ride. I sent Fred alone. Yup, I chickened out at the last minute.

Look at that cute face. I snapped this picture right after told him I thought he was stupid-crazy.

Oh, but he got me to go on The Silver Star with him before the end of the day. And he convinced me to sit in the FRONT ROW at that. It was not my favorite ride. It is really fast and (this is silly, I know) I was afraid my contacts would woosh right out of my eyes.

Here's the other big rides:

Blue Fire (in Iceland-land!) -- Okay, this is the most insane coaster ever! The people in this picture are going UP. That's the very first thing that happens -- you get launched out of the loading area (0 to 100km in 2.5 seconds) and you go UP until you suspend for a few seconds at the top (on your side!) and then you invert going down. It's incredible.

This is Euro-mir, located in Russia-land. It's one of those little "pod" coasters, where you twist around individually? Only, this coaster is not little: you corkscrew up one of the mirrored cylinders and it lets you out at the top, about 10 stories up! It's so scary, but I loved it.

Those are the big three. There are a lot of water rides at the park, but we didn't feel like getting wet. It just wasn't warm enough for that, but I bet it's really fun when the weather is hot. There's also a TON of shows and places to just relax and sample food items in each land. What's not to love about that? There are also lots of mild rides that are not necessarily "kid" rides, but you could take kids on them.

OH - and THIS:

DOGS ALLOWED. Inside the park!!

(I know!!)

Also, should you choose to go to Europa Park, be prepared for carefully coiffed and possibly very drunk groups of young men randomly bursting out into songs and chants while standing in line or just before a ride takes off.

It's definitely, as Fred says, "a different energy"!