Viking Tour Part One

After a couple days as a tourist in Amsterdam, the ACE Viking Tour began on my birthday! I haven't done an organized international coaster tour since way back in 2015, so I was exited to meet up with fellow enthusiasts and visit 10 parks that were new to me. I caught a train from my hotel to the airport, which was the starting point of the trip. The first day was the bus travel day - a long drive from Schiphol airport all the way to Billund, Denmark. Driving past Hamburg I could see the Elbphilharmonie, which was cool. We also made a stop right near the German/Danish border at ScandiPark, which was essentially like a large truck stop mixed with a fake CostCo. We reach the Lodge Hotel in the early evening, and socialized in the courtyard over a beer. I took an evening walk on the path that went right past the hotel connecting into downtown. It was a nice path through greenery lined with sculptures. Considering Billund only has a population of 7,000 the small downtown was surprisingly nice and well-developed. There are little nods to Lego everywhere, since that's what the town is famous for. I walked back to my hotel after 10:30, and it was still light out.

Leaving Amsterdam we passed modern business parks.

Our ride for the week!

Of course they had giant Toblerones at ScandiPark.

Passing the port of Hamburg.

My room at the Lodge.

Sunset vibes on the path.

Weird little sculpture guy.

The sewer covers have Legos!

The Lego building in downtown.

Downtown Billund late in the evening.

The next morning our group walked over to Legoland, the first park of the trip. While there are now multiple Legolands worldwide, including in the UK, Japan, Malaysia, and USA, this is the original, opened in 1968. It's a great family park, and we enjoyed our half day there including exclusive ride time on the Polar X-press roller coaster and plenty of time exploring the Lego miniature land. In the afternoon we hopped back on the bus to drive northeast to Tivoli Friheden. This small park on the south side of Aarhus was quite nice, and we spent a few hours there. The highlight was when we overloaded the Bisværmen ("bee swarm") family coaster and it kept stopping about a foot too far forward in the station. The operator had to call maintenance to manually release us. 🤣

After checking in to the Hotel Atlantic in downtown Aarhus, several of us walked over for dinner at Aarhus Street Food. I had boller i karry, a traditional Danish dish of pork meatballs, curry, and rice. After dinner I walked with Kyle around Aarhus. Although it's the second largest city in Denmark, I didn't really know much about it. There was a nice old center, as well as a new port area. Very pleasant to walk around and enjoy the late-evening sunlight. We also saw a number of teenagers with sailor hats walking around and riding in party buses; we later learned these were high school graduation celebrations.

Welcome to Legoland!

Cute little Lego dragon.

A Lego snake and a roller coaster.

Group photo on the water ride!

A miniature Lego version of Nyhavn in Copenhagen.

Miniland was super cool, with working trains and boats!

Ready to head in to Tivoli Friheden.

It was a small but nice park.

View from the ferris wheel.

My room at Hotel Atlantic.

View from my balcony!

This cool building was across the street from our hotel.

Outdoor seating at Aarhus Street Food.

Dinner and a local beer.

On the canal in downtown Aarhus; still sunny at almost 10PM.

Nice architecture downtown!

Cool little gargoyle guy.

The cathedral, which was completed in 1500.

New modern architecture in the port area.

More views of the port area.

And more cool old buildings!

11PM sunset across the water.

The next morning we all boarded the bus to our next park, Djurs Sommerland. This was a delightful family park with some really well-themed areas. We got all of the coaster credits in by 11:30AM (including my 850th coaster!), and then met up for lunch at the "Western Buffet." A big storm rolled in during lunch, and we waited out the worst of it inside the buffet. The highlight of the park was Piraten, an excellent coaster which we had evening exclusive ride time on to close out the day at the park.

Good morning, Djurs Sommerland!

Group photo with a park employee selfie. This would be a tradition for the trip.

Of course we rode the kiddie coaster. :)

ACErs in the front seat of DrageKongen.

SPLASH! Nice theming on this ride.

Headed into Mexicoland...

Ummmm...

UP UP UP, UP UP UP

Milestone credit for me on Juvelen.

Lots of great scenery on the coasters.

Dinosaur jeep ride!

Inside the Western Buffet.

Afternoon thunderstorm rolled in.

I got a poncho, and we rode the train.

Got in a round of mini-golf once the rain cleared up.

Group picture, with staff selfie, at the end of the day.

Leaving the park, we continued on to Zleep Hotel in Aalborg. I walked around with Kyle again, getting a take away dinner at Istanbul Kabob and eating in the church square. Aalborg was a cute little city!

My room at Zleep Hotel.

Nice buildings in downtown Aalborg.

The 14th century Budolfi Church.

Iskender kebob for dinner.

With two days of the Viking tour under our belts, I went back to the hotel for some sleep before our journey would continue the next day with more of Denmark and crossing over to Sweden.

Coaster trip preamble - Amsterdam!

This summer I (Paul) went on a roller coaster tour with the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Europe region. It was a week-long organized bus tour to parks in Denmark and Sweden, but it started at the Amsterdam airport. I took the opportunity to fly in two days early to explore Amsterdam a bit and add on an additional theme park. I have been to Amsterdam once before, but it was only for a one-day layover on my way to Egypt way back in 2008, so I was excited to visit again and explore the city.

After an overnight flight, I landed in Amsterdam at 8AM on a Thursday, and took a train to my hotel, the Met Hotel. It was only one stop on the train from the airport, a very convenient location since I'd have to go back to the airport to start the coaster tour. It was a nice mostly residential neighborhood with good tram access so I could get into the city in a matter of minutes. It was also quite a bit cheaper than city-center hotels, despite being very nice. Would recommend! Since it was still so early my room wasn't ready yet, so I dropped off my bag and took the tram toward the city. My destination was the Rijksmuseum, but I got off the tram a little early so I could walk through Vondelpark. It was a nice urban park that reminded me of Piedmont Park in Atlanta. It was a pleasant walk on a sunny morning, although it was surprisingly warm. From there I continued on and spent a couple hours in the Rijksmuseum. It's a large museum in a cool building, with a large amount of Dutch art. One of the main attractions, Rembrandt's The Night Watch, was undergoing conservation but there was a neat exhibit describing how they preserve the nearly 400 year old painting.

After the museum, I strolled around central Amsterdam for a while, taking in the canals and architecture. Amsterdam is a nice city, and the center was understandably packed with tourists. Some areas were quite charming, but there were also a lot of chain stores and tourist traps, ranging from Madame Tussaud's and Ripley's Believe it or Not to McDonalds and the Nike Store. Eventually I took the train back to my hotel, and stayed in for the evening since it started to rain and I was exhausted from the red eye flight and time change.

You know you're in the Netherlands when this is the bike parking at the train station!

A pleasant morning walk through the park.

Just a cat hanging out at the Rijksmuseum.

The main hall of the museum.

Big-head last supper?

Expectations...

...vs reality. Yes, this area was super crowded!

Big ol' ship.

They had a Van Gogh self portrait!

Nice views while walking.

A quaint shopping street.

Lots of amazing architecture all around.

Dam square, which is tourist central.

There's an underground bike garage!

The next morning I met up with two other coaster enthusiasts (Rob and Scott) and we drove about an hour and a half east to Walibi Holland amusement park. I really wanted to visit, since the park has  a couple of well-regarded coasters but wasn't included on the official coaster tour. Luckily other people had the same idea, and Rob offered to drive since he had a rental car already. It was a sunny, relatively busy day, but we got fast passes to help out with the lines. The park used to be a Six Flags, so I didn't have the highest expectations, but it was actually a pretty nice park. We rode all of the coasters, and rode our favorites several times, and also hit up some of the non-coaster rides including Merlin's Magic Castle, and had a nice long lunch (schnitzel) in an air conditioned restaurant. There was a huge music festival called Defqon.1 right next to the park, which didn't seem to impact crowds too much, but it was really cool to see and hear the festival from the lift hills of the roller coasters. We stayed at the park for the entire time it was open (10-6), and then Rob drove us back to our hotels. I ended the day getting some take away dinner from Le'meone, a Syrian restaurant which had excellent falafel. I ate at table in small park next to my hotel, where a woman practicing cello. Nice end to a nice day! 

Lost Gravity was a surprise for me - excellent coaster!

The photogenic first drop.

Untamed was a great coaster, but maybe a bit overrated.

Goliath is probably the best coaster in the park.

The "Exotic" section, which was Mexican themed.

This ride looks amazing, but is horribly rough.

Lunch time after we got all of the coaster credits in.

The nice little park where I ate dinner.

Fattoush and falafel. Yum!

I love how residences address the streets! It's such a safe city you can just leave your bikes and toys on the sidewalk.

That ended my time in Amsterdam, as the next morning I'd be heading straight to the airport to join the roller coaster tour. Amsterdam has great urbanism, with good transit and bike paths. There's also a lot of construction everywhere, and new modern development to contrast with the historic buildings. It's an iconic city and definitely worth visiting.