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On day 5 we had hope to
have a great finale to the theme parking section of our trip before my
Uncle returned back to the UK with a trip to Toverland to try this park,
including what has been voted one of the top 10 coasters in the world,
Troy. Unfortunately after 4 days of being impressed by how much better
Dutch public transport is for getting to zoos and theme parks was
compared to the U.K. we were let down by it badly.
We got to the nearest train station, and found the bus stop. The buses
to Toverland come once an hour, there was meant to be one at 11:40, but
after it went to twenty minutes overdue we tried walking to the nearby
town of Sevenum to look for alternate transport. Unfortunately once
there we couldn't find any alternate buses or a taxi, so we decided to
stop for lunch. We did think about walking the rest of the way, but after four
days in the
sun doing zoos and theme parks such a long walk didn't seem like a good idea. Especially as we'd
get 2 hours max at the park before we'd have to do the estimated 90
minute walk back, then the 2.5 hour train journey back to my Uncle's
during which we wouldn't even have a chance for a quick coffee break if
we were going to get back at a reasonable time. When we got back to the
station we did run in to another coaster enthusiast who had been waiting
for over an hour after the 12:40 didn't turn up. We waited around on the
off chance for the 13:40 bus, but at 13:55 we has to cut our losses and
get the train back to Amsterdam to do the Amsterdam Dungeon, so we at
least salvaged something from the day.
Hopefully we'll get to do Troy at some point in the not to distant
future. A future trip to Holland is likely. Hopefully we can do it
earlier in the trip, and be staying a bit closer to the park so we have
an alternate if the buses fail us again.
The Amsterdam Dungeon is
very similar to the London Dungeon. English is widely spoken so you
won't have a problem with a language barrier. Like the London Dungeon it
sees you going through various rooms where different scenes are played
out, all with a scary theme, plus a lot of black humour. The most
noticeable feature that makes the Amsterdam Dungeon stand out is the
presence of a small coaster. This is handy as it means it on
RCDB.com, I was a bit dubious about
putting the words "Amsterdam" + "Dungeon" in to Google.
I've seen some photos of the coaster on the database, and in that they
show it set in quite a spectacular church building. Sadly they've turned
most of the lights out so you don't get to appreciate the location. The
ride itself is an odd mix where they've tried to make it a roller
coaster and a dark ride at the same time. The result is not a great
example of either. It's a pretty standard tame coaster, even compared to
other small family coasters. Also you don't always get to take in some
of the models and effects properly, and when you do I didn't think they
were that impressive. |
