Flossbolna
Sea days are just so relaxing!
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2006
Introduction:
This will be a trip report from our trip to Europapark in Germany in June 2021. Some might already have read my/our previous trip reports. Somehow in my history on the DIS my husband (then boyfriend) Michael decided that he had to add his commentary into my trip reports, but refused to get his own account on here. so we have been doing this in different colors for a while For this trip report however, Michael will be the main storyteller, I will be commenting (and editing and posting since he still doesn't have an account here).
So, here we go:
OK, friends (and let's face it, you must be friends to read something like this because the alternative is major mental illness), this isn't your typical trip report from your favorite loaded international super couple with homes on two continents who had a destination wedding celebration in Hawaii due to their real estate interest in the Disney Vacation Club and are currently planning a record 22-day stay in Orlando this fall (Motto: Do you feel lucky? Then the City Beautiful is Pandecked Out For You!)
Nope. There is no Disney. No Marvel (not true!! There is a miniscule amount of it!). No Star Wars (ICK!!!) Not really any IP at all. No Pixie Dust. No OCD months long hunt for dining reservations or FastPasses (you aren't supposed to remember these because you'll be paying for access very soon! Here I need to apologize for late posting: Michael wrote this over a month ago when we all were still blissfully unaware of Lightning Lanes and such)
This is a different kind of trip report from different kind of Spirits.
Your characters are me (the male American of the two married M’s), the other blonder, much thinner, much more German M (the best wife you could ever have ... well, no, you can't have her because she's all mine!), Big Sugar D (our beloved adopted plush bear -- think Ted, just much filthier and with the goal of world conquest. Oops, that should be conquests all over the world!) and our new neighbors (you think we're crazy? Who the hell moves to Germany in winter in the middle of a pandemic and settles around the corner from us?!!): Agatha (It was her all the time ... texting us, that is), her wonderful, more laidback hubby, JJ, and their now-teen son, baseball phenom and my favorite cleaning boy, Lil' C.
So, let’s recap this because of the general name confusion going on here:
I will be your storyteller, confidante and psychic guide in this adventure. M and Agie will chime in with their comments, thoughts, observations and general feminine snark.
As always. Michael will appear in RED, I will write in BLUE. Our third co-author Brook writes in GREEN
The photos were a group effort.
Some backstory first: deep in the cosmos ... that cloud covered planet waits ... and waits ...and waits until finally those clouds of gas and steam condense and rain upon that planet. Rain upon that planet Earth. And they rain ... and rain and rain. The deluge. A deluge of such magnitude that the world's greatest waterfalls flowing together for more than a million years would only just begin to approach its results. For when it finally stopped, the seas had been born. Seas that would make this planet unlike any other within the realm of our knowledge. For it was there, sheltered from cosmic radiation that the means to support life on Earth was able to emerge. And ... wait, too far back?
BTW, if you don't know where the above comes from, bow your heads in shame, go stand in the corner or, worse, watch OAN for 30 minutes and tell yourself we're going to be OK.
Let's speed up a few billion years.
This trip was very spur of the moment. It came about because we were going mad in Bavaria (yes, like the guy who makes nuts at outlet malls I thought he would say like mad King Ludwig who built the blueprint for Disneyland’s castle) from being basically locked up from December 17th of last year through the coldest spring since 1997, while the German government had a rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines that should be accompanied by a cute clip of that sloth at the DMV in Zootopia. But M got her first shot, in early May, as a high-level government official, and two weeks or so later I lucked into one from my favorite doctor.
And I did 4.2 million hours of research on Google regarding how we can possibly get our first vaccines when I saw how long it was taking for M & M, who were both in higher priority groups than we were (read: we had no priority group). We had a trip to the USA planned for the summer and I VERY MUCH wanted at least one shot in my arm before that trip. At the rate it was going, it was not looking promising. Plus this lovely thing known as the "Delta Variant" was on the horizon. Eventually, I found a doctor who was giving AstraZeneca (the "crappy shot" to many Americans), and spoke English (bonus!) and wasn't too far away from our little provincial village. A friend offered to drive us, as she had done this same Google searching just a week prior and understood our plight... and just days before our spur of the moment trip we are sharing here, both JJ and I got our first shots. (They were not vaccinating teens yet in Deutschland, so Lil C did not get his). Ideally it would not have been the AZ, but I was happy to take what I could get for some protection for myself, my family and my community.
When we got home from my shot we saw that Europa Park (which had to close last fall and skip its big Christmas season) had been allowed to reopen. I think I got the E-Mail from their mailing list while we were sitting at the doctor’s office. Since we went last August with no one vaccinated, we felt being partially shot and with daily tests required for park entry, we weren't taking any real risk.
The rule was everyone had to be: vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 within the last 6 months or tested negative (not more than 24 hours since the test, either rapid antigen or PCR). In German this can be shortened to Geimpft, Genesen, Getested and therefore became the buzzword of the „3G Rule“.
Within an hour of returning from the doctor's, M and Agie were at our dining room table with dueling laptops, planning a quick five day, four night journey to Europa Park and the Black Forest region of my beautiful second home from June 2-6.
It was very easy because we had planned a trip with them in mid-February to Europa just to relax and go to their almost brand new water park, Rulantica, which opened on Thanksgiving (not a holiday there) 2019. The main park is always closed from about January 10 until late March or early April. But EP was trying to make up for pandemic losses in 2020 and offered a free night for every night booked deal and we had jumped on it in December booking four nights at their newest hotel (Scandinavian museum themed) with the hope things would be better and we'd be able to take said trip (we knew it was pretty much 35/65 when we booked, but ...) Besides, 50% off discounts like this are unheard of in Germany. How do I put this gently? Oh, yeah, it's me, I don't. Germans are cheap. The type of sales you see in the USA just don't exist in any facet of German life. They make a big deal at the grocery store when there is a six cent discount on something. Really. So, even though it was not likely we were going to go, it was worth the gamble.
I fit in here. I am cheap and get excited about six cent discounts.....
We didn't go. Cases soared.
Angie M (Also known as Chancellor Merkel) gained weight as she told Germans that tougher restrictions were constantly needed. And I passed the time by doing lots of walking around our desolate and depressing neighborhood as every person I am close to in the USA, UK and Canada got vaccinated.
Some proof of Michael walking through the pandemic German winter with 9 pm curfews:
And one of the two pairs of shoes that he managed to wear out:
I also organized my socks and underwear and read books that had been sitting for a long time. I also overdosed on CNN; especially after the election and coup attempt that followed.
"overdosed on CNN" - maybe an understatement. As Magdalene once stated, "I think the CNN logo may be burned into the TV."
I also made my first prime rib ever thanks to @franandaj talking me through the whole process. Unfortunately we only could have one guest over due to restrictions on whom you could meet. But we had my father join us for the meal and he said it was the best beef he ever had. Even Michael was happy with the result!
Anyway, when we canceled, we let them hold on to the euros and this was the time to use them.
Lil' C was going to be off from his pricey international school. JJ and M could take off one day of work (the Friday) since Thursday was a holiday (Germany has lots of holidays in May ... like pretzels, you can't go far without one). Agie and I are lazy and supported by our spouses (at least I think that's how the teen views it).
Snoring yet?
Anyway, very quickly we decided that we weren't going to be able to stay at one of EP's six on-site hotels because they were limiting occupancy and appeared to be booked immediately. So, we quickly went with a relatively new -- and much cheaper -- Holiday Inn Express on the other side of the A5 motorway from the village of Rust where EP is located. For those familiar with WDW ... or better DLP ... there are no chain hotels in Rust (in general there are far fewer chain hotels in all of Europe than in the USA). You either stay at one of EP's resorts or you stay in an old German guesthouse (sorta like a bed and breakfast except for the fat German sunbathing in the nude and ... you don't need to know that). I was shocked last summer when I noticed the HIE there because the Mack Family, that own the park as well as Mack Rides and Mack Media and Mack N' Cheese (remember to not allways take Michael literally - something I still struggle with at times - but there is no Mack N’Cheese), don't like competition.
We booked rooms at the HIE. We turned our hotel money into two day tickets for EP. Rulantica was not opening when we made the plans in May, so we made plans to tour the area, which is very beautiful and in far southwestern Germany, spitting distance from France and Switzerland. It’s known under the name of Schwarzwald or Black Forest - made famous by a chocolate cherry cake. We booked a rental SUV to get us there that the womenfolk would have to drive because neither JJ nor I can legally drive in Germany, for different reasons.
SUV in European standards. Small. Barely an SUV.
Before I wrap up this awe-inspiring intro, some background, which you shouldn't take for granite (sorry, just saw the very mediocre Woke Jungle Cruise film - Over a month ago now, sorry for my late posting).
M and I have become huge EP fans, despite never visiting before January of 2016. Every visit we seem to love the place more as new things open and they don't destroy old things in the process, unlike the Most Magical Tourist Trap in the Swamps. They also believe in trees and benches and quality reasonably priced food. We knew our new neighbors were Disney addicts, particularly WDW,
we are actually far more keen on Disneyland than WDW
and we wanted to see the park through their eyes. When they told us they were moving, my only request was that we go with them for their first visit to EP.
I was really excited to see this magical German theme park I had heard so much about! (spoiler: it was even better than I had imagined!!!) I was very glad we had guides with us, as I could sit back and really enjoy the experience.
With the pandemic raging (well, not in FL, where it ended last summer as you all know), we weren't really sure when this would be, but we wound up lucking out.
So, with that out of the way, let's get on the road and start this puppy ... or we can wait ... and wait (for JJ) ... and get some coffee ... and COVID tests too ...
The trip is on the way!!!
This will be a trip report from our trip to Europapark in Germany in June 2021. Some might already have read my/our previous trip reports. Somehow in my history on the DIS my husband (then boyfriend) Michael decided that he had to add his commentary into my trip reports, but refused to get his own account on here. so we have been doing this in different colors for a while For this trip report however, Michael will be the main storyteller, I will be commenting (and editing and posting since he still doesn't have an account here).
So, here we go:
OK, friends (and let's face it, you must be friends to read something like this because the alternative is major mental illness), this isn't your typical trip report from your favorite loaded international super couple with homes on two continents who had a destination wedding celebration in Hawaii due to their real estate interest in the Disney Vacation Club and are currently planning a record 22-day stay in Orlando this fall (Motto: Do you feel lucky? Then the City Beautiful is Pandecked Out For You!)
Nope. There is no Disney. No Marvel (not true!! There is a miniscule amount of it!). No Star Wars (ICK!!!) Not really any IP at all. No Pixie Dust. No OCD months long hunt for dining reservations or FastPasses (you aren't supposed to remember these because you'll be paying for access very soon! Here I need to apologize for late posting: Michael wrote this over a month ago when we all were still blissfully unaware of Lightning Lanes and such)
This is a different kind of trip report from different kind of Spirits.
Your characters are me (the male American of the two married M’s), the other blonder, much thinner, much more German M (the best wife you could ever have ... well, no, you can't have her because she's all mine!), Big Sugar D (our beloved adopted plush bear -- think Ted, just much filthier and with the goal of world conquest. Oops, that should be conquests all over the world!) and our new neighbors (you think we're crazy? Who the hell moves to Germany in winter in the middle of a pandemic and settles around the corner from us?!!): Agatha (It was her all the time ... texting us, that is), her wonderful, more laidback hubby, JJ, and their now-teen son, baseball phenom and my favorite cleaning boy, Lil' C.
So, let’s recap this because of the general name confusion going on here:
- Me, Flossbolna, Magdalene or in Michael speak: M
- Michael, no DIS name and in Michael speak: I
- Big Sugar D - a plush bear
- Brook, @brookelizabeth or in Michael speak: Agatha or Agie - she will take part in the writing of this trip report in the bewitching color of GREEN
- Joe, Brook’s husband, in Michael speak: JJ
- Henry, Brook’s (in our presence nearly always all around lovely) teenage son and in Michael speak: Lil’ C.
I will be your storyteller, confidante and psychic guide in this adventure. M and Agie will chime in with their comments, thoughts, observations and general feminine snark.
As always. Michael will appear in RED, I will write in BLUE. Our third co-author Brook writes in GREEN
The photos were a group effort.
Some backstory first: deep in the cosmos ... that cloud covered planet waits ... and waits ...and waits until finally those clouds of gas and steam condense and rain upon that planet. Rain upon that planet Earth. And they rain ... and rain and rain. The deluge. A deluge of such magnitude that the world's greatest waterfalls flowing together for more than a million years would only just begin to approach its results. For when it finally stopped, the seas had been born. Seas that would make this planet unlike any other within the realm of our knowledge. For it was there, sheltered from cosmic radiation that the means to support life on Earth was able to emerge. And ... wait, too far back?
BTW, if you don't know where the above comes from, bow your heads in shame, go stand in the corner or, worse, watch OAN for 30 minutes and tell yourself we're going to be OK.
Let's speed up a few billion years.
This trip was very spur of the moment. It came about because we were going mad in Bavaria (yes, like the guy who makes nuts at outlet malls I thought he would say like mad King Ludwig who built the blueprint for Disneyland’s castle) from being basically locked up from December 17th of last year through the coldest spring since 1997, while the German government had a rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines that should be accompanied by a cute clip of that sloth at the DMV in Zootopia. But M got her first shot, in early May, as a high-level government official, and two weeks or so later I lucked into one from my favorite doctor.
And I did 4.2 million hours of research on Google regarding how we can possibly get our first vaccines when I saw how long it was taking for M & M, who were both in higher priority groups than we were (read: we had no priority group). We had a trip to the USA planned for the summer and I VERY MUCH wanted at least one shot in my arm before that trip. At the rate it was going, it was not looking promising. Plus this lovely thing known as the "Delta Variant" was on the horizon. Eventually, I found a doctor who was giving AstraZeneca (the "crappy shot" to many Americans), and spoke English (bonus!) and wasn't too far away from our little provincial village. A friend offered to drive us, as she had done this same Google searching just a week prior and understood our plight... and just days before our spur of the moment trip we are sharing here, both JJ and I got our first shots. (They were not vaccinating teens yet in Deutschland, so Lil C did not get his). Ideally it would not have been the AZ, but I was happy to take what I could get for some protection for myself, my family and my community.
When we got home from my shot we saw that Europa Park (which had to close last fall and skip its big Christmas season) had been allowed to reopen. I think I got the E-Mail from their mailing list while we were sitting at the doctor’s office. Since we went last August with no one vaccinated, we felt being partially shot and with daily tests required for park entry, we weren't taking any real risk.
The rule was everyone had to be: vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 within the last 6 months or tested negative (not more than 24 hours since the test, either rapid antigen or PCR). In German this can be shortened to Geimpft, Genesen, Getested and therefore became the buzzword of the „3G Rule“.
Within an hour of returning from the doctor's, M and Agie were at our dining room table with dueling laptops, planning a quick five day, four night journey to Europa Park and the Black Forest region of my beautiful second home from June 2-6.
It was very easy because we had planned a trip with them in mid-February to Europa just to relax and go to their almost brand new water park, Rulantica, which opened on Thanksgiving (not a holiday there) 2019. The main park is always closed from about January 10 until late March or early April. But EP was trying to make up for pandemic losses in 2020 and offered a free night for every night booked deal and we had jumped on it in December booking four nights at their newest hotel (Scandinavian museum themed) with the hope things would be better and we'd be able to take said trip (we knew it was pretty much 35/65 when we booked, but ...) Besides, 50% off discounts like this are unheard of in Germany. How do I put this gently? Oh, yeah, it's me, I don't. Germans are cheap. The type of sales you see in the USA just don't exist in any facet of German life. They make a big deal at the grocery store when there is a six cent discount on something. Really. So, even though it was not likely we were going to go, it was worth the gamble.
I fit in here. I am cheap and get excited about six cent discounts.....
We didn't go. Cases soared.
Angie M (Also known as Chancellor Merkel) gained weight as she told Germans that tougher restrictions were constantly needed. And I passed the time by doing lots of walking around our desolate and depressing neighborhood as every person I am close to in the USA, UK and Canada got vaccinated.
Some proof of Michael walking through the pandemic German winter with 9 pm curfews:
And one of the two pairs of shoes that he managed to wear out:
I also organized my socks and underwear and read books that had been sitting for a long time. I also overdosed on CNN; especially after the election and coup attempt that followed.
"overdosed on CNN" - maybe an understatement. As Magdalene once stated, "I think the CNN logo may be burned into the TV."
I also made my first prime rib ever thanks to @franandaj talking me through the whole process. Unfortunately we only could have one guest over due to restrictions on whom you could meet. But we had my father join us for the meal and he said it was the best beef he ever had. Even Michael was happy with the result!
Anyway, when we canceled, we let them hold on to the euros and this was the time to use them.
Lil' C was going to be off from his pricey international school. JJ and M could take off one day of work (the Friday) since Thursday was a holiday (Germany has lots of holidays in May ... like pretzels, you can't go far without one). Agie and I are lazy and supported by our spouses (at least I think that's how the teen views it).
Snoring yet?
Anyway, very quickly we decided that we weren't going to be able to stay at one of EP's six on-site hotels because they were limiting occupancy and appeared to be booked immediately. So, we quickly went with a relatively new -- and much cheaper -- Holiday Inn Express on the other side of the A5 motorway from the village of Rust where EP is located. For those familiar with WDW ... or better DLP ... there are no chain hotels in Rust (in general there are far fewer chain hotels in all of Europe than in the USA). You either stay at one of EP's resorts or you stay in an old German guesthouse (sorta like a bed and breakfast except for the fat German sunbathing in the nude and ... you don't need to know that). I was shocked last summer when I noticed the HIE there because the Mack Family, that own the park as well as Mack Rides and Mack Media and Mack N' Cheese (remember to not allways take Michael literally - something I still struggle with at times - but there is no Mack N’Cheese), don't like competition.
We booked rooms at the HIE. We turned our hotel money into two day tickets for EP. Rulantica was not opening when we made the plans in May, so we made plans to tour the area, which is very beautiful and in far southwestern Germany, spitting distance from France and Switzerland. It’s known under the name of Schwarzwald or Black Forest - made famous by a chocolate cherry cake. We booked a rental SUV to get us there that the womenfolk would have to drive because neither JJ nor I can legally drive in Germany, for different reasons.
SUV in European standards. Small. Barely an SUV.
Before I wrap up this awe-inspiring intro, some background, which you shouldn't take for granite (sorry, just saw the very mediocre Woke Jungle Cruise film - Over a month ago now, sorry for my late posting).
M and I have become huge EP fans, despite never visiting before January of 2016. Every visit we seem to love the place more as new things open and they don't destroy old things in the process, unlike the Most Magical Tourist Trap in the Swamps. They also believe in trees and benches and quality reasonably priced food. We knew our new neighbors were Disney addicts, particularly WDW,
we are actually far more keen on Disneyland than WDW
and we wanted to see the park through their eyes. When they told us they were moving, my only request was that we go with them for their first visit to EP.
I was really excited to see this magical German theme park I had heard so much about! (spoiler: it was even better than I had imagined!!!) I was very glad we had guides with us, as I could sit back and really enjoy the experience.
With the pandemic raging (well, not in FL, where it ended last summer as you all know), we weren't really sure when this would be, but we wound up lucking out.
So, with that out of the way, let's get on the road and start this puppy ... or we can wait ... and wait (for JJ) ... and get some coffee ... and COVID tests too ...
The trip is on the way!!!
A new Flossbolna TR!!! I definitely don't want to miss out on that!
Even though I've already read this and added my commentary, it was fun to re-live again!
Brook and I make a fantastic planning team!
And I am still following that Japan trip report! I just never got around to post on yours or any other TR. I have been truly lacking. But I hope to be more involved in the near future again. 
I think going back to actually having a trip coming up has motivated me much more again. Yes, I am married to a US citizens, so I can actually travel to Florida, so will do so very soon! I see that you have lots of cruises planned for next year.
