12.17.2011 Winter Efteling

Ticket to fairy tale land!

Today we enter Efteling! Efteling is this giant fairy tale themed amusement park that is double the size of Disneyland Cali, and is one of the oldest in the world. And! Everything is musical! Other than loopy roller coasters, there is this really nice fairy tale theme park that you can walk through and every very few meters you would come across a life sized fairy tale in the forest animated by robots. Most of them are interactive, or have a mini show you can watch or a dirorama. It's actually really cool! And it's not because I have a soft spot for kiddy things! The visuals of the park also has this sort of ominous kick to it, like there is something mysterious and enchanted about it (but not in scary way). But anyway, enough introduction, I had a super duper time at the park and I've got plenty of pictures to share!

"A good breakfast begins with eggs, sunny side up." she affirms waving a spatula held proudly in the air. Photocredit: Cake

1. the sandman's castle, Photocredit: Cake                                                            2. cottages on the lake

1. This contraption that pulls water upwards,                                                              2. Dry pump

tourist map

"Come onn, let's go!" he says

A magical bank machine. Doesn't give you more money than you have though

This is "Holle Bolle Gijs" He's a paper gobbler who calls out "Papier hier!" all day long until you give him some paper to eat, and then after a gobbling noise he will say "Dank u wel!" I think he's probably one of my favourite characters I've come across at the park. As a result, the area is super clean because throwing paper down his throat is so much fun. Over time, the Gijs family moved into the park and you can find his Grandfather, wife, cousins, etc. And they all say something a little different. I can't find a version of the story of Holle Bolle Gijs to share, but everybody I went with already knew who he was and probably grew up reading about him.

The cages are lights but you can hear birds chirping along this pathway as you walk through (speakers)

First ride to wake us up in the morning! Netherlands at the top

The two people at the front had their hands up like that for the entire ride so they could catch a good photo when the ride camera snapped

our turn! Photocredit: Cake

This is how people go skiing in The Netherlands! ha ha!

They have bonfires placed here and there so you can sit around it and stay warm. We ate our lunch here while keeping our toes toasty.

If you sit on a mushroom it will make music!!

The troll king, whose throne is in the tree, sputters a mumbling nonsense when you wake him up by picking an astrological sign on the stone in front of the tree. 

Rapunzel! And the wicked witch who used her for her long golden hair. Here, she is seen climbing up and down the tower as we listen to her story.

The dragon. What fairy tale is this? Here, when you try to steal the golden crown from the treasure chest, you will upset him!

Who's house was this?

Hansel and Gretel and the Candy house. Like a true candy house, the roof is made out of pancakes with a cake on top. When you try to open the gate to the Candy house (like how poor Hansel and Gretel were tricked), you can hear the witch call out "Knibbel, knabbel, knuisje...something something something.." 

gingerbread men having the time of their lives in the red lemonade fountain. photo: ww

Mother Hulda from the Brothers Grimm. Here you look deep into the wishing well and learn about her story, and then you go to her house and shout her name at the front door to call her out. Then, she opens her window, shaking her pillow and making it snow.

This goat shoots gold from its rear end! I could not help but laugh. Here, you place some coins in the machine, and then back up to stand a certain distance away from the goat so that when gold shoots out of his rear, you can catch it! Now, I have a gold coin for memorabilia. It's totally awesome.

Cinderella's castle?

These guys come to life at a certain hour. How enchanting!

"Pull!" 

Sleeping beauty's castle?

Fairy Tale tree, He sits here and tells stories all day long. He's also probably friends with grandmother willow.

The Flying Fakir. He flies on his magic carpet and then plays his flute to open the tulips on one side of his palace and then gets back on his carpet to fly to the other end to open the tulips there. He's pretty busy, going back and forth all day.

1. indoor carousel,                                               2. Racing partner who kept referencing something about Indiana Jones or someother..

Making plans

Eating poffertjes. These are like small fluffy pancakes and totally a Dutch thing.

Batter is poured in and the poffertjes are flipped by hand really quickly when they are ready. They almost look like asian eggies, but are not alike in taste.

The Carnival Festival! Where everything is super cute and happy and the music is the kind that you want to bop your head and hands side-to-side to. It's sort of like the "It's a small world" ride in Disney.

an example of the cuteness within the carnival festival

A black hole ride! You are plunged into darkness and there's lots of flashing lights and wind. Sort of like space mountain, but shorter and less epic.

I ate this thing, called a zoethout. Well I ate half of it. I was told it was something like a sweet stick (but it was more like a gross-tasting stick) You're supposed to chew on it, and suck on the flavour. I could only get this far... I didn't like it. 

Entrance to somewhere magical...

Langnek. One of six servants in the tale by the Brothers Grimm. You can watch him extend his neck while listening to his story. 

Similar to the goat, this is a hen that lays a magic egg and I think you're supposed to catch it with your hands when it drops out through the chute. The egg is now also a new addition to my collection of travel memorabilia and coincidentally, inside the egg is a miniature gold pooping goat!

Inside the Efteling museum is a wall of busts, I think these were used for many of the animatronics throughout the park.

1. Board games night two!,                                                                   2. "Hap hap hap", he taunted, and the fish took the bait. 

What an exciting day right? Everything had a nice touch to it, and everyone was having a blast. Berlin is going to suck when I leave this place.