In September 2004 Tony & I headed off on a tour of European theme parks, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France & Holland. Flew V-Bird airlines in a tiny plane from Manchester to Neiderrein, then a connecting flight to Munich, where we hired the car and headed to Vienna, to spend the following day at Prater Park, home to the Reisenrad, Vienna's famous big wheel. There's also Volare, a flying rollercoaster I wanted to ride, along with the starflyer, an amazing new ride. (click Prater for the galleries!)

From Vienna we headed back to Munich, via Linz & Salzburg...

... to meet Steph! Steph's from Perth, Australia. She was in Europe following a tour of Russia & Eastern Europe, so it was a great chance to catch up & spend the next couple of days at ...

We were all happy at Oktoberfest! Tony & I could run around the huge fairground, leaving Steph to make international acquaintances over the huge glasses of Paulaner & Augustina lager. There are a fantastic collection of rides at Oktoberfest - there's more pics here & the beer tents here!

From Munich we headed for Zurich in Switzerland, spending the day at Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwanstein castles.

Hohenschwanstein was built by King Maximillian of Bavaria, while his son Ludwig, built Neuschwanstein when he became King at 18 years old. Both are beautiful castles with amazing interiors, only a few hundred yards apart. The new(nue!) schwanstein (swan area!) castle is up quite a steep hill however, so we caught a horse & cart ride up the hill. From here we ate in a lovely Tyrolean Gasthaus, before trying to get to Zurich - there were several detours due to roadworks, as we were near the border we crossed between Austria & Germany 5 times.

After a brief stay in Zurich, Tony & I spent the day at Europa Park, leaving Steph to explore art galleries in Zurich, before taking the train to meet us in Strasbourg, France. Europa park was excellent, Silver Star rollercoaster being the highlight, click logo for Europa Park galleries!

From Strasbourg we headed back into Germany for a rainy evening drive through the Black Forest & Heidleberg, heading North to our reservation at Holiday Inn Mannheim. After the night & breakfast here, we continued North up the Rheine Valley...

...to Cologne (Koln) to visit the Cathedral.

After Cologne, we just had enough time for a snack in the Konditorei (chocolaterie!) before taking Steph to Neiderrhein airport to catch a connection flight to take her back home to Oz. Was very sad to say g'bye to Steph, but we had a great few days... until next time anyway...

...but our tour was far from over!! From Neiderrhein T & I went to Wesel, to stay with Tony's uncle David & aunty Renata, where we were welcomed with goulaschsuppe!!mmmm! Spent the evening chatting with them & daughter Carmen. The next day we went to Movie Park, (click logo below for more galleries of rides) before the drive up to Amsterdam. Here we stayed at the Crowne Plaza, getting a well-needed good nights rest. The following day was to be spent at 6Flags Holland. (again, click logo for galleries!)

after another night in Amsterdam & an evening  meal of Dutch specialities, it was time for me to finally visit Efteling. A fairy tale theme park, with 1 or 2 good rides, (click logo for yet more pictures!) before heading back to Wesel for another night with David & Renata. The following day we went back to Cologne, to get to Phantasialand, which we missed a couple of days ago whilst at the Koln cathedral!

After Phantasialand, we drove to Minden to visit tony's sister Ilse, her husband Friedhelm, daughters Mela & Bibi, and Mela's boyfriend Thomas! We also met aunty Monika, aunty Doris, Christina, Bettina & Michael.

The following day, we went to Heide Park, near Hamburg to ride the largest wooden coaster in Europe, and the tallest drop tower in the world. There was an afternoon shower about 4 pm, which completely emptied the park of patrons, except us! For the last hour we had the entire park to ourselves, (give or take 1 or 2 others!) - with all rides operating. No queue's, and we had the entire rides to ourselves. What a perfect ending to a fantastic holiday!