Heide-Park

As some of you may know by now, I am a bit of a roller coaster enthusiast. And I don't just mean building them in RollerCoaster Tycoon (although I still enjoy doing that too - crazy how a game can still be fun after at least 10 years of playing it!). No, I like the real thing too. Which is why we went to SixFlags Great Adventure while we were in the US, and went on Kingda Ka, even though it is crazy and your mind cannot get around the sheer speed you're going at and you're wondering why-on-earth-you-are-on-the-thing-in-the-first-place until it ends and then you're so full of adrenaline you just want to go again (or well, I did. My boyfriend not so much, so we only did the one trip).
US coasters are completely different from European coasters, we discovered while we were there. Another coaster, El Toro, is a wooden coaster, which is nice, but usually means 'bumpy ride'. Not so in the US, all coasters are smooth and sleek and last more than a minute, which is not something you can say for any European coaster I've ever been in (the new George and the Dragon wooden racing roller coaster in the Efteling tries, but it's still pretty uncomfortable compared to any American coaster I've been in). Anyway, wooden coasters are still my favourite, and I like to try as many different types of coasters I can find, which means we have to leave the Netherlands to find them, as there are only 2 good theme parks here and they're done building coasters.
So when I discovered that the highest wooden roller coaster in the world lives only 2 hours across the border in Germany, I had to go there. Luckily, my boyfriend also likes coasters, and we have a friend who loves them since we dragged her to the Efteling about a year ago, so we were all set.
The theme park is called Heide-Park, and it has 8 roller coasters. 3 of those we wrote of immediately, 2 because they were kiddie rides, and 1 because it has the exact same lay-out as the Python in the Efteling, and I've been going on that since I was 10 (and technically speaking a bit too short for it). No, we came for Colossus, the big wooden one. Which was really nice, really high, really fast, but still, a little bit uncomfortable, with the cars jumping around on the track in that well-known European way. A lot better than most wooden coasters, but still.
Then there was Desert Race, a launched roller coaster that was pretty nice, but after the initial 'launch' part is over very quickly, again, typical of European coasters. Then we went on Schweizer Bobbahn, which is really a family roller coaster, pretty old, but pretty cute. I know the Bob roller coaster in the Efteling, which is older end extremely uncomfortable, so this one had to improve our views of bobsled roller coasters, and it did. Then there was Limit, an inverted roller coaster which was pretty nice, lots of loops, but without banging your head against the headrest too much.
Four perfectly decent roller coasters would make anyone's day, but there was one left. The newest of them all, Krake, a dive coaster (the only one in Germany and also, incidentally, the first dive coaster I've ever been on). We had to wait the longest to get on it, with a rain shower threatening to burst overhead, but finally, we made it. It's one of those coasters where the support is underneath, but still your legs swing freely, which are the best kind in my opinion. The 'dive' part is about 41 m high and the sheer drop is amazing. We weren't sitting in the front row, as that line was even longer, but still, hanging up there while you can't see the actual track is quite terrifying. This was actually the first time (after Kingda Ka) that a roller coaster had me genuinely afraid again, with your stomach dropping down to your toe nails and then back up to your throat in about 3 seconds. After the drop the coaster breaks through water and goes through a loop, leaving a nice curtain of water in your wake. Then it's just 2 more banked corners and you're done. Great coaster, but so sad that it's over so quickly. The dive thing is the main part, I know, but any coaster that has to break that hard at the end has too much energy left over!
Next on my list is Alton Towers, with Nemesis, Oblivion and The Smiler, which I hope will be more US-like, but I'll take any coaster I can get in the meantime!