From Metz

Trip to Paris - day 2 - Notre Dame

2012-05-13T19:11:00.001+02:00

Early

With Disneyland out of the way time came for proper sightseeing. Groggily I dragged myself out of bed and set off adventuring!

Like a brick

The hotel, nice people, gave me a map

Caption

The hotel was rather close to the center so I decided to go past Centre Pompidou (since I remember reading about it in a french textbook years ago in school and since they opened one up in Metz as well). The line to go in was rather long so I snapped a few photos and set a course to Notre Dame.

Pipes

There didn't seem to be that many people around, probably because it was still morning, so I leisurly snapped some photos outside.

Avast!

Outside

The inside was large, crowded and full of various churchly things. Much as expected. There was a mass going on as well.

Cathedralception

Pretty colors

I decided to wait in line to go up top. Unfortunately that ate up a lot of time. For reasons unknown the line would advance either very slowly or very fast. I chatted away with a canadian/australian/american woman and her daughter/niece to pass the time.

A lot of stairs going up.

And a lot of stairs going even higher. Paris city of stairs. I've seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame(Disney animation I think) when I was knee high to a frog, and I vaguely remembered the gargoyles and little else. They did look somewhat familiar, and they seemed almost like they had personalities of their own.

And away

The city below is dense, almost maze-like with oddly shaped buildings taking up as much usable space as possible. It's a nice city but it's really not my kind of thing.

A maze

I took a a bunch of photos of the roof detailing for my own curiosity. It's interesting to see the detail put into some places which people generally don't see, be they commoners or tourists going along the tourist predetermined path.

Sky scraper?

Tastes just like chicken

After a considerable amount of climbing I reached the bell in one of the towers (the left one as you're looking at the entrance). I was a little surprised that there wasn't a little ugly man cowering in a corner. He must have either retired or moved to the other tower. Taking photos here was horrible since the lighting was beyond poor, and I didn't have the battery to use a flash.

No hunchback?

Going down was definitely easier than going up. If all else fails you can curl into a ball and let gravity do its trick.

Allthestairs

I think all landmarks have a piece of wall somewhere with graffiti which predates me, and my parents, and possibly my grandparents.

I was here

Onwards!

Trip to Paris - day 1 - Disneyland Parade

2012-05-12T04:35:00.000+02:00

Lights

By the time I wanted to leave the parade had started, and there's no going around that thing once it gets going, so I just took photos. Fortunately I managed to catch all the trains and make it back to the hotel. And get some sleep too.

Lights

Flowers

Structures

And fairies

More lights

Castles

Palaces

And all that stuff

By the end of the day I was just happy to have a bed to dive head first into; it hardly even mattered that my feet had become an unspeakable mess from being moist all day. A lesson I will not soon, if ever, forget: Never walk around for 12+ hours with soggy feet.

Happy sleepy time

Trip to Paris - day 1 - Disneyland

2012-05-10T04:24:00.000+02:00

Giant rats

I've wanted to go there since I was little, and because I had a couple of days off I jumped at the chance. I went to Paris for two days, the first was spent largely in roller coasters while the second was spent sightseeing.

First thing in Paris was to track down the hotel and make sure my reservation went through. It was raining, and I only had half a clue to where I was and where I was going. I've also managed to scare a woman into running away by asking for directions.

I eventually checked that the hotel was indeed expecting me and I hopped on a train and made my way to the park. There was a lot to do, and a lot to see, so I didn't take many photos. I managed to grab a discount ticket to see both parks, for only a couple more euros than the ticket to see just one. It was still an unearthly large sum of money, but hey, read the first phrase of the post.

The fast passes helped a lot in managing my day, but there were still a couple of things I've missed completely. I can't say I feel too bad about them as they were all the way at the bottom of my list.

Pastels everywhere

Of course they'd have this

A girl that looked just like that photobombed me at one point

Some things looked pretty nice

Some nicer

And I don't think I have photos of the coasters for some odd reason

New lodging

2012-05-08T04:08:00.004+02:00

Change

With two weeks or so before having to leave France, the dorm was about to close so I was shipped off to the other slightly more expensive dorm with smaller rooms and more people per toilet. How lovely was that? Not very that's for sure, but I liked the rooms more. Going to ground floor to second floor (I think) wouldn't have been that bad if I wouldn't have to carry all the luggage up there. At least it was also closer to everything.

Old room

New room

Sky

On hold but there's more!

2012-04-05T00:39:00.003+02:00

Finishing this is temporarily officially on hold while I'm abroad again, this time in Belfort.

All the Belfort things are over on the appropriately named http://belfort-things.blogspot.com site/blog/whatever.

I still have a good memory and a good HDD full of photos and happenings from Metz and I might just work on both in parallel time permitting.

Thanks for reading.

The new ENIM building

2011-09-29T19:57:00.000+02:00

Artsy

More like a gallery than an engineering college building, the new ENIM building is as impressive as it is in the middle of nowhere. In the middle of a very hot sunny nowhere.

Big...

...black...

...and with red bits

And there were plants around the area as well

I believe the interior was red, or at least the stairwells, and numbers were as big as walls and chocolate flowed along each corridor to a central pool with a golden statue. I remember it like it was yesterday.

L'église Sainte-Thérèse, panoramas, and other things

2011-09-26T14:56:00.000+02:00

Colorful concrete

A walk
Looking through the photos in this folder I can't recall much. I went for a walk on a warm sunny day in June, and I tried taking some photos to stitch them into a panorama later. I've just discovered that functionality in my image editing software and I was eager to try it out. Needless to say I returned with many sameish photos which made a messy panorama which was never saved.

There's a photo almost identical to this one on Wikipedia

This was to be the centrepiece of the panorama

I can't exactly remember where in Metz I was, but I do recall liking the area, It had a decent mix of everything.

A small amphitheatre with a drain in the middle,
I don't think I was able to find it a second time

This was to be part of another panorama

As I left the panorama attempts behind I began walking through the town.

Greener grass

The stuff of spy films

As far as the eye can see and closer

In my wanderings I've noticed a tall.. something, I wasn't sure what it was but it looked like a needle pointing upwards. Curiosity took over so I approached.

Pointing upwards

It turned out to be the tower of L'église Sainte-Thérèse, a massive concrete building which at first glance is as unsightly as they get.

A closer look

As I approached, a kind lady noticed me snapping photos and looking perplexed, and asked me if I would like to look inside before she closed. And so I did. It was quiet, still and surprisingly colourful. For all the grey dullness of the outside, the inside of the building was filled in vibrant light supplied by the stained glass. I hadn't even noticed there was stained glass before entering. By the time I got out I remembered I forgot to take any photos.

Stained glass

The stained glass on the sides

I continued my walk through the streets looking for what was supposed to be the old train station. I'm still unsure if I ever found it.

Was this is?

I remember waiting a long time for the light to turn green here

I eventually came across a tower and a small park, which was rather welcome. As I rested on one of the benches, I vaguely recall some kind of paperwork, maybe insurance papers from my trip to the dentist earlier? I also recall disturbing a man taking care of private business near the tower while I was taking pictures. Fortunately enough I noticed him before pushing the button.

One lonely tower

One dirty bench

One locked door

One fountain

One red building

I went around the square with the fountain and resumed my walk, presumably back to the dorm as it was getting quite late.

One park

There will be a panorama of this later

Mirror mirror

The rest of the day was ~~wasted~~ spent on attempting to piece together would be panoramas unsuccessfully. There was one exception however, which will be revealed at a later date.

Nancy

2011-09-02T01:32:00.001+02:00

In and out

A quick trip to Nancy resulted in very few photos. I'll share some.

An ornate square, I've been told that if I've seen this
then I have't missed anything

Like Metz, most buildings were old, but not all of them

Two valleys and a hill, that's what I've seen
Nancy was made of

Slug

2011-08-31T13:24:00.000+02:00

It came from inner-space

I've never seen a slug before, just snails, so I had to stop and take photos. And apparently that's all I took photos of on the 27th of May 2010.

Take me to your celery

Jardin botanique de Metz

2011-08-29T00:16:00.001+02:00

Botanical garden

259 photos
At least until the battery ran out. And by battery I mean both sets. It's been a while since I've had so many photos to chose from for a single post, but it's understandable as it was a sunny day (to be read: unbearably hot) and routes taken were not taken before, assuring a remarkable collection of new things to see.

Wet
The dam was lowered that day, the one between Ile du Saulcy and Ile Chambriere, and people were having a decent amount of fun. This is clearly putting your town's river to good use.

The stage is set

Blue player

Green player

Rural
The scenery was a lot more rural than expected, there were less houses, less people, and more grass. Though the houses were probably secretly hiding behind a line of trees. If it appears natural and peaceful then it is natural and peaceful.

The grass is greener

Geese are rude loud and violent birds. They made a huge spectacle of themselves and chased swans off a stretch of grass in what I can only assume was a territorial gang war. Swans had the water around the cathedral, geese had their stretch of land, and some form of black birds had the channels which housed several (permanently) 'parked' ships.

Geese

Reflections

There were several large ships stationed in a narrow canal, from the looks of them and the people around I can only assume that they had been converted into housing.

One of several

Amusingly enough the road was called Rue du Canal. A very practical name.

Nature all around

Complete with birds

And other things

The garden itself is disappointingly small, about the size of a small park, but it's well taken care of and has numerous plants which more than makes up for it. I've picked out a handful of photos out of the hundreds, there are only so many plants one can look at online before getting bored.

A wall of houses all around

I believe that this path runs mostly lengthwise

The obligatory roundabout

The main greenhouse

Swimming birds live here

If there is a pond, there are coins in it - Murphy's Law

A selection of birds was present

Is cacti the plural of cactus?

Whatever this is it looks scary and alien

Think I added this one by mistake

A poem as lovely as a tree

Plan d'eau

2011-08-26T23:59:00.000+02:00

Water and a gate

One photo folder at a time, taking only those with relevant photos. The most relevant from this particular folder being this one:

Tori - Plan d'eau

Of what I gather a tori marks the passage from a profane place to a sacred one. I'm not sure why this one is in a large body of water but I can speculate.

I recall that on this day I was deep in thought, so much so that I took a wrong turn and decided to just go with it and I went around the water. Of course that could have been another day.

Centre Pompidou Metz

2011-08-23T21:41:00.005+02:00

Art

It had been under construction for quite some time, so when it finally opened Centre Pompidou was big news. So big in fact that the waiting line was over an hour, possibly two or three. But after you've waited so long you need to justify it by waiting even more to actually get into the thing.

Centre Pompidou, a day before opening

3 hours from this point, if only I could remember
how many already passed

The building was as much a piece of artwork as anything inside it, blending wood, cloth, glass and steel, open spaces and curiously shaped rooms and levels.

Wood and cloth

Glass and steel

At one point there were dragons outside, I managed to take a quick video and snap a photo.

A dragon?

Due to reasons best left unexplained regarding me and maps, I found that still have the brochure:

Covers

The think I liked was that the floors were basically giant boxes. You can see them sticking out the sides in the first photo.

The general outline of the floors

The outline of the individual floors is fairly non-standard as well.

Going up

And upper

A great day was had that day

On the road to Strasbourg

2011-08-18T20:52:00.004+02:00

Storks

The trip to Strasbourg was to compare the results of the assigned project with the results of a commercially available program. That went perfectly.

On the way there I saw TGV 001 (Train à Grande Vitesse 001) the first TGV prototype commissioned in 1969, and which began testing in 1972. The machine lay on a bed of gravel in Bischheim, but was probably still more advanced than currently functional trains in other parts of the world.

TGV 001

Of Strasbourg I haven't seen much, but what I've seen were storks. Many storks. As Metz is up to its chin in swans I assumed that Strasbourg must have the same problem. I then began wondering if each town in France has its own theme brid.

One stork

Many storks

And the European parliament

On the way back I snapped a few more photos and took a short video.

Industry

On the way back, I saw (but took photos this time) what I heard was the Smart car factory. It had a tower of cars out front so what else could it be?

Once you pop...

Another photo for good measure

Changing scenery:

Military parade 2010

2011-08-15T20:10:00.001+02:00

Army men and women

For reasons unknown I recall these images and photos to be taken on the national day of France, however the date suggests that it was in fact the 8th of July as opposed to the 14th. Since I can not remember further details other than it being far too hot I'll assume that my memory is playing tricks on me.

The video is incomplete, I recall recording more but can't locate the footage

There was one lady carrying a gun as big as her, almost

There were quite a few military personnel, I believe
that there was an airbase nearby

I've always wondered if those swords were sharp

I guess they were not on duty

Ducks

2011-08-12T15:34:00.000+02:00

Bridge of the dead

A rather uneventful time period, but on this day both ducks and Pont des Morts were seen.

A curious door

I can't recall the specifics so I've taken the liberty to have a look over some wiki pages. Apparently the rather grim name is in connection to the Saint-Nicolas hospital. Either that or people sentenced to death by drowning were thrown off the bridge.

A wooden bridge was originally built in 1267 and the stone bridge was built between 1282 and 1343, with additional arches being added between 1422 and 1513, due to erosion. It seems that it was restored between 1813 and 1847 during which two arches were removed. Two more arches were destroyed by the German army in 1944 but rebuilt between 1955-1957.

The plaque on Pont des Morts

I don't have any pictures of the exact flood level, but I'm fairly certain that at one point the water was so high it covered the arches.

And a view from below

Complete with historical flood levles

And to conclude:

Shapes

2011-08-07T18:21:00.002+02:00

Faceless people

One day some statues showed up in Saint Etienne, and one of them made noise, or was it music? I can't recall.

They were in a rough circle,
with one hanging from the ceiling in the middle

Some were holding things

Some were holding eachother

Some were being held

Some were sitting down

And some had music coming out of their chest

Unrelated stained glass

Fort Belle Croix

2011-08-05T15:26:00.003+02:00

And it was continued

Over
Having went over said bridge after a short while, and after briefly reentering an urban landscape to cross some streets I've arrived at my next objective: Fort Belle Croix. I was greeted by a statue of an eagle, placed there in thanks to the American soldiers which liberated Metz during World War 2.

First

Small

I started along the nearby path, a gentle incline, and soon found myself dwarfed by the trees on both sides. I now find myself unable to put into words the scenery and how I felt. It was humbling, peaceful, and the path seemed to never end.

Good spot for an ambush

Of course it eventually did end, or to be more precise it turned right, leading into a fine array of overgrown ruined entrances to places whose original purpose I can only speculate on. Maybe I should read up on fortifications more modern than the middle ages. Another time maybe.

Plants prevented proper exploration

Where eagles dare
To my right, I noticed a path leading up on a hill. If it was a hill or part of the fortification, and if the trees were there out of landscaping intent or if nature reclaimed the area I am uncertain. I do know that the highest point provided an excellent view of Metz. I now remember that I wanted to return with my binoculars, but that wasn't to be.

Metz is built out of water, tress, history and amazing views

It's often the little things that surprise you, such as whatever the next picture was intended to be.

There! I fixed it!

I do not recall much, and the photos I still have aren't helping, but I vaguely remember eventually reaching some sort of sports area with several basketball and football(soccer) fields, before exiting the ruins and reaching a residential area. This area I recall disliking due to its rectangular apartment buildings, which contrasted in a most unpleasant way with the rest of the town. It reminding me of the unimaginative architecture plaguing my home town didn't help either.

Kept walking

Gate

I eventually found my way to Porte des Allemands, one of my favorite places in all of Metz. It was no easy feat as I remember going back and forth through that residential area trying to find a way out. And here as it happens my entire set of batteries ran out. Just as well as I intend to devote a future post to the fortified bridge.

No battery lasts forever

Dentistry

2011-07-31T10:00:00.002+02:00

Things were seen

Tooth
Things were going well, unacceptable by modern standards, and naturally a tooth decided to disagree with me on its rightful place in my mouth. Some googling, asking around and 20 euros later, our disagreement got settled. This settlement was of the temporary persuasion I'm afraid, as it would claim a lot more than 20 euros as tribute in the coming year. Another time another story.

Map
Out came my map to navigate my way back to the dorm when a curious marking caught my eye some distance to the north. It seemed to look like a wall, not any wall, but the fortified kind of wall. I decided to investigate. The way to it was rather uninteresting, but there were fish and a pigeon. No sooner had I got to said wall, that I immediately regretted not seeing it earlier.

Many large fish were seen this day

I wanted to take a picture of it in flight

Good
The wall and its towers were in decent condition, as tall and as thick as you'd expect them to be, wonderfully surrounded by lush vegetation and clear water. Most things in Metz are surrounded by lush vegetation and clear water come to think of it. Must be why I like the place so much.

Sturdy and worn

Built to last

Bad
There were even scenes that reminded me of home. Clearly the French were learning a thing or two about preserving their history from others.

Is a caption really necessary?

Eventually after going north, I started going south, the wall was protecting a peninsula. After a while I decided to look on my map, and after doing so I decided to turn back and cross a bridge I had seen. There seemed to be something promising further east.

Path along the water

Something tells me this bridge used to be more impressive

Chapters
And because there is much more to say I shall say it another time. To be continued...

Assorted statues

2011-07-27T21:37:00.003+02:00

They were just sitting there

Cows
I can't recall much about this day other than that there were metal cows, various figures made out of brass tree bark and twigs and some plantlike plant things. I also recall some kids playing football (or soccer if you're pretentious about that kind of thing) on an alley, the ball narrowly missing the statues on several occasions. It was late in the day and the sun had set before turning to go back to the dorm.

Until the cows come home,
in this case... never

Bronze tree bark man

And a doggy

I should probably research who this is

I'm fairly sure that the rust was intentional

Small update

2011-07-26T21:07:00.001+02:00

I went through all the posts and sorted the images. As an added bonus I've added captions to them. Feel free to go have a look.

Thanks for reading

Woods

2011-07-23T14:13:00.002+02:00

The leaves, they whisper to me

Hill
Of the hill behind the dorm I've spoken earlier, if I have not then I shall do so once more. A mound like any other with trees like any other and marked by paths most common and well traversed, crowned by a strange edifice with stranger devices still (most likely a weather monitoring station). Upon these paths upon the hill I walked at one time taking photos of various plants with various degrees of greenery, until before me lay huts most unsightly, and the thought of their contents hastened my return. Upon my return my eyes beheld a deer much to agile for my clumsy camera, and a balloon courteous enough to pose briefly.

Mangled bushes

Mangles trees

Mangled trees and bushes

A fence surrounding nothing

Nothing but hot air

Just another brick in it

There was also a wall.

Walygator Park - Photos

2011-07-20T12:58:00.002+02:00

About time

First thing's first
And that would be the first photo. As it was one of the first days of the season, there weren't many people there. That may or may not have anything to due with the fact that it was raining. Less people translated into shorter ride lines so I'm not complaining.

The crowd goes wild

Devourer

The mascot, a wrinkly crocodile with his name tattooed on his waist (not the best example for impressionable youths) had a pirate and a pirate wench as sidekicks. I've seen better, which I'll expand upon in a later post, and I've seen worse (Barney, Teletubbies, etc) and I have no doubt that I'll see both better and worse in the future.

I just want to be your friend

She doesn't seem very impressed

Long John maybe?

'Lesser' attractions

The tame stuff was as one would expect, rather tame, a house of horrors which had a little too much light inside, a Ferris wheel to give a good view of the whole park, much like one of those rocking boats which I don't have a decent photo of, some smaller rides for little kids and so on.

Of course there were the wet rides: in short a lot of floating about and splashing and general wetness. Did I mention it was raining? Did I mention that was no deterrent? Good. I'll let the imaginative reader summarise why there are no photos of these.

It could have been darker

Great view from up there

The park had a small petting zoo with small cute fluffy animals, I imagine the crocodile must eat too, getting new mascots all the time would be rather costly in the long run.

Bunny

There was also a degree of human powered entertainment complete with setting people on fire and jumping off platforms.

I think he was just bored and was having fun

Burning man

What goes up

Roller-coasters. Never went on one before, and was almost sure my breakfast would part ways with me half way through. If it did, I wasn't the one to notice because I was preoccupied by all the fun I was having.

Back then there were only 2 'real' roller-coaster rides, now there are three, sadly I didn't get the chance to return after the third was fully set up. A wooden one: "Anaconda", and a more modern one: "Waly Coaster". And through the magic of wikipedia:

Name	Restrictions	Type	Maximum Height	Length	Maximum Speed	Manufacturer	Built	Duration
Anaconda	> 120 cm	Wooden roller coaster	36 m	1200m	90 km/h	Bill Cobb	1989	2:30
Family Coaster	> 92 cm when accompanied by an adult	Big Apple	4m	132m	15 km/h	Pinfari	2007	No information
Waly Coaster	> 120 cm.	Hurricane	24m	590m	65 km/h	Vekoma	1989	1:25
The Monster	> 150 cm.	Inverted roller coaster	40m	1200m	90 km/h	Bolliger & Mabillard	2010	2:28

Waly Coaster in one word is: fun. Except that one turn where it slams your face against the seat. But you learn to anticipate it. I've expertly pilfered a video from youtube to demonstrate, though the ride seems longer if experienced in person.

Fun Fun Fun Fun

There was a central crashed ship, not very aligatorly

Anaconda: if you were ever curious how it feels like for your skeleton to vibrate and for you do be bludgeoned by your own internal organs this is the ride for you. Needless to say I couldn't get enough of it. More youtube snatching was involved.

The first drop was the scariest

From whence ye came
Going back, emptiness, and a train.

Empty

Lines converging to a single point

Intermission

2011-07-19T16:37:00.003+02:00

Better late than never.

Once upon a time
I've been meaning to put more things up for quite some time, then I'd forget, then I'd put it off for later only to forget when that later eventually came about. Since I am no longer constrained by flimsy internet connections, and by extension lo longer have to post by email, and since I still have plenty of pictures and rose tinted memories of what went on I shall go ahead and complete the story.*

Once upon a while
The chosen format of new posts shall be 'once in a while', though I'll probably write most of them up in a day or two, I fully intend to exploit the Scheduling feature of blogger, and drag it out endlessly, until it ends.
_____________________
*while enthusiasm lasts, experiences may vary

Walygator park

2010-04-17T09:26:00.002+02:00

13 April 2010

Up and down and all around

Delays

This was supposed to go up days ago, but the attachments were too large so I removed them, expect pictures in batches in the next few days.

The original plan was to leave at 6 and stay all day. Good thing we didn't, because the park opens at 11 anyway. The train from Metz to Maizieres les Metz takes 12 minutes to arrive and costs only 3 euros. I had to stop and wonder if I'm really in second class while on the thing. Some hotels I've seen look worse than the train did.

Once in Maizier les Metz, where is the park? A few questions asked and answered got us walking along the highway. I'm not sure how long that took, but it took plenty. We were the second group of people in front of the park, so we just waited and waited. At 10:30 the ticket booth opened, where i got a lovely white square piece of papers with some unimpressive black letters printed on it, the kind of thing you can do at home on your printer and they won't notice any difference.

Gator

The mascot is obviously a gator, and his name is Waly, rather reminiscent of the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon, but it's none of my business, I was there for the rides, which I'll get to in a moment. First the overall theme of the theme park: there isn't much of it. Some lizards, pirates, more pirates and a few crocodiles and such. Next the rides in the complimentary map order:

Dark Tower

The first thing you see when approaching the park is this huge tower. I figured it's one of those things that launch you up and let you fall. I was right. Unfortunately the ride was closed at the moment. One interesting thing is that the ride had both "Dark Tower" and "Dark Dog" written on it in different places.

Waly Coaster

The first proper(to be read: not a cheap carnival deathtrap you rode in when you were 8 cause you didn't know better) roller-coaster I've ever been in. It's orange, blue and has a loop and 2 corkscrew-type things. Wiki mentions it has a top speed of 56 Km/h and a top height of 24 meters. It also comes equipped with a scrap-statue central piece(nothing to do with gators of course but I loved the look of it). Think I rode this around 8 or so times, I loved it. The only nasty thing about it is this one sharp curve, where if you're not careful you can wake up with a chinfull of shoulder protector.

Anaconda

A wooden coaster. A huge tall monstrous coaster. Wiki claims it reaches 90 Km/h and has a height of 36 meters. The initial climb seems to take forever, and the initial descent pushes your stomach into your lungs. It's extremely fun, fast, noisy and shakey. It vibrates so much that the platform you're waiting on for the ride to stop shakes. The shaking is worst in the front, and barely noticeable in the back. After feeling my heart pummeling my lungs to death because of vibration alone I moved to the middle. There weren't many people riding so I assume it gets more comfortable with a full train.

One thing I liked is that at one point it takes your picture. You may see it for free or buy one copy for 7 euros, 2 copies for 12 or keychains for a sum I forgot.

I went on this ride about 8 or so times also.

Caribean Boat

One of those big swaying boats, the only ride I got off of more relaxed than I got in, and it would seem it's also a good place for lads and lasses to shout at eachother and exchange "oe"s and "uo"s as one or the other reach the top - assuming they're on different ends.

Le Marais aux Alligators

Some water, some bridges and some stepping stones. I wasn't aware this was an attraction, but the map seems to think so.

Waly Boat

The middle of the park has a lot of water in it, and some slow moving boats are pulled trough it. Didn't go on this ride because it seemed to take a long time, it was raining and I was wet enough from some of the water rides.

Le Mistral

The one ride I didn't enjoy. Being whireled trough the air at great heights while being suspended in a form of babyseat held by chains that creak at my weight (and I'm very skinny) is not exactly my idea of fun. Others seemed to enjoy it though.

La Riviere Sauvage

Due t the rain I only went on this once. Big log, big height, a lot of water. It would be great fun if it would be summer and warm, but it wasn't, so it was only normal-fun. This ride also comes with a picture, and one of the sources of went pants for the day.

Le Village des Pecheurs

I don't remember seeing this one.

Maestro

A merry-go-round with musical instruments instead of horses. Didn't ride it because there were more exciting things to ride.

Tea Cup

Didn't want to ride this originally because it was pink. It proved to be more fun than I expected. Not much to say about this one: you're in a teacup, which can spin around, and it's on a spinning platform with 3 other cups, and the platform is on a larger spinning platform.

Rafting

The greatest source of wet pants for the day, because I went multiple times. There are round 6 person rafts which get sent trough a simulated river. Being engineering students we were moving around trough the thing trying to set the centre of gravity of the thing in such a way that we'd get wet less. This eventually led to the raft speeding up and we actually caught up to the raft in front of us to the point where the two bumped. Great fun, went multiple times.

La Mini-Ferme

Ponies, and rabbits and various types of birds. Think this is what you'd call a petting zoo. Half was closed at the moment because the season just startedd and they were having "technical difficulties". One of the birds did look a bit shortcircuited.

Tang'Or

A bird shaped spinning ride. Closed for the moment

Waly Twister

Seemed like an average merry-go-round so I didn't go.

Polyp

One of my favourite rides. A octopus which span you around in complex patters. Great fun, and sounds like a washing machine during spin cycle.

The Terror House

Unique in all of France, or so it was advertised. I've never been in one so didn't know what to expect, so I can honestly say it was the best horror house I've been in. 2 rooms to it: the first a dull maze, the second a gory silent hill-like well.. bigger maze, with masked looneys running trough. Apart room some clumsy timing on the props some of the stuff managed to get some decent reactions out of me(even the second time). Also it's for people of ages 14 years+ only.

Grande Roue

A ferris wheel, about as tall as the Anaconda. It spins you around 4-5 times, and then stops. The view is pretty good, not much else to add.

Longchamps

I've seen this one but haven't been on it, thought it was for lil kids only. It seems to be a course with merry-go-round horses on it. Not sure.

Sheriff Academy

Interactive projector fun. You get seated on a moving horse type chair and given a gun(if you're short you get given a cart and a gun) and you're supposed to shoot the bad guys projected on the wall. It's pretty fun, and not as easy as it sounds considering the chair moves like a horse and there are about 10-15-20 other people shooting at the same things.I managed to use my sharpshooting to land 3rd place once (yes you get scores, and pictures too I believe)

Walynosaure

One of those spinny rides with a joystick that takes your ship up and down. Only diference is that the ships were swapped out for robot pterodactyls. Mine almost shot me out of the seat a few times by violently shaking up and down when I wanted it to go up(maybe I wasn't pulling the joystick all the way, maybe I had bad luck, who knows). It's a good thing I was wearing a seatbelt.

The Monster

Half built, half in pieces around the Anaconda, it's 2010's coming attraction. It was previously named Oroichi I think and comes from a now-closed park called Expoland in Japan. It's supposed to be Europe's largest inverted coaster. I plan to come again once they open it, make sure it doesn't crash and once the line to ride it won't be 20 minutes long.

Pirates Splash

A diving show with pirates, a phantom and flames. Was rather entertaining.

Kiddy rides

The map lists a total of 18 rides, out of which I went into the monorail, the Aquachute(inflatable boat+waterslide=fun carrying inflatable boat to the top of the ride=less fun) and a smaller version of La Riviere Sauvage because I wasn't aware they were for lil kids. The people in charge of the rides didn't stop me so oh well.

Back

There's a train station right next to the park called Bahnfof, one station away from Maizieres les Metz. And that's it about coming back.

ps: it's late, I'm tired, so Ii'll skip re-reading, correcting and making sure this makes sense

Fish, no chips

2010-04-12T20:13:00.002+02:00

12 April 2010

Shopping and planning

Shopping

More hunger demands more food, as such I am now stocked with fish, veggies and spagetti. Also I cooked some of it and didn't die horribly. And by cook I mean fry and boil. No pictures though.

Planning

There's a nearby theme park, walygator land or something crocodile themed of the sort. I'm planning to go there tomorrow. Maybe there'll be pictures.