This weekend our youngest grandson (only for another couple of weeks 9 years of age) stayed with us. Next to this fact there’s another one: Albert Heijn -the Dutch equivalent of Britain’s Waitrose- offered reduced tickets for visiting The Netherlands’ most popular amusement park, called De Efteling (meaning of this name unknown to us), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efteling. Since there’s an Albert Heijn-store close to Antwerp’s Willemdok the three of us visited the park yesterday, Saturday the 19th of March 2016, having payed reduced ticket prices. It’s in Kaatsheuvel, only some 85/90 kilometers (55 miles) from where we live. This picture depicts De Efteling’s entrance. When walking towards it from the car park one’s mood is brought into the right state of 'fairy-tale-mind' – just by the music that is heard on the way up to the main entrance.

The first attraction our grandson insisted on doing is called ‘Joris en de Draak’ (Joris and the Dragon), a wooden(!, only dating from 2010) roller-coaster. See for more https://www.efteling.com/en/park/attractions/joris-en-de-draak. The link includes a sensational video of a ride. In reality it is even more exciting than a video can show. It is a twin-roller-coaster; one can choose between the red (fire) or blue (water) to ‘fight’ the dragon. The two trains even cross during the ride (not at the same level though). We, our grandson and the male half, choose the red one and -contrary to the video- red was the winner. It must have been the extra weight one of us added to the total – causing ‘our’ train to descend at a really frightening speed! The dragon in front of the attraction spits real flames, understandably only when its head is in the upright position.

Here we, again our grandson and the male half of us both (we surely need a volunteer for photographing and videoing), are inside the pirate ship called ‘De Halve Maen’ (Half Moon), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Moon_(Efteling), dating from 1982. Our grandson, a genuine expert, wanted to sit either at the first or last row, thus achieving the most extreme sensation when the ship swings at its highest. So here the two of us are, desperately trying not to look too palish – the elder one that is…

Grandson refused to do both the old ’Python’ (1981, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(Efteling) and new ‘Baron 1898’ (2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_1898) because he hates to race around upside down. His granddad would have done both, although second thoughts came over him when the Baron was considered from the outside – it’s not a roller-coaster, no, it’s a dive-coaster! (Not to miss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCGkm_LpRGM.) The next ‘attraction’ granddad was persuaded to brave was called ‘De Bobbaan’ (Bob Track/Swiss Bob). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Track. The young man loved it, the old one almost broke his back. Not the ‘Python’ or the ‘Baron 1898’ nor ‘Bobbaan’ were photographed, simply because we’ve not been in it (the first two) or were invisible (the latter). That’s the reason for offering this colourful picture of one of the cheerful musical groups we encountered on the Efteling’s grounds…