The Manneken Pis Tour
Day 2: Bobbejaanland

On day 2 of the trip we headed over to Bobbejaanland. You've no idea how many times I've had to check the spelling of this parks name. To reach it we got a train from Brussels to Herentals. There were taxis available from here, but we got a bus (number 305) to Bobbejaanland to the station to the park, and back.

Bobbejaanland is a very nice park, that's in a pleasant setting, with a large number of nice rides. It was also quiet enough to allow us multiple goes on some of our favourite rides. My only slight criticism is the lack of a true stand out ride. Without one it's a park that I would say is worth one visit, but now I've done it once it's not one I'm in a major hurry to do a second time unless they get a couple of more rides.

As you can seen some extra effort had been made for Halloween.

One thing I did like about Bobbejaanland was it was clear effort had been made in the theming of the rides. Here you see a chairswing surrounded by a set of fountains.

The roller coaster that will appeal the most to thrill seekers is near the front of the park. It's a Gerstlauer Eurofighter known as the Typhoon. There are already two in the U.K. (Rage at Adventure Island and Speed at Oakwood) and Thorpe Park's new ride for 2009, Saw, will be one, featuring the vertical hill lift and beyond vertical drop.

Built back in 2004 this was only Gerstlauer's second Eurofighter. This does show as although it's a good ride it doesn't match the standards of some of Gerstlauer's more modern rides.

It does feature a vertical loop, and a series of inline twists.

This is Mambo, a well themed family thrill ride.

This is the Bobby Drop. It's like a giant water slide, but it has large circular rafts a group of people can sit in instead of just one or two people.

I've been on a similar ride at Parc Asterix called the Oxygenarium which I'm a big fan off. This one didn't have the same out of control exciting feeling when riding it, making it a more forgetable ride.

This is the sign for Bobbejaanlands new ride for 2008, a splash battle ride, where you go around on a train with a water gun called Banana Battle.

The last part of the ride is a standard splash battle idea, with you taking on other riders with your water gun. Before that though is a section that works a bit like an interactive dark ride, where you have to hit targets to make models move. It's an interesting idea, but I didn't think it worked to well. It's only a few simple movements when you hit most of the targets, and it takes a bit too much effort to activate the targets to get them working.