Today we spent most of the day at Tivoli Gardens, just across the street from Copenhagen Central Station. The park opened in 1843 and was one of the places Walt was inspired by while he was planning Disneyland.
When you visit you buy entry, and then, if you want to ride the rides, you have two options. You can buy an all day wristband that gets you on all the rides or you can purchase the rides รก la carte. If you have come all this way, just get the wristband. Locals say it is expensive, but it isn't that much more expensive than Copenhagen itself whereas visiting a Disney property is WAY more expensive than the normal spend you would encounter in the cities they are in. As a comparison, our entry and rides at Tivoli Gardens was $5 more expensive than our delicious but not fancy lunch the previous day.
Each ride has a turnstile and you scan in with your band. It's like Magic Band but it doesn't cost anything extra!
Once you enter the main gate, you are in a very European feeling theme park. It's all very clean and nothing feels cheap. It's all very well done and very well maintained. I didn't notice any custodial sweepers even though it was sparkling clean.
When was the last time you saw someone shooting real arrows at an amusement park?
Our first task was to ride the 2nd oldest operational rollercoaster in the world! The Rutschebanen, which translates to Roller Coaster, was built in 1914.
I took this photo for the sign saying, "L.A. Thompson Scenic Railways". LaMarcus Adna Thompson was an American inventer. He build rollercoasters all over America and Europe.
Donna scans in with her wristband.
This is the brake person. They ride in a special seat and use a hand brake to regulate the speed. The brake smells just like the cable car brake in San Francisco because it's a metal brake pad pressing on a wooden siding and the cable car is a wooden brake pad pressing on a metal track.
The lift is actually a cable just like a Cable Car in San Francisco.
The coaster spirals around and goes over a few camel humps. It's not that intense but it's really fun.
This is us after the ride.
This is us on the ride later in the evening. We rode it half a dozen times during the day.
Next we rode this hot air balloon themed ferris wheel.
The views from the top were great. There were taller rides with better views but those rides weren't for me.
We rode a crazy mine ride that was also a flume ride with wand guns. You shot at lights but not much happened when you did so we just rode.
They are down in the mines with a giant dragon.
And they are scrathing its ear with a giant backscratcher. The story is ludicrous.
The grounds are beautiful. We were lucky to be here during Cherry Blossom season.
We had delicious lunch at a Mikkeller Bar and brewery there.
and Donna got to touch a gull foot through the canvas cover.
I pretended to be a guard.
We got a comedically large cotton candy.
We went into a legit old fun house with all of the things you see in old movies.
Later in the evening we bought a beer and sat down in some chairs and waited for a Pantomime show to start.
I was really looking forward to seeing this curtain open. It opened from the top and when the feathers where unfurled, it lowered into the stage.
I shared my beer with a giant toad.
The show was great and very European with ballet and great music. It was all pantomiming so we didn't have problems understanding the story.
The plastic beer cups have a 5 DKK deposit so we used the returned coin to feed the fish and ducks.
We rode a kiddie rollercoaster that went right through the cherry blossoms. It was pretty magical. Also this coaster is built on a very small plot of land so you ride around 3 times zooming through the station.
We went on a cool old merry-go-round (a simple version of a carousel where the animals don't go up and down).
There was a very catchy song playing and some of the people around were singing along so I looked it up.
Here it is. We rode these little boats which weren't on a track.
They pushed you out and when your number lit on the board 5 minutes later, you headed back in. It was all the honor system and it just worked.
We rode a beautiful carousel but the music was off and so was the up and down feature. :(
We also rode Galejen, an awesome Swiss Twist style pirate ship ride.
As the sun set the place got even more beautiful. It also started to drizzle so people began leaving.
We rode the Hans Christian Anderson dark ride. You rode in a flying trunk and were rushed through quite a few of his stories in a short amount of time.
Tivoli Gardens was a fantastic experience. It was a Saturday during the off season so the longest line we waited in was about 15 minutes.
Seriously, you should go there.
