Animals

The storks of Cigoland

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Cigoland

The Zoo and Amusement Park Cigoland was founded in 1974 by the Willmann family and has remained in family ownership ever since, although both the zoo and the amusement park have only developed over time. After all, the park began as a small inn around the family’s existing farm, which gradually developed into a tourist destination throughout the region. The stork is of particular importance for the park, which was named after it. Although Alsace has always been known for its great number of storks, this species was threatened in its existence, which is why nature parks and breeding programmes were created in the early 1970s. Today, the park still successfully breeds white storks, but once released, they are happy to return and enrich the park and the region.

Les mondes Extrêmes

When you enter Cigoland, you will find an electric horse-riding track and a circus on the right-hand side. However, there is not much to see in this part of the park, apart from two larger enclosures. If you then follow the path towards the spacious inn, you will suddenly see a much more compact park layout. In addition to several carousels, bumper boats and playgrounds, there is the rotating theatre show Les mondes Extrêmes, during which, accompanied by numerous effects, one travels through the four different climate zones of our world.

Cigopanoramique

This is followed by a larger animal area, where several breeds of domestic animals are presented in their enclosures. Right in the middle of it is the Cigopanoramique ride, a flying wheel made by Metallbau Emmeln, from which you could have an excellent view of Cigoland if you weren’t to go crazy in the giant teacup wheel. As always, this is a magnificent ride, which presents itself excellently in the park and is absolutely tailor-made for the young family audience of Cigoland.

Monorail La Cigogne

Speaking of family audiences, anyone who has always wanted to know how children are conceived in Alsace should get on the Monorail La Cigogne. On the 10 minute tour you will learn all kinds of things about the stork and of course it is the bird itself that brings the children – but only if everything has been prepared for the future child. Accordingly, the Alsace-Frenchman is very well-behaved and can speak three languages without any problems, if only all French guests at nearby Europa Park were like that…

Les vieux Tacots and King Kong

In the rear part of Cigoland there are several aviaries for breeding white storks, and there is also a slightly African-influenced area at the edge of the park. In addition to the spacious vintage car ride Les vieux Tacots, which circles a royal crane enclosure, the King Kong ride is the more exciting model of the modern HUSS ride of the same name. Here a row of seats is lifted by the giant ape King Kong, whereupon you have a wonderful view of the park before the ape takes pity on you and lets you down again. There is no grim face or shaking at all, but unfortunately the rotation around its own axis does not work anymore, so that the ride cannot offer a 360° panoramic view. Nevertheless, the experience is quite special in every respect and therefore even has a certain re-ride factor, which you might wish for in Bremen.

Train de la Mine

Also a big repeat ride factor is the small Soquet roller coaster Train de la Mine, where you can easily get a large number of rides. After all, you should be active when you want to get off the train. After one or two rides in a row you are asked if you want to stay seated, which you always do through motionlessness, especially in the back and front part of the train.

After a short right-hand bend out of the station, you immediately climb up the lift hill. At the top you stay for a while on a short straight line at a lofty height, before you descend in a steep right turn or are pulled down splendidly especially in the rear part of the train. The following valley is passed through with a lot of pressure, just before you shoot up a rather high hill. Up here, at least in the front part of the train, you make an unexpectedly rough change of direction, which throws you around wonderfully and immediately releases you into a downward helix. At a decent speed you cross the next valley and approach another hill. This is followed by a really fast and absolutely magnificent right-hand curve. After the constant up and down a further valley follows, whereupon after a conspicuously inclined curve the station and thus the brake is reached.

The Train de la Mine offers a surprisingly wild roller coaster ride for all ages. The layout leaves nothing to be desired for such a compact track and can really convince especially with the first downhill gradient and the magnificent finale. The ride characteristics are typically Soquet simply outstanding, even though, depending on the choice of seats, sometimes quite surprising, which is why we always like to stay seated.

Pictures Cigoland

Conclusion Cigoland

Cigoland is a friendly animal and leisure park, which is particularly convincing because of the animals that give it its name. Especially during springtime it is very exciting to watch the animals building their nests, especially as it is quite funny where they get their materials from. Although the number of rides is quite small, they are very well balanced, so you can have a lot of fun here with smaller children.

 

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Cigoland

Zoo, Zoo, I go for Zoomarine

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Zoomarine

“Zoo, Zoo, I go for Zoomarine. Zoo, zoo, Zoomarine.” The last time I heard the Zoomarine song, I was in the mother park of Mundo Aquático SA, which has been entertaining visitors of the Algarve since 1991 as the only amusement park in Portugal worth visiting. Apart from the really good water parks Slide & Splash and Aquashow Park, there are also few alternatives in Portugal. However, as the shows are well produced and the animals are housed in sufficiently large enclosures, a visit is still not recommended for animal welfare activists, but it is safe for everyone else.

In 2005 the sister park near Rome opened, where the group concentrates mainly on the animal shows on a much larger area and built rather large stadiums for this purpose. Additional animal enclosures, aviaries and the aquarium, for example, are almost completely missing, which makes the park, officially designated as a zoological garden, less credible in its own statements regarding the conservation of species. However, the mission of Zoomarine is to respect and appreciate nature in a passionate way, to accompany children and adults into a world full of emotions and to let them discover the animals living in the park.

As in Albufeira, all the buildings are kept simple and so the entrance in the form of a tent is not very representative. In the park itself, you will find a very well-kept garden and paved paths throughout Zoomarine, which makes a good first impression and makes Zoomarine a decent theme park.

Squalotto

Right at the beginning you will come across the roller coaster Squalotto, a children’s roller coaster with the traditional Italian layout of a Brucomela. It is the much younger of the two coasters, but with the not so wild ride over smaller waves and a bigger drop, it offers enough fun for smaller children only. The train features a nice design which fits the name of the ride.

Harakiri

If you follow the main road you will come across a number of rides, all from L&T Systems or their successors Preston & Barbieri. Besides an interesting Saltamonte, a bouncing carousel with cogs as gondolas, you will find the Harakiri dinghy slide and a well designed carousel.

In the immediate vicinity, but still well hidden in the farthest corner of Zoomarine, you will find the large Blue River log flume with its three shots, also by L&T Systems. The ride goes in dugout canoes through a hot-galvanised channel, where first a small drop, then an equally large double drop and last but not least a bigger drop is waiting for the passengers. Due to the rainy weather on the Mediterranean coast near the Italian capital, we decided not to take a ride as it was quite chilly for a change.

The Water Park

On the other side of the amusement mile there is a small water park with a number of sunbeds for relaxation. In addition to two water playgrounds, there is a slide complex with two kamikaze slides and two spiral slides, one of which is a black hole, and, since this season, a flow rider, i.e. a wave riding simulator. But there is also a 3D cinema, a Splash Battle and the Schwarzkopf classic looping star Vertigo.

Vertigo

The classic funfair ride, which only started its journey through Ireland as part of the Funderland ensemble after 28 years of operation as a stationary ride in various European amusement parks, begins with a confident climb up the lift hill. After having collected enough potential energy for the only inversion of the ride at a height of more than 24m, the rider immediately makes a steep turn towards the ground to approach the loop at full speed. With a good amount of power you pass the first and only inversion of the ride. Immediately you shoot up again to make a turn in the air. But the rest doesn’t last long, because the train immediately plunges back to the ground, which can lead to unexpected airtime, especially in the back of the train. In the opposite direction to the first gradient, the train again takes on a bit of height and efficiently reduces it parallel to the lift hill. Since a straight line with a constant cross slope is a bit strange to drive, you are straightened up in between, however without considering the principle of turning around the heart line. After all, this principle had been applied for the first time in 1978 at the Shockwave in the Texas amusement park Six Flags Over Texas; however, the planning for the Looping Star was already in full swing at that time. Leaning to the left again, you pass through another elevated curve before approaching the ground again in a hill. A last fast right turn follows until you reach the braking distance and finally the station.

Although the looping star Vertigo has led a more than eventful life so far, it still rides a bit better than its direct relative at Attractiepark Slagharen. Under the Bemboom family it started its life in the, long forgotten, Freizeitpark Kirchhorst not far from the A7 motorway near Hanover, followed by the English amusement park Southport Pleasureland and the French western theme park OK Corral. As a loan the ride went to the Parque de Atracciones in the Spanish capital Madrid, followed by the short-lived Plutón Park near Vigo, also in Spain, before the ride was set up in Luneur Park, the former and future Luna Park of the Italian capital. Following the aforementioned funfair debut in Ireland, the ride has been entertaining passengers here at Zoomarine since 2010, and it is as pleasant as ever. At the same time, Zoomarine takes good care of the rides, which means that the park is in some way a conservation area.

Pictures Zoomarine

Conclusion Zoomarine

All in all, the Zoomarine amusement park in Italy is a good park, which animal welfare activists should better avoid. The shows, none of which we have seen, are certainly the main reason for visiting the park, but they are also the park’s livelihood. Neither as an amusement park, nor as a zoo, nor as a water park could the park support itself, because in the end none of the mentioned park types are developed enough. In the overall package, however, it can entertain you for a whole day, especially since the shows, if they are as well produced as in Portugal, are well worth seeing. But it is also a fact in Italy that people’s consciences have changed over time and the closure of the dolphinarium in Gardaland in 2013 at the latest marked the beginning of the end of the remaining dolphinariums. In this respect I am curious to see in which direction the Italian branch of Mundo Aquático SA will develop.

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Click here for the next report of the Il Viaggio dei due Runner Tour

Il Viaggio dei due Runner Day 5 / Zoomarine

A visit to the Affen- und Vogelpark

Affen- und Vogelpark Eckenhagen

After visiting the McPlay Freudenberg, we continued to the Affen- und Vogelpark in Eckenhagen. As black storm clouds all over North Rhine Westphalia decorated the sky, I was glad to have some blue sky above my head when I entered the park.

The enclosures in the animal park Affen- und Vogelpark make a really nice impression and around the park, there are free-running chickens. I knew something like this only with the pot-bellied pigs from the Wildpark Schwarze Berge , but chickens were something new for me.

After I took the tram down the mountain, I already saw the object of my desire: The Heege Butterfly, which unfortunately cost 50cents. In this corner you will also find another some other exotic rides by Heege and other playground equipment from their product catalog.

When I reached my goal, I wanted to explore the rest of the park, but the weather was against me. I had some fun with some of the monkeys and a Sulfur-crested Cockatoo who was constantly singing ChaChaCha. As tame as the bird was, he apparently longed for a partner. Luckily, he has not learned any curse words from the park guests and therefore entertains a quite family-friendly.

Shortly afterwards the storm broke over me. The rain was pouring, it was hailing and lightning went down just few meters of me. Since I did not feel comfortable with this situation, I decided to head back for Hamburg. I had some food at the park’s indoor hall and also enjoyed a ride on the the Heege airtime swing.

When I left the park, the sun shone brightly. All of the park’s unpaved paths went very muddy, so I left out the whole left park section where the outdoor enclosure for the monkeys is located. The Affen- und Vogelpark is a nice smaller animal park, which is worth a visit when you are nearby.

Pictures Affen- und Vogelpark Eckenhagen

 

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Affen- und Vogelpark