Upon getting my aeroplane tickets for my flight
to Germany to experience my first German Fair, I danced with glee in the
company of the postman, who probably regarded me as a madman, but my
tiny personal universe (£30, useful for every occasion! So make sure
you buy your Tiny Personal Universe today!) was currently filled with
joy. The aeroplane touched down, myself filled with rather salty
peanuts, I rented a car, and drove to the hotel, which overlooked the
fair. I was too busy driving to look at the rides as I whirred past. I
got up to my room, third-story (fourth for you in the States), put down
my luggage, strode over to the window, and whooshed over the curtains.
What I saw made me wonder if there was anything in those salty peanuts I
had on the flight. A giant, blinking, slender 200 foot tall tower stood
in front of me. Thousands of rainbow-coloured lights blinked on and off
up and down the tower. A little bright yellow car shot up and down the
tower. I blinked;!
it was at the top. I blinked again, it was at
the bottom. Very fast...
The next day I made a beeline for the tall steel
tower, now unblinking, but just as, if not more, impressive as the night
before. I nearly didn't find the entrance, which turned out to be a faux
hotel with plants and a bellhop. I paid, took a token and clambered up a
staircase to the queue. I was not expecting a backflash on a tower ride,
but it was nice to see something new. I'm used to backflashes being a
jumble of characters doing various things, like standing or dancing or
hiding behind giant music notes, but Power Tower 2's fantastic backflash
was a goofy brash ornate hotel, with silly things going on, like a woman
hanging onto balloons and floating around outside the building, skirt
flapping, and President Clinton, and even Hugh Grant enjoying their
stay.
The queue was incredibly fast, as is normal at
German Funfairs (apparently). A length of queue on either side keeps 16
happy almost-riders behind a chain. The side of the queue drops and
everyone follows a line to their seats. In 20 seconds, everyone is off
the ride and back on.
The gondola is very big, four people per side,
eight sides (that's thirty-two riders, for you out there who aren't
maths-smart). The seat is incredibly comfortable, a large also
comfortable restraint coming down. I searched for the seatbelt to clip
the restraint to the seat; there wasn't one. Slightly unnerved but
incredibly comfortable in the well-fitting seat (I guess the Germans are
big people too, because I was fit snugly in the seat, with at least
seven clicks of room). There was a loud bell, and the gondola went up
the tower at a brisk pace, and stopped at the top, 60 metres in the air,
poised over the fair. There was a bump, and we shot down the tower at
faster-than-freefall speed before shooting back up at the same speed,
all the way to the top, and back down, again, at the same speed. The
bell sounds again and the carriage whirred up the tower smoothly, then
dropped, which was followed by more huge bounces. The carriage comes to
a stop at the bottom. The bell sounds!
And again, the carriage rocketed up the tower at
full speed and plunged to the platform, where the restraints popped open
and we were ushered off, no wobbling knees permitted.
Overall, it was a great ride, with powerful
launches and drops. And now for the good and bad...
GOOD:
-It looks fabulous, with an excitable operator
and fantastic music.
-Great powerful launches and drops.
-200 feet tall is tall anywhere, and as a transportable ride it's
absolutely giant.
-Nice and long.
-Well designed queue and great capacity.
BAD:
-Can be a bit under whelming if you have high
expectations.
