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Yesterday, Denise Luca and I went to the Winterefteling, we had reserved tickets through our “airmiles“ and where able to bypass the ticket selling points and head straight into the park. I noticed it was far more busier then years before that I went on the same day. Click the read more button to see the entire story including pictures!

When we arrived there we took Luca to the Forest of the Tales (Sprookjesbos) where we saw loads of fairy tales passing by, all of them amazed Luca, especially the green dragon that was defending a treasure It scared Luca a lot, which was quite fun to see! It took us some time to get through to the forest and then heading towards the carrousel to make a few rounds on that one, first Luca and Denise and after that Luca and me :-); it was the idea that Luca and I joined together in the carriage, but another little kid was just in front of me so I stepped up with his dad, and spinning them around a bit where possible, they had much fun in the carriage though

After that it was time to eat, Luca wanted to eat some fried patatoes and Denise and I took some healthy bread (broodje gezond) together with a large bowl of chocolate milk for Denise and myself and some regular drink (Cola) for Luca. We were allowed (ofcourse) to take home the two large bowls so that was one score already.

On the outside Luca met “Holle Bolle Gijs” who constantly asked “Papier here” (Paper here), but sadly the remainders of paper we had left weren’t big enough for Holle bolle Gijs to say “Dankjewel” (Thank you) but he had great fun nevertheless. We also noticed that we had our own Hulk with us

Wondering where to go next, we decided to head for the Carnaval festival, with the ever popular “ta-tata ta-tata tatata” song, a thing you dont easily loose after hearing it ;-), we made a few nice pictures in there as well,though it was a bit dark so the camera needed additional time to adjust, which mostly wasn’t possible because the carriages kept spinning around

Ofcourse as part of the Winter efteling a couple of fire’s were lit, where you could warm up a bit where needed. They spread a lot of warmth so it’s a nice and good idea to do so ;-), also several attractions had been slightly modified to play along with the Winter theme…

Luca also crossed a (specially for kids) maze, on which he found his way properly back and forth, he ran across the entire way and had much fun because we couldn’t see him :-), walking from the Maze towards the LangLauf track, we spotted the steamtrain which blew a nice bit of steam towards the bridge we were standing on Luca wanted to participate in the ride but we first wanted to LangLauf.

Before we reached the track though, there was a wooden plate with old fashioned farmer images on them with several openings so that one could fit his/her head between them and make a picture of them. Denise and Luca decided to do that and I made a couple of fantastic pictures because of that, really worth it!

When we finally arrived at the LangLauf track, Luca jumped in the specially created shoes and we fit the skies on him. He went instantly without much fear or trouble, he did very well for the very first time on ski’s! He also had great fun there, but it was rather tiresome so we stopped half way and drunk a bit before heading over to the children’s playground next to the restaurant. Luca enjoyed there as well because he could play with a train, and with a piano, and do all kind of things he likes to do… But the intention was to go to the secondary children’s playground with inflated materials, he played there for at least an hour and Denise and I drunk a cup of coffee there and relaxed for a bit while Luca played around.

The playground was very well made and a lot of kids where having a good time over there, including Luca, we really needed to drag him out of there because he wanted to remain there, but soo much more to do!

We headed over for the Searide (or whatever it is called) where Luca and Denise joined the ride and I made pictures over a very long distance (not very sharp so the carriages where probably too fast for the camera to quickly follow), though the spot was very well because it was next to a fire on which I could warm up a bit

We were also surprised after that by a Tuimelaar, a guy in suit and wearing half a ball dragging around over the floor moving from right to left, back and forth, and he didn’t get dizzy at all, very nice to see this for the very first time !

On our continued way we also crossed the shooting arena, on which Luca ofcourse wanted to shoot a couple of lasers towards pre-fixed targets. We tried this and I was allowed to finish up the remaining shots and yeah I hit a few things here and there, including the left eye of the skull, where a plastic guy moved up and spread some water towards the people next to me, I didn’t notice till I heared them about it Denise made a very nice picture at the same moment though showing the skull, plastic guy, the waterpistol and the water itself going towards me

It was becoming a bit dark already and we became hungry again, so we decided to head for a “Broodje Unox” (bread with sausage) and we also obtained a hat for the cold winter in between as well (combination pack for the sausage and bread). Luca ate it all and headed for anoter skiing trip, this time there was a long stick on a round turning thingy on which there were a few ropes and sticks to which you could keep yourself near the pole, Luca made a couple of rounds and he loved it a lot! and this time it went very well again!

After that it was time to head for the FataMorgana (no pictures here because it was too dark to see anything relevant) and the “Droomvlucht”, this last one was very nice with all kind of elves and things like that. Also to dark to properly photograph a few items but still a nice sight!

While doing the Droomvlucht Denise mentioned it might be nice to photograph the lights in one room because it potentially gave a nice view, and she was right, I made a few very nice pictures of the lights while moving, giving a spectacular sight.

The last thing we did is drink another cup of hot chocolate (to obtain our third bowl so that we all had one bowl) and for Luca hot chocolate with cream on it and for me a coffee, after that it was time to head home because the park was closing up already (well nearly :-)).

After arriving at home we placed Luca in his bed and he fell asleep very quickly, symbolising the end of a very nice day with the family in the Winter-efteling!

written by Remko