Europe Part 8 - Tibidabo - May 24, 2008

Below are just some of the photos from this part. See all of them with high-res versions at Flickr.

74 Tibidabo photos - CLICK HERE.




Matthew and I took a flight across the Meditteranean to Barcelona. More on the city in a later trip report. First, we took the funicular up to Tibidabo.



Tibidabo surely has one of the greatest locations of any amusement park in the world.



See what I mean?



Looks like another nice European day.



The park is divided into levels vertically on the side of the hill.



Most of the rides in the parks are standard, but everything is heightened by the ridiculous view. Full-size photo.



The landmark attraction at Tibidabo is Avio, a spinning airplane driven by its own propellor that was built in 1928.



The Temple de Sagrat Cor is located right beside the amusement park.



The park has two family coasters; here is Muntanya Russa.



While this coaster looks similar to the standard portable fair coasters, it was actually built in-house by the park in 1961. It runs much smoother and faster than the portable versions. Surprisingly fun.



Moving down a level, the park has some fun bumper cars.



This may very well be the worst Falling Star ever.



It moves so slow that it's basically a scenic ride.



I'm not sure what this construction was for, but I assumed it is for the new coaster that the park has been planning for a while.



Opposite Tibidabo is the Meditteranean Sea.



This ride looked fun, but since there was no extra fee for it, the line would have taken forever.



With the city far below on one side, and the cathedral looming over the park on the other side, it truly is a great location.



Food and drink REQUIRED on rides at all times.



The top spin looked pretty intense, but we didn't ride it. Sorry Dave...



I had suspected that Tibidabo Express would be gone to make way for the new coaster, but there it was.



This powered out and back is awesome. I'm not sure it's nearly as fun as I appear to be having in this picture, but still a great little ride.



You get two laps as well.



While in America classic wacky fun houses have been litigated into extinction, they are alive and well in Europe.



This one was crazy. There were all kinds of shifting floors, spinning things, and other opportunities to break an ankle.



Hopefully if they ever do build the new coaster they won't have to remove Tibidabo Express, because it is a unique ride.



Heading back up toward the top level, I was disappointed to see that the hall of mirrors was under construction.



This park does not really look like much until you go, but so many people recommended it that I made sure to include it in our plans. It was a good decision.



The park has a museum with old coin operated animatronics, including some nice offensive ones like this one.



Turns out that public decapitation of a doll was worth a nickel back in the day.



If the guillotine isn't your thing, perhaps a good hanging will do.



There was a great model of the entire park with some animatronic rides.



Wat.



We didn't actually ride the Avio; the line was long and as cool as it looks, I doubt the ride itself was very fun.



We had almost escaped, but then this happened.



I don't know if this was actually a park employee or just some random person.



The last ride of the day was the strangest; El Magatzem de les Bruixes I Els Bruixots (don't ask me to translate that).



The suspended monorail is a combination of outdoor ride (even going over some people's homes!) and indoor dark ride with some really bizarre scenes that made absolutely no sense.



We wrapped up our brief but great time at Tibidabo and headed back down the mountain.



Unlike the other parks on this trip, Tibidabo seemed to be an integral part of its city. The mountain and the park are part of the many things that make Barcelona a unique and fantastic city (more on that later).

Next Up - Port Aventura



Return Home
Content copyright Jonathan Hawkins