We Four Kings: Spring Break 2014 - The Netherlands

To be honest, I'd never heard of Efteling until a friend from school who has twin Kindergarten daughters in school with Charlotte told me about it. They have lived here 3 years, and Efteling was her daughters' favorite thing they've done. So onto the (very, very long) list of things to do in Europe it went. There is a hotel on property, as well as a village filled with cottages and a few castles with mini-apartments. We chose to stay in one of the apartments. One of my favorite things about the park is that it's only open 10-6. No crazy rushing to get there when the gates open, and no big decision making about how late to keep the kids up. It's the opposite of Disney for sure.

The entrance to the Efteling Bosrijk village where we stayed

We got to enter the park early since we were staying onsite. But the only area open at 9:30 was the Fairytale Forest area. Like the story time the night before, it was not that exciting if you aren't familiar with all the fairy tales (though there were many we did know) and don't speak Dutch. There was a giant animatronic talking tree that is supposed to be the highlight...but not so much if you can't understand what it says. The kids actually found the whole forest more entertaining that we did, but I'm glad we knocked it out first thing.

The kids' favorite part of Fairytale Forest? A dragon that breathed smoke and moved around when you tried to take his treasure:

Now that the rest of the park was open, it was off to rides and shows:

A white water ride called "Piraña"

We went to a live show called "Raveleijn" in a huge 1000 seat outdoor theater. There were horses, there was a fire-breathing 5-headed monster, there were live birds, these was sword fighting, there was magic. We had no idea what to expect, and it was so cool. Even though all the speaking was in Dutch, we got the gist of it. Repeat viewing tomorrow perhaps??

There was NO ONE there. I don't think we waited more than 3 minutes for any ride. Love it!

Imagine It's a Small World in cars instead of boats and you have "Carnaval Festival".

"Monsieur Cannibale" is Efteling's version of the Teacups. Glad the kids can go on them together and leave Tom and me to watch! Yuck!

And then there were the Pedal Trains (Kinderspoor):

At first both kids went round and round in a single engine.

But since there was NO line, each kid decided to get their own...which made Charlotte realize how hard it is without your brother rockin' the pedals!

So after one very long trip around the tracks, she let Nico continue on by himself...and plead for one more time each time he went around!

To end the night we stood around the main lake to see Europe's largest water show. It's the Bellagio Fountains show of the Netherlands...

But these have fire too. :)

As we walked out, we saw no line at the "Kiss the Frog" stand. (Yes...they actually sanitize it after each kid!). Princess Anura invited them to be the last kissers of the day.