Christmas Eve at Efteling

So, after another uneventful drive – in fact that’s the quietest we’ve seen the Antwerp ring road – we arrived at Efteling around lunchtime.

Straight for lunch, then a trip on Danse Macabre. Then, after psyching myself up, I headed to Baron. I did check the test seat before joining the queue and my current height and build don’t seem to work. Oh dear, some other time…

We then had chimney cakes which were gloriously, sickly sugary. I didn’t finish mine, but oh so worth it as a once in a blue moon treat. Since The Flying Dutchman was closed – gee, I wonder why a ride with a splash down was closed in *this* weather! – we went on the other pirate ship, the Halve Maen swinging ship. Even sitting in the middle, you still get a load of airtime! There’s rumours that the ride may be replaced in the near future, so I’m glad we did it at least once.

By now, it was past 3pm, so we headed to the hotel, where our phones work as our room key, and our luggage was waiting for us, along with macarons, a card welcoming us back, which was a nice touch, and two Efteling water bottles, which are this year’s Christmas gift.

Part of the holiday booking included reservations for both nights at Brasserie 7, one of the two restaurants at The Grand Hotel. If you know us, you know we both like plain, simple food, nothing too rich or frou frou. There was a reason we skipped it last time we were here, but since it was included, we decided to give it a go. Yeah, there was a reason we skipped it. If you like that kind of over the top presentation it’s probably fine, but not for me, thank you very much. Plan for tomorrow is to fill up on all the park treats we skipped today because we had the booking! ‘t Poffertje and crisps on a stick here we come!

We finished up the night by taking advantage of one of the current benefits of staying at the Grand. For a trial period, the Fairy Tale Forest is open for hotel guests for two hours after park close, so we were able to wander round with almost no-one else nearby. Fun, enchanting and just a little bit creepy. Plus cold. Very, very cold!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder, so extra layers, gloves and all the rides on Danse Macabre!

Merry Christmas!