Trip part two: Day Two - Goths in Gothenburg
5am rolled around and our alarms signalled that our six hours kip were over. Thankfully we had picked up train breakfast supplies already, so we just got ready and then rolled out the hotel for our train to Gothenburg. I have a deep love of long train journeys stemming from my early teenage years of getting the train to London from Liverpool for comic con, so I was genuinely quite excited to sit with some good music on and take in the views (while writing Mondays trip report). The train was comfortable and our Netto feast was in full swing by the time the border force popped onboard to check our paperwork/flight details. After that we just sat back and took in the stunning views while travelling through the smaller towns on the west coast of Sweden
We arrived into Gothenburg around 10:30am and took a rather scenic walk to our hotel, checked in and were allowed early access to our room! This worked nicely as it meant we could freshen up before the five minute hike up to Liseberg. Before we knew it, we were stood at the gates of a park I had been dying to revisit! In 2017 I followed a band in Sweden and saw them at Grona Lund and Liseberg, however due to a rather controlling partner at the time, was not allowed to ride anything and was heavily berated for the mere suggestion that I grab a lap on Helix while we wait...
Halloween is still in full swing at Liseberg and we loved it. Liseberg was our big social day as one of our close friends lives nearby and another travelled from a bit further inland to spend the afternoon with us, so we wanted to pack the first few hours before they arrived. We made a beeline for Helix, I was excited to finally ride such a hotly anticipated coaster, plus the crowds were thickening quick and we figured it may not be easy to get it later on in the day.
Even typing this out feels dirty, but it was just okay. Our first ride, it just didn't wow us. It was perfectly fun and well paced, but the overall experience felt a bit flat? I have to say, having heard so many incredible things for many years we felt a bit deflated, especially when Balder was looming in the distance, out of action, that the parks biggest open coaster let us down. However we shall revisit this passage soon...
Rutschenbanen followed next and thankfully was a bunch of fun, a surprisingly hugely smooth jaunt down the mountain in a lovely train themed car! The track was a weird shape, with a huge middle spine sandwiched between two smaller side rails, all sat in perfect parallel, but it was running very well and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
Valkyria though thankfully was tonnes of fun. We've done a few dive machines now and other than Baron, we've found them to really be quite standard, all about the drop and not much else. Thankfully Valkyria uses the speed from the drop to actually have some fun and the multiple inversions were great! It didn't deliver huge forces, but I do love the excitement and fear the drop creates in people, so it always adds to the atmosphere. We had a few rides through the day, the night ride was especially fun as the parks lighting package looks incredible from the top of the drop!
As per, Khloe and I quickly did the two kiddie creds because we're filthy cred hunters, then somehow both our friends arrived at the same time! So we headed into the mid afternoon ready for rerides, horror mazes and whatever else took our fancy.
We went to ride Loke (photo from later in the day), the giant rotating pendulum ride (I'm sure there's a model name but I'm writing on a train with dodgy Internet). We had a blast, the weightlessness at the top of the swing was great and the views across the park/wider gothenburg were lovely. The only sad part was swinging out looking over Balder and wondering what could have been...
We then headed back up Helix way to tackle our first maze, The Experiment! Sadly there was little in the way of good photo ops nearby, so a wall of text is the best you'll get. Although this was by far the weakest of the mazes we'd do in the day, it was still, especially by UK standards, top notch. The themeing and atmosphere inside was brilliantly done and the use of circus performers to create truly unsettling body horror scenes was creepy as hell. They did a great circular saw through a living person bit too which made us grin from ear to ear. The maze was lacking in actual scares though, more of a very uneasy gory walkthrough than anything truly nasty
It was time to give Helix another shot, we figured it may have just needed time to warm up. We were completely correct, the stars seemed to align and the whole layout felt a lot quicker and plenty more forceful. It's definitely a great coaster and I'm glad we got chance to really enjoy it throughout the day, including a few stunning night rides. It's not a top ten for us, whereas for plenty of friends it is, however it's a stellar coaster and the setting of it is wonderful. We loved the fact you nosedive off a cliff to start the coaster before you even touch the first launch and it never feels like it meanders even though it lasts a good while.
We then rode the ferris wheel as it just looked like a nice experience, the view was beautiful and it was nice to take a beat and admire Gothenburg.
Gothia Towers looked amazing all lit up!
We then decided we'd tackle the attic maze. Which involved heading into the spooky clown/circus themed area after not visiting there all day. This was an absolute treat to leave till the nighttime!
Upon crossing the clown bridge, we were greeted by a good fifteen roaming clown actors, a zombie magician and many circus performers!
The actual attic maze was located in the attic above the Ghost Bar, so we entered the queue up the stairs to the maze and watched the interesting scenes below while we waited. When we arrived for batching, we were allowed to go in just as our group of five and given the intro spiel, which I assume is quite intricate in Swedish, but in English boiled down to "welcome to the attic, where the lost children... Have been found". Off we went into our second maze of the day!
The Attic was by far one of the most well crafted mazes I have ever experienced, it incorporated all sorts of very tactile elements and some of my favourite jumpscares I've ever experienced. The actors were fantastic at targeting different members of our party to really screw with us individually, alongside the whole group scares. The sets were of an insanely high quality too, upon getting through the first room it immediately felt like we were actually in a delapidated old attic navigating creepier and creepier rooms. We all left laughing hysterically, well and truly spooked.
We then took a nice bit of time at the Ghost Bar to have a group catch up and a pint or two. We sadly didn't take any nice photos in there as it was so much fun to catch up, but the atmosphere inside was really like a Victorian speakeasy, it definitely didn't feel like a theme park bar.
We then wandered back through via the Valkyria area and were accosted by a tonne of zombies and smoke! Which of course only served to goad us straight into the "ZOMBIES" maze. Upon stepping through the doors we were faced with an office block! Cubicles, printers, IKEA furniture and all the mundane flyers as possible. It didn't take long for zombies to begin crawling out of every nook and cranny, not one object was safe. Somehow one particular scare actor got us lot 3 times in quick succession, the set design was incredible and allowed them to quickly slip between hideaways in each room undetected. It wasn't as scary as the Attic, but we had a few good scares and loved how immersive the office sets were.
We then took the chance to hop back on Valkyria for a night ride, which is easily now my favourite dive machine for a night ride! The view over the lit up park before plunging into the drop was such a treat
After a few night rides on Helix, we then headed over to Kordhuset for what turned out to be the most intricately, over the top and beautifully themed maze we've ever seen. From room to room we were floored by the incredible scenes and set pieces, including incredible homages to Alice in Wonderland and old school magic imagery, tunnels, bridges over bubbling lagoons and many many fantastic scares. We weren't quite as terrified as in the attic, but the overall experience was beyond any expectations, the entire maze easily lasted over ten minutes and got more and more complicated as it went on. Once again each actor had multiple outlets, meaning we got absolutely harassed by each actor many times over. The batching was slower than the other mazes, which allowed the actors to stalk and really take their time with each group
We had a nice little wander then over to the final maze of the night. The themeing was even better at night, especially this little Pumpkin shrine that we loved
We then finally did Skogen on our way out the park, it's the only outdoor maze and thus was going to be most fun in the pitch black. The atmosphere in the forest was perfect for a haunting ending to the evening. The actual scares within were nicely varied and the "tree creatures" were very effective at sneaking out the shadows to terrify us. Sadly although Khloe was first, most the scare actors managed to miss them and target the middle of the group. However for me I ended up pretty damn scared, especially when I realised I couldn't trust anything to not move! A very fitting ending to a great day
We then finally ended our almost twelve hour long day tired, spooked and very very happy with our time at Liseberg. It is sad that Balder wasn't available, but that happens and we shall definitely be back!
Next up, a wooden roller-coaster in a forest by a little known manufacturer...
Glad you liked the writeup! Can't wait to head out for pt 2 next week
