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Your 2025 in review

I start one more trip before the year is out, but I'll just do the end of year write up now.

Statistics
Start of year credit count: 423
End of year credit count: 461
New credits gained: 38
Start of year park count: 85
End of year park count: 98
New parks visited: 13
Entries in the Top 10: None

Best and Worst
Best new coaster: Troy @ Toverland
Best new park: Either VinWonders Phú Quốc in Vietnam or Gyeongju World in South Korea
Best new dark ride: Independence Day: Defiance @ Genting SkyWorlds (By default)
Best new water ride: Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure @ Universal Studios SIngapore
Best new flat ride: Icarus Race @ VinWonders Phú Quốc
Biggest positive surprise: Gyeongju World. I went in only knowing the coaster lineup and wasn't expecting it to be as nice as it is
Biggest disappointment: Roaring Timbers @ Sun World Hon Thom
Most disappointing closure: Crazy Mouse @ Seoul Land
Favourite coaster ride: One of the last trains of the day on FLY @ Phantasialand after they closed the front row queue and getting front row
Biggest enthusiast achievement: Knocking another coaster off my bucket list - T-Express
Best travel story: Riding Black Hole 2000 @ Seoul Land as my first coaster after a 10 month coaster drought, and immediatley thinking that I was growing out of coasters cause of how badly the roughness was affecting me when I thought it wouldn't be that bad, then riding T-Express the next day and realising no, Black Hole 2000 just sucks.

Non-Coaster
Best new city/country/state: Singapore (city/Country), N/A (state)
My most important travel advice for the future: If you struggle to sleep on planes, flying East long distance will always f*** you up
Best non-coaster moment: Seeing Electric Callboy in Vienna
"I was not expecting to go HERE this year": Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Other
Most northerly new place: Helsinki, Finland
Most easterly new place: Gyeongju, South Korea
Most southerly new place: Singapore
Most westerly new place: Probably some street in Madrid I haven't walked down before 😄. All my travels were to the east this year.

The Future
One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Taiga @ Linnanmaki
One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Cedar Point
One place I want to visit for the first time in 2026: China
 
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Statistics
Start of year credit count: 150
End of year credit count: 172
New credits gained: 22
Start of year park count: 21
End of year park count: 23
New parks visited: 2
Entries in the Top 10: Voltron, Toutatis.

Best and Worst
Best new coaster: Voltron
Best new park: Europa Park
Best new dark ride: Pirates In Batavia
Best new water ride: Tirol Log Flume
Best new flat ride: Toxicator
Biggest positive surprise: Tonnerre 2 Zeus
Biggest disappointment: Cetautomatix not opening during my visit to Parc Asterix.
Most disappointing closure: Cetautomatix - This wasn't technically a closure, but had a delayed opening.

Favourite coaster ride: Taron Wintertraum Night-Ride (Front Row)
Favourite park day of 2025: Parc Asterix (Friday 18th May) - whole place was pretty empty and I got a good 20+ back-back rides on Toutatis.
Biggest enthusiast achievement: Managed to get an evac from F.L.Y. this month. Train was E-Stopped in the indoor section and we were all guided out by engineers (used some step-ladders to get us down from our seats).
Best travel story: Nothing too exciting, but drove on the autobahn for my first time this year (from Frankfurt to Europe Park). Was nice to go faster than 70mph and not feel naughty for it 🤣

Non-Coaster
Best new city/country/state: Country - France. City - Krakow.
Something I am never doing again: Booking a trip to Energylandia without looking at when the public holidays are 🙃
My most important travel advice for the future: Book well in advance and check public holidays!
Best non-coaster moment: Visiting Auschwitz - not exactly a cheerful one, but a surreal experience. It's harrowing yet so interesting.
"I was not expecting to go HERE this year": The Paris Catacombs. Didn't think I'd have time on my France trip to squeeze this in but I managed to get a late-evening slot...ended up being one of the only people going down there (if they're not creepy enough to start with, going on your own certainly takes it to another level 🤣)

Other
Most northerly new place: Frankfurt
Most easterly new place: Krakow
Most southerly new place: Corfu
Most westerly new place: Paris

The Future
One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Falcon's Flight
One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Six Flags Qiddiya
One place I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Portugal - Usually have one "summer" holiday a year and it's looking like the friends are wanting to try somewhere other than Spain or Greece this year 👀
 
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My year turned out to be not too shabby in the end, thanks to a couple of unexpected bonus trips that weren't originally planned. I was never gonna scale the dizzy heights of 2024, but still got a decent number of park days in and a reasonably good boost to the cred count.

March. Day trip to Alton Towers. My home park, but hadn't been for 3 years due to Alton being, well... a bit sh*t.
It was still sh*t. Probably won't go again for another 3 years, at least.

April. Great, 4 park trip to Belgium and the Netherlands with some of my favourite goons.
Walibi Holland.
Efteling.
Bobbejaanland.
Walibi Belgium.
Plus some bonus creds at Plopsa Indoor and a couple of travelling fairs. Fab trip! +14

May. Back to Efteling again with Mrs Howie, the first unexpected bonus trip of the year. Was so blown away by Danse Macabre that I just had to take the wife. 2 full days, stayed on site in the Wonder Hotel, all the trimmings. Brilliant! Absolutely one of my favourite parks.

June. Solo cred run-o-shame in the Northeast. Fantasy Island, Botton's Pleasure Beach and 'Mingo.
Nothing amazing, but a cheeky lil' +8.

July. Long weekend in Ireland with Mrs Howie including, of course, 1st time visit to Emerald Park, plus a whole bunch of scenic, Irish stuff. Was good. +5

Thought that was gonna be it for the year, but then, with about a month's notice, the missus found a cheap, late deal for...

December. ... a week in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Yee haaa! So we bought season passes for Dollywood and spent 4 and a half days there! Not full days of course - it was really cold - but with crowd levels anywhere between low to non-existant, it was real easy to just pop in for a few hours, do everything and bugger off again.
Got multiple rides on all the coasters, zen rides, night rides, saw all the shows, rode the steam train, all the filler rides, looked in all the shops, ate in all the restaurants and of course, admired all the Christmas lights. Had an amazing time, was nice to be able to relax and enjoy Dollywood properly, rather than just cred run the place. It deserves so much more than that.
Again, one of my all time favourite parks.

Start of year cred count: 531

End of year cred count: 560 (+29)

New parks visted: 3
Bobbejaanland
Emerald Park
Botton's Pleasure Beach
Plus some bonus half-parks, fairs and alpine coasters like Plopsa Indoor and Skyland Ranch in Pigeon Forge etc..

Number of park days: 15

Best new to me creds:
1. Na Fianna Force.
2. Mecaladon.
3. Cú Chulainn.
4. Yoy (thrill).
5. Yoy (chill).
6. Fury.
7. Quest.

Worst new to me cred: Typhoon, Bobbejaanland.

Best new dark ride and best new flat ride, in fact, best new ride full stop and absolute highlight of the year for me has to be the amazing Danse Macabre at Efteling. A masterpiece. No other word for it.

Best non-park day: Probably hiking the Gap of Dunloe in Ireland. Super scenic.

Biggest "I was not expecting to be here" moment: Dollywood. I knew after last year's visit with the goons that I'd be back again someday with Mrs Howie, but I never thought it would be so soon, just over a year later, and for a whole week too. Felt very surreal to be back there again.

Plans for 2026: I literally have no clue at the moment. I mean, apart from the fact wifey and I have 2026 Dollywood season passes, so there's a good chance we might go back there when Nightflight Expedition is up and running, but nothing actually planned yet.
Bit of France, maybe? Quite fancy a bit of Nigloland, Walibi Rhone Alps, plus haven't been to Asterix since 2017, so that's a possibility.
Wouldn't mind a bit of Denmark action at some point, but... dunno. We'll see.

Plans for 2031: Universal Bedford. 😁😁
Saving starts now!
 
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Here's mine! Been a huge year for me as a thoosie!

Start of year credit count: 132
End of year credit count: 149
New credits gained: 17
New parks visited: 2 (Plopsaland and Walibi Holland)
Entries in the Top 10: Just the one (Untamed)

Best and Worst
Best new coaster: Untamed
Best new park: Plopsaland de Panne (despite the ride closures due to weather, it was much nicer than Walibi Holland
Best new dark ride: The Curse of Alton Manor
Best new water ride: Dino Splash at Plopsaland
Best new flat ride: Toxicator at Alton Towers
Biggest positive surprise: Heidi - The Ride. I wasn't expecting much, it nearly got into my top 10!
Biggest disappointment: Mandrill Mayhem at Chessington, which was pants in my opinion.
Most disappointing closure: Ride to Happiness and Anubis The Ride at Plopsaland - what else?
Favourite coaster ride: The ECC's takeover of Untamed at the end of our day at the park.
Favourite park day of 2025: Doing Alton Towers with you guys.
Biggest enthusiast achievement: Getting on my first RMC at last.
Best travel story: Staying in the beautiful area surrounding Plopsaland and having a delicious supper of Belgian fries as my solo Valentine's Day meal.
Worst new coaster: Condor
Worst new dark ride: The VR ride at Winter Wonderland. VR makes you ill, don't do it!
Worst new water ride: El Rio Grande. It was absolutely fine, but not as good as the others I did this year.
Worst new flat ride: Hm... probably the disc coaster at Plopsaland, but only because those make me dizzy.
Worst coaster ride: Condor - what else?
Worst park day of 2025: Probably my first of two visits to Thorpe Park earlier this year, but that was still a good trip, just not as memorable as the others I've had this year.

Non-Coaster
Best new city/country/state: Belgium (I've only been through it before).
Something I am never doing again: Staying in a group room in a hostel, it's cheap but I need my space.
My most important travel advice for the future: See above.
Best non-coaster moment: Working on various film sets, including Spider-Man 4 and HBO's Harry Potter.

The Future
One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Drakon at Paulton's Park.
One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Energylandia.
One place I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Poland.
 
Start of year
Started with 364 coasters. Finished with 410 coasters with a total of 46 new coasters this year
I added 6 new parks this year and 2 coasters broke into my top 10

Best new coaster: X2
Best new park: Silver Dollar City
Best new dark ride: Monsters Unchained
Favorite new water ride: Timber Mountain Log Ride
Biggest surprise of the year: Birthday trip to Silver Dollar City! What a great park!
Biggest disappointment of the year: Going to Cedar Point for the first time. I had really high expectations and was met with closed rides and long lines most of the trip.
Most disappointing closure: Apart from a messy weekend at Cedar Point, my trip to SDC was met with closed rides due to temperatures for half the weekend.
Favorite coaster ride: Evening ride on Phoenix at Knoebels. Easily my number 1 coaster
Favorite park day: Too many great days to count
Worst coaster - tie between Scream at SFMM and Donkey Kong at Epic Universe
Worst park day - probably my visit to Cedar Point. The park pretty much falls apart in any kind of wet weather. There wasn't a time where half the coasters weren't shut down for severe weather or some kind of breakdown. Something similar happened at SDC last week, but that park has stuff to do that's not just roller coasters. Also planned a fall trip to SFGAdv, but the park was closed due to severe weather so I had to cancel that trip last minute.

Other memorable moments this year include
- Double duel on Twisted Colossus. This is such a rare feat, I'm glad I managed to get it
- I had a quick conversation with park management at Silver Dollar City while getting sunset photos of the coasters. They were really cool.
- Going to Epic Universe for the first time!
- Saying my goodbyes to Rip Ride Rockit and Six Flags America

Non coaster moments
- First time in Pittsburgh proper. Last time I was there, I didn't really spend any time in the city. This was the last trip I was able to take with my mom before she passed as well.
- First time visiting West Virginia.
- Visited two new Buc-ee's locations
- I did Medieval Times for the first time in January. That was really fun.

Future trip plans
Planning to hit Kennywood before the year ends for their Christmas event. I loved going to the park in summer and I'm looking forward to seeing the park decked out in Christmas decorations.
Very excited to visit Japan for the first time in spring!
Hoping to hit Lake Compounce, SFNE and Quassy sometime next year. I'm long overdue for a New England trip and it'll be my first time at LC/Quassy.
While I have a bunch of domestic park trips planned, I really wanna visit Europa Park for the first time. I would cross off a new park on the bucket list.
Trying to hit Casino Pier as well. Maybe when I visit GAdv next year.
 
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Nitefly said:
I think my only new credit this year was Viking at Energylandia.
Beat that.
Click to expand...
Bad goon.

amanda-bynes-cute.gif


:D
 
I think I've only done like three coaster-related trips this past year: a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, a trip to Dallas, and a trip to Finland/Denmark. I haven't ridden any coasters since July (just kinda is what it is), but I did get a solid haul of new creds and parks. Next year might be lighter on the coaster front through.

Statistics
Start of year credit count: 470
End of year credit count: 536
New credits gained: 66
New parks visited: 11
Entries in the Top 30: Taiga (22)

Best and Worst
Best new coaster: Taiga, Linnanmaki
Best new park: Tough to say, but I think the standouts are California's Great America, Tivoli Gardens, or Linnanmaki
Best new dark ride: Den Flyvende Kuffert, Tivoli Gardens (mostly by default).
Best new water ride: Unofficially a rain ride on Taiga; officially Long Cun Expedition at Djurs Sommerland (by default).
Best new flat ride: Free Fall Tower, Tivoli Friheden (holy f***)
Biggest positive surprise: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom being the prettiest Six Flags park; also shoutout Big Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Biggest disappointment: Tivoli Gardens's operations
Most disappointing closure: I mean there're random creds closing that I'll never get, but nothing really stands out that I can think of.
Favourite coaster ride: Back row on Rutschebanen at Tivoli with a very loose lap bar, just before a thunderstorm closure.
Favourite park day of 2025: Very chill visit to one of my favorite parks at Djurs Sommerland, while still getting tons of rides on Piraten.
Biggest enthusiast achievement: 500th coaster on New Texas Giant, the most important coaster of the 2010s.
Best travel story: Nothing crazy stands out this year, but I had a nice hour-long chat with a Finnish dude on my overnight flight to Helsinki

Non-Coaster
Best new city/country/state: Seattle, Helsinki, and Tampere were the standouts.
Something I am never doing again: I mean I'm probably never going to CGA again. But also unlikely I'll ever get back to Powerpark or Sarkaniemmi.
My most important travel advice for the future: Not sure? No big learning experience this year honestly.
Best non-coaster moment: An insane powder day at Deer Valley where I skied in a flannel.
"I was not expecting to go HERE this year": Honestly a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Future
One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Leviathan
One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Canada's Wonderland
One place I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Already got trips booked for Guatemala and Switzerland.
 
For the third year in a row it was a quiet year, and my most quiet one to boot.

I did one park: SF Great Adventure and added one new credit: The Flash
So not much breakdown for me to do 😂

This lull started by choice for a few reasons, kinda went longer than expected, wasn't all bad to have non park plans BUT it's time to get back to the groove. Working on big 2026. A small sample:
The Future
One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Alpen Fury
One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Canada's Wonderland
One place I want to visit for the first time in 2026: British Columbia (I'm going on a nature expedition, 5 full days deep in wilderness looking for rare bears, seeing amazing things etc + Banff and also gunna visit Vancouver and hey, if I can squeeze a park in why not :)
 
Yeah I reckon this was a decent year. As of today I've wrapped up so here goes;

Start of Year Count; 170
End of Year Count; 231
New Credits; 61
How many of those were +1's (1 coaster/location); 13

Trips - 4 Total
Chicago-Wisconsin Dells (SFGAM, Indiana Beach, CJ Barrymore's, Little Amerricka, Mount Olympus, many +1's).
Montreal (Super Aqua Club, Sommet Saint-Sauveur, Pays de Merveilles, La Ronde, Granby Zoo, & more)
Orlando (SeaWorld, Epic Universe, IAAPA, WDW)
Santiago, Dominican Republic (Screamland, Xtreme Park)

Best New Park; Universal Epic Universe
Best New Waterpark; Super Aqua Club
Best New Attraction; Monster's Unchained
Favorite New Water Ride; Colorado River @ Saint-Sauveur
Best New Coasters; Stardust Racers, Space Mountain, and AlpenFury
Biggest Disappointment; Hades 360 is awful

Highlights
  • Attended back to back Saturday grand opening days for two new coasters; Yeti Trek at Santa's Village and AlpenFury at CW
  • A dozen goons and I left Six Flags Great America midday for an hour to take over a Chinese manufactured powered coaster in a warehouse and then promptly witnessed a grand theft auto happen in the parking lot.
  • Toured inside Wonder Mountain at Canada's Wonderland in March during the construction of AlpenFury, and also the electrical flywheel shed powering Vekoma's Yeti Trek
  • Solo'ed the Montreal Metro for a few days to check out a few excellent waterparks and credit hunt. Somehow I got on La Ronde's Marche Du Mille Pattes quite easily!
  • Did all four Walt Disney World parks across two days on a double-digit budget, thanks to a group of friends who provided comp tickets, accommodations, a car, PhotoPass, a couple Lightning Lane freebies, park guidance, and company. I hadn't been since 2011 and in return I bought a few rounds of food and alcohol.
  • Dominican Country Completion continues to elude me with 5/6 done, although I've probably got more there. I unexpectedly rode Puerto Rico's sole registered credit there though, so by technicality of ownership I've completed that country.
  • Epic Universe was probably the highlight of the year. I had an excellent and extremely productive full day visit.
Lows
  • Got my phone stolen on public transit in Orlando and didn't have a backup device to communicate/photograph with. That was bad.
  • Paying and planning trip dates around a pricy concert and hot air balloon festival in Quebec only for the Wacky Worm that is historically always there to not be there. Goon hangs his head in shame! The event was still fantastic though.
  • Not visiting Cedar Point AGAIN even though its a few hours away and I haven't been since 2018
  • American Triple Loop failed to open for me at Indiana Beach. I did finally get on Steel Hawg though, which was down during my 2019 visit.
Plans for 2026
  • The priority is Eastern Pennsylvania since its the last region within 6 hours of driving I've yet to visit, and I have friends out there now. Ohio is also in the cards, including Cedar Point. A more ambitious target is Dallas for Tormenta/Universal Kids. No need to return to Florida, no plans to fly internationally.
 
Parks visited in 2025:

Coney Island, Europa Park x 2, Plopsaland, Efteling, Thorpe Park x 14, Parc Asterix, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Alton Towers x 2,
Heide Park, Kings Dominion, Six Flags America, Kings Island x 2, Holiwood Nights at Holiday World, Canadas Wonderland, Waldameer, Cedar Point x 4, Kentucky Kingdom, Kennywood, Universals Islands of Adventure, Halloween Horror Nights, Epic Universe, SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Studios Florida, ScreamFest Burton, Alton Towers ScareFest, Thorpe Park Fright Nights, MotionGate, Real Madrid World, Ferrari World, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, PortAventura.

Coaster count at end of 2025: 857

Best New-To-Me Coaster: Voltron at Europa Park. One of the most aggressive, dynamic and creative coasters in the world. My new number one.

1000026029.jpg

Best New-To-Me park: SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. Yes, it's better than Epic Universe, imo. SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is beautiful and they have a fun, extremely re-rideable gem of a coaster in Manta.

Best New Dark Ride: Monsters Unchained in Epic Universe. That ride is a love letter to the magic of theme parks. Honourable mention: Danse Macabre - spooky, quirky and full of references. How very Efteling.

Best new flat ride: Toxicator at Alton Towers. My first ever Huss Top Spin! I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it (the excellent soundtrack helps) Plus, it photographs nicely in the pouring rain.

1000022072.jpg

Biggest positive surprise: Sirens Curse at Cedar Point. The first modern Vekoma that has truly blown me away. Frenetic pacing, glass smooth, transitions that don't make you feel sick... It has it all! Plus the onboard audio elevates the experience.

Honourable mentions: night rides on retracked Grizzly at Kings Dominion. It was better than The Beast at night. Second honourable mention: Yukon Striker. I'm pretty nonplussed about B+M dive coasters but Yukon Striker delivers one hell of a gut punch.

Biggest disappointment: Top Thrill 2 - the launches are just so weak. The trains feel cheap. There's no stand out "wow" moment on the ride, it all feels too contemplative and measured for what it is. Also, trimless night rides on The Voyage at Holiwood Nights aren't the life changing experience they're made out to be.

With the exception of the Dark Universe area, I wasn't a huuuge fan of Epic Universe overall. It felt kinda bland, plasticky and soulless.

Most disappointing ride closure: I finally flew out to the UAE and Formula Rossa was closed the entire time.

1000023060.jpg


Favourite coaster ride: It's hard to pick one. Front row on Red Force at sunset with Ian From CoasterForce. Ferocious night rides on Voltron with @Slamming Coastercore . I somehow got a trimless ride on Magnum XL 200 earlier this year which felt like glorious death.

Favourite park day of 2025: Halloween Horror Nights Orlando. The Wyatt Sicks house was amazing. Plus there were so many stunning original haunted houses and I'd say the best scare zones they've ever had. Vibes were off the scale. Loved it.

Biggest Enthusiast Achievement: Composing soundtracks for ScreamFest Burton. Walking through a haunted house hearing your own vocals and guitars blasting out is a nice feeling.

The Future

One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Eejanaika. I'll be in on tour in Japan in April so fingers crossed Fuji Q plays ball this time. Third time's the charm?

One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Fantasiana
 
Statistics
Start of year credit count: 492
End of year credit count: 526
New credits gained: 34
Start of year park count: 84
End of year park count: 98
New parks visited: 8
Entries in the Top 10: Tomorrowland: The Ride to Happiness, Untamed (Walibi)

Best and Worst
Best new coaster: Tomorrowland: The Ride to Happiness

Best new park: Efteling

Best new dark ride: Danse Macabre

Best new water ride: Pulsar

Best new flat ride: Pixarus

Biggest positive surprise: Fire Runner

Biggest disappointment: Rapterra

Most disappointing closure: Boo Blasters, and I'm not that upset about it, but I wish they could've kept it up through the season as this is something I'd usually ride at least once if it's Winterfest. But small price to pay for Opening Nightmare!

Favourite coaster ride: This insanity right here, specifically how we came into the brakes and the exchange with other riders that followed:

We were in Belgium so pardon our French in this video. Mods remove or link if not kosher for forums.

Biggest enthusiast achievement: Riding every coaster that my favorite manufacturer opened this season, when they were working internationally. Fire Runner was a pain and messed up other travel plans with its delayed opening, but I still managed to get it in its month of operating season.

Best travel story: So my current partner Keely wanted to go to the Villisca Axe Murder House in Iowa this summer as she loves true crime and all things morbid and has been obsessed with this specific crime since she was a kid. She grew up a Little House on the Prairie kid, like they read the books and watched the movies and made the cookie recipe in the books, it was a huge part of her childhood. When we got to Iowa, she expressed so much disappointment that it was corn, corn, and more corn when she was expecting miles of grassy meadows dotted with colorful prairie flowers. But it had a happy ending because we went to Millennium Park in Chicago and she loved how it was landscaped like the natural terrain of the Midwest, so she got her buttercups and violets in the end.

Non-Coaster
Best new city/country/state: Amsterdam for city, Luxembourg for country, did not get any new US state credits this year but I really liked the Holland region of Nederland specifically.

My most important travel advice for the future: You do not have super blood. You got COVID coming back from Denmark, you got a cold going to Amsterdam and had to drive all the way across Belgium feeling like death. Mask up, bring some more basic medication, and understand just how germy and disgusting those big airports really are.

Best non-coaster moment: Honestly, it's a pretty somber one. My father passed away earlier this year, my mother had his ashes solidified into little river pebbles and gave one to myself and one to my brother to put somewhere we felt he'd want it. Before I was born, he went to Amsterdam and got way too smashed on the Heineken Brewery canal cruise and beer tour, and it was one of the many funny travel stories of his that I grew up with that inspired me to do this myself. So while we were in Amsterdam, I bought my buddy and I some Heinekens and Bitterballen (he was always picking up tabs for strangers in public) and we dropped the stone into the canal near the Westertoren Church and Anne Frank House, as he loved WWII history. I never got to go up with him in the his airplane as he got his PPL in October and passed in January, so this also allowed me to hit the skies with him as I'd wanted to do.

"I was not expecting to go HERE this year": Villisca, Iowa, specifically the haunted murder house where we terrifyingly spent the night probably tops this list, but it was technically planned at the start of the year. However, we also drove 2 hours both ways to visit the Mothman Museum in West Virginia.

Other
Most northerly new place: Nunspeet, Nederland
Most easterly new place: Vianden, Luxembourg
Most southerly new place: Villisca, Iowa, USA
Most westerly new place: Villisca, Iowa, USA

The Future
One coaster I want to ride for the first time in 2026: Zadra
One park I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Europa Park
One place I want to visit for the first time in 2026: Idk why I'm on such a morbid kick with this, but I'm really hoping to visit Auschwitz next year. In the 8th grade, I had a teacher who had been there and brought her old school slide projector with photos and showed them to us. It's a subject I always found just as disgusting as I did fascinating, and while I've done some dark tourism related to WWII, I don't think there's anywhere on the planet that can possibly come close to this.
 
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