h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When i was a child my the highlight of the summer for myself and my two brothers was our annual trip to Blackpool pleasure beach. Is it's large but it is condensed, so everywhere you look there's a roller coaster. My personal favourite is the Big One which was when built in 1996 (I think) the largest in the world, closly followed by the Grand National a heart stopping wooden roller coaster. Looking back it is extreamly tacky and sums up everything Blackpool is about.

We're still going next weekend though!

The Grand National is one of my fave old roller-coasters. Two coasters set off side by side with the idea that they are 'racing' each other. The coaster that gets back to the start first is the winner and everyone cheers.

I remember when they had a fire at the Pleasure Beach and the news reported mournfuly that the Beach's mascot, the mechanical laughing clown that sat at the entrance, had been slightly damaged. everyone I knew hoped it had been permanent - everyone hated that guffawing abomination.

The old woman who owned the beach used to insist on being the first person to go on every new ride.

I think it's a lot less Americanised than most theme parks, which can only be a good thing, also it isn't like fort knox, it doesn't take up your whole day, you can just pop in and out if there's only one thing that interests you.

We've often gone once a year in a huge party of about 20, gone on a couple of rides, gone to the pub (for a shandy or two - honest!) and then back for a few more rides. Then we all pile back to the car-park and get and chips for tea before heading home.

Actually, I want to be there right now...



Jims

Yes chips is an essential part of the Blackpool experience, you have to admit.

Candy floss, too.

And a bottle of fairy liquid in the River Caves. It wasn't me, miss, it was the kid in the boat in front, he's not from our school...

And one of the best things about the PB is the video arcades... games of yesteryear, still there for 10p a go... or they were the last time I went. I'm sure I used to be better than this at Dig Dug...

The Big One was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world... for about six weeks, until construction was completed on one in Japan which was >-------< this much bigger.

And that laughing clown gave me nightmares when I was five...

Ah, I can almost taste the chip fat...

H.

I went to Blackpool earlier this year and, naturally, headed for the Pleasure Beach. I'm a big kid and I don't care who knows it!

There's a great ride there now called Valhalla. It's similar to the Log Flume ride they've had there for years, in that it's a kind of aquatic roller-coaster in which you're floating in a water-filled track, rising and falling and getting wet when you go down the slopes.

The difference is that Valhalla is indoors and largely in the dark. The scenery is on a Viking theme, and the only lighting comes from jets of flame alongside the track (at a safe distance) and from holograms, which are used to great effect. You travel in little 'longboats', which hold about eight people. They never quite come to a halt as they float slowly past the platform where you embark and disembark - you just have to be a bold Viking and jump in and out while it's still slowly moving.

On the way in, I noticed that souvenir Valhalla plastic capes were selling very well at £1 a go. I soon discovered why. There are some serious splashdowns involved in the ride, so you get very wet on Valhalla!

Anyway, I'm going to Blackpool and the Pleasure Beach again later this month. Can't wait!

can I just say I wittnessed Red Rum opening the Grand National (he also switched on the iluminations that year)

You sure about that, HD? The Grand National has been there since 1935. There's a plaque on the platform saying so. It sticks in my mind because I remarked to my parents that the ride had been around as long as they had - they were both born in that year! Maybe Red Rum re-opened it after a refurbisment.

perhaps that wuz it then but it definatly wuz started up by red rum sticking a hoof on a big button