Andreas Kiehl

Already since my early childhood days, once a year it was time for the "Europa-Park day" again. With every visit I could ride more attractions and got more and more enthusiastic especially about the roller coasters. While one visit a year was common at first, soon there was a second and third one. But only after 2001 with my own access to the World Wide Web, amusement parks and roller coasters became my greatest hobby. I discovered that there are others like me that like to visit amusement parks and became a member of the German Funfair and Amusement Park Club "FKF" as well as the European Coaster Club "ECC". Since then I literally absorb every information I get about amusement parks und roller coasters and try my best to visit new parks und rides.

My most favourite parks have good theming and a friendly atmosphere. That's why roller coasters are only one part of the hobby for me as I'm also fascinated by good dark rides. That explains why you can meet my frequently at my home park, the Europa Park. Other parks that I equally like are the parks from Disney and Universal as well as Port Aventura in Spain. When it comes to roller coasters I tend to differentiate between steel and wooden coasters. I like airtime and speed the most on the ones made of steel while I appreciate the "out-of-control" feeling and sudden airtime on their wooden colleagues. I rarely visit shows and I'm very demanding on that matter. The only shows I am watching are the best in my opinion like "Templo del Fuego" at Port Aventura or "Arachnomé" at Phantasialand.

When there is a day where I'm not strolling through an amusement park I like playing video games as a long-time gamer, wandering around in the depths of the internet and enjoy my time after work with watching a movie from my DVD collection. During the day I work as a software engineer in a medium-sized software company. Although my spare time is very limited at times I will stick to my greatest hobby. Not only do the amusement parks with their rides let me hold on to my passion - above all do my friends. With them around our days inside and outside the parks are twice as good.