The happiest place on earth
The wind blows through our hair, we have the sound of a waterfall in our ears and next to us the endless red rocky desert of the southwest of the USA passes by. The sun burns quite hot on our heads, because we have exchanged Baloo for another vehicle and now sit in a chic red convertible and enjoy life.
After a longer curvy section we suddenly see a straight stretch in front of us. We shift down a gear, accelerate, hear the engine howl and feel the incipient stiffness of the neck. We are pressed into our black leather seats and drive towards the horizon at full speed. My God, it's fast! Just as the first adrenaline rush is subsiding, we notice a Mustang positioning itself on the lane next to us. He probably wants to challenge us to the race! Well then let's see who has more little horses in the stable....
We can actually put on another tine and see how the Mustang slowly falls back again and gets smaller in our rear-view mirror. Won!
Phu, what a ride! Now we first need a break...
We get out of our racing car Lightning McQueen and look for adrenaline in the small but nice village "Radiator Springs" for lunch.
For all those who still haven't got a light on: We are in Disneyland and have just felt the 100th ride of the main attraction in the theme area "Cars" behind us. Already when we visited our friends Ali, Teresa and Gary in Hillsboro in autumn, we agreed to meet again here shortly before Christmas. The three are huge Disney fans and a regular visit to the amusement park in L.A. is an absolute must for them. A visit during the Christmas season was still on her bucket list and since we were in the area anyway, we also organized a sinfully expensive 3-day pass for Disneyland and the neighboring park "California Adventure" (312 USD p.P.).
The joy of seeing each other again was great when two days ago we were able to embrace each other again at the entrance to Frontierland. Since then we spend every minute in the park that he has opened (after all, we want to fully enjoy the expensive tickets) and fight our way through the crowds - mostly equipped with Minnie and Mickey earrings - from attraction to attraction.
That's only possible in America! Do you want to know what such a scrap plastic hairband with attached mouse ears costs? - 30 USD! ... Yes, read correctly! THIRTY! In every junk shop you can buy these things in rough quantities. Of course differently arranged depending upon topic area. Either one is classically on the way and carries the original Mickey-ears in rich black or if one likes it more multicolored, then here are also no borders set to the personal self-development. Whether rhinestones or lace - no wishes remain unfulfilled. Just as we pass by next to a copy of the "totally wacky" variety (the gentleman proudly wears a bobbing Slinky dog on his head), I look at Ali shaking her head and saying dryly: "I really don't understand why people buy those things. - I mean...you can pretty much only wear them here...right?!" and looks at me with a wink. I have to laugh. She's right, I don't understand this disguise delusion either!
Now back again to the important things in life: As I said, we use every minute we have at our disposal and work our way from one attraction to the next from 08.00 a.m. until midnight, slowly but surely hacking down the entire list of rides on our flyer. It's a lot of fun and I fully understand the fascination of the more than 25 million visitors who visit this park every year. The different theme areas are designed with so much attention to detail that you can't get enough of it and the whole scenery and decorations are amazing. Every evening a half-hour fireworks display of the extra class is fired up above the symbolic fairytale castle and there are daily parades and shows, which of course we don't miss. And from time to time we meet his favourite Disney characters, who like to have time for a hug and thus conjure up tears of joy in the eyes of the little girls.
Disneyland is also called "The happiest place on earth" for a reason.