This was an exciting weekend in Haarlem. It started late on Friday night when we found ourselves wandering deep into the blackness of the forest on the edge of the city. Loki, the mischievous Norse god, had opened the gates of hell and unleashed the dominions of evil here. Our task was to locate the hellish portal, pass through it, and confront that which we found there.
Well, that’s what the witch told us as we sat around the bonfire in the parking lot of our favorite dog park, Caprera. She spoke in shrill, quivering Dutch, so my translation might be a bit off. In any case, it was Friday the 13th and after a tremendously successful Halloween night event (which we missed because we were in America), Caprera decided to set up the haunted forest one more time.
And man-o-man are we glad they did! You expect good quality stuff like this in America, where Halloween is big business, but what we experienced last Friday was the top-of-the-top for this sort of thing. We were amazed at the extent of the production. It was by far the best one of these haunted walks that I’ve ever done.
Each group was spaced about 5 minutes apart and allowed to go through the forest on their own. No guides, no forced bunching of groups. This meant that you could only occasionally hear the group in front of you screaming, but you had no idea where they were in the meandering 200 acre park or what had frightened them. There were four of us in our group - me, Beth, Natasja, and Eva.
The paths were very dark, only lit by an occasional small glow stick every 50 meters or so, giving everything an eerie smoldering quality. It wasn’t until we had walked about 100 meters that we could hear a metallic, otherworldly heartbeat throbbing through the forest. This got our adrenaline pumping, but it was still another 50 meters before we encountered our first bit of entertainment. And it was the tackiest, cheesiest thing we had ever seen. A sensor picked up our motion and flicked a light onto a mask hanging in a tree. There were a few Styrofoam graves tucked into a thicket. The light caught us off guard, which scared us a little, but mostly we laughed. The adrenaline came down a notch. We relaxed. We had no idea that this was the intent. Our guard was now down.
Then it started. About 10 meters further up the path there were some webs in the trees. After the cheesy mask, we expected rubber spiders dangling in front of us. But as we came underneath the webs, a gruesome character came bursting from the bushes and scared the living crap out of us. We ran, laughing down the path, only to be attacked by electronic spiders coming at us on the ground. They must have been remote controlled cars covered in spider 'costumes', because they veered and swerved at us as we ran.
It just kept getting better as we went. There was a pack of snarling wolves with glowing eyes misdirecting your attention as a real wolfman came at you from the other side of the path, scarecrows sitting on benches would leap up at you as you passed, giant bats buzzed you from above and zombies came out of graves and chased you down the trail. And then there was the chainsaw massacre guy. The trails were spread out enough that we hadn't heard the chainsaw running for the group in front of us. We had no idea that this guy was even there and when he fired that chainsaw up and came running at us, the experience was complete.
The whole atmosphere was superbly done. You never knew what was “real” and what was just a prop. But the best part was the door to hell. It was a simple setup- just a rope across the path covered in black cloth with a standard door set in the middle. A small spotlight lit up the door. But when standing in the middle of the woods with your adrenaline pumping, it looked like a portal to nowhere. It took a lot of laughs and prodding to walk up to that door. And as I reached for the knocker, it started going by itself! Boom! Boom! Boom! Very cool. When we finally got the nerve to open the door, all we saw was a silent character, just standing there and waiting. He was real, but never made a move. It wasn’t until later that Death (with the sickle) confronted us, demanding respect as we passed the (real) graveyard on the edge of the woods.
The only character that went off script was the vampire. He did a great job scaring the bejeebers out of us, but when we started running down the wrong path to get away from him, he called out to us to get us going in the right direction. And when we turned back, he started flirting with Natasja. We were screaming with laughter as he put his arm around her and kept saying that he wanted her for his bride, even as she pleaded with him through tears of laughter to stay away from her.
Well, that’s what the witch told us as we sat around the bonfire in the parking lot of our favorite dog park, Caprera. She spoke in shrill, quivering Dutch, so my translation might be a bit off. In any case, it was Friday the 13th and after a tremendously successful Halloween night event (which we missed because we were in America), Caprera decided to set up the haunted forest one more time.
And man-o-man are we glad they did! You expect good quality stuff like this in America, where Halloween is big business, but what we experienced last Friday was the top-of-the-top for this sort of thing. We were amazed at the extent of the production. It was by far the best one of these haunted walks that I’ve ever done.
Each group was spaced about 5 minutes apart and allowed to go through the forest on their own. No guides, no forced bunching of groups. This meant that you could only occasionally hear the group in front of you screaming, but you had no idea where they were in the meandering 200 acre park or what had frightened them. There were four of us in our group - me, Beth, Natasja, and Eva.
The paths were very dark, only lit by an occasional small glow stick every 50 meters or so, giving everything an eerie smoldering quality. It wasn’t until we had walked about 100 meters that we could hear a metallic, otherworldly heartbeat throbbing through the forest. This got our adrenaline pumping, but it was still another 50 meters before we encountered our first bit of entertainment. And it was the tackiest, cheesiest thing we had ever seen. A sensor picked up our motion and flicked a light onto a mask hanging in a tree. There were a few Styrofoam graves tucked into a thicket. The light caught us off guard, which scared us a little, but mostly we laughed. The adrenaline came down a notch. We relaxed. We had no idea that this was the intent. Our guard was now down.
Then it started. About 10 meters further up the path there were some webs in the trees. After the cheesy mask, we expected rubber spiders dangling in front of us. But as we came underneath the webs, a gruesome character came bursting from the bushes and scared the living crap out of us. We ran, laughing down the path, only to be attacked by electronic spiders coming at us on the ground. They must have been remote controlled cars covered in spider 'costumes', because they veered and swerved at us as we ran.
It just kept getting better as we went. There was a pack of snarling wolves with glowing eyes misdirecting your attention as a real wolfman came at you from the other side of the path, scarecrows sitting on benches would leap up at you as you passed, giant bats buzzed you from above and zombies came out of graves and chased you down the trail. And then there was the chainsaw massacre guy. The trails were spread out enough that we hadn't heard the chainsaw running for the group in front of us. We had no idea that this guy was even there and when he fired that chainsaw up and came running at us, the experience was complete.
The whole atmosphere was superbly done. You never knew what was “real” and what was just a prop. But the best part was the door to hell. It was a simple setup- just a rope across the path covered in black cloth with a standard door set in the middle. A small spotlight lit up the door. But when standing in the middle of the woods with your adrenaline pumping, it looked like a portal to nowhere. It took a lot of laughs and prodding to walk up to that door. And as I reached for the knocker, it started going by itself! Boom! Boom! Boom! Very cool. When we finally got the nerve to open the door, all we saw was a silent character, just standing there and waiting. He was real, but never made a move. It wasn’t until later that Death (with the sickle) confronted us, demanding respect as we passed the (real) graveyard on the edge of the woods.
The only character that went off script was the vampire. He did a great job scaring the bejeebers out of us, but when we started running down the wrong path to get away from him, he called out to us to get us going in the right direction. And when we turned back, he started flirting with Natasja. We were screaming with laughter as he put his arm around her and kept saying that he wanted her for his bride, even as she pleaded with him through tears of laughter to stay away from her.
I still laugh, even today, when I walk through Caprera with Sage in the bright light of day and remember where each of the props/actors was set up. It was a different world that night, and one of the highlight evenings of the year.
The other big evening of the weekend was on Sunday, my 44th birthday. Beth and I kept it low key and just went out for a nice dinner and drinks in the city. But when we got home I put together the present that Alex and Stefanie got me…a Picoo2 miniature remote controlled helicopter. They bought it for me as a gag gift, since I enjoy playing with all of Isabella’s electronic toys every time that we go to visit them. But I SEVERELY underestimated the kick that this thing would be. I’ve finally learned to fly it properly in the house without crashing every 10 seconds. Now, with this new found skill, I can terrorize the cats endlessly. Beth's not so crazy about it, but the cats love it.
