The day we went, the park was only open 10:30-6, and nearly all the coasters were running at half capacity, thereby doubling the waiting times and making it almost impossible to get on even half of the park’s rides. This didn’t seem to be the case at Six Flags Magic Mountain. But when you visit a park which is massive, and home to 19 roller coasters as well as several other rides, you expect that the park owners will at least make it possible for you to get on a fair proration of those rides. Hans Castorp-such as the young man’s name-sat alone in his little grey-upholstered compartment, with his alligator-skin handbag, a present from his uncle and guardian.When you visit an amusement park, you expect to have to stand in line for the rides. You mount a narrow-gauge train and as the small but very powerful engine gets underway, there begins the thrilling part of the journey, a steep and steady climb that seems never to come to an end.įor the station of Landquart lies at a relatively low altitude, but now the wild and rocky route pushes grimly onward into the Alps themselves. Here, after a long and windy wait in a spot devoid of charm. You take the train again, but only as far as Landquart, a small Alpine station, where you have to change. It crosses all sorts of countries, goes uphill and down dale.ĭescends from the plateau of Southern Germany to the shore of Lake Constance, over its bounding waves and on across marshes once thought to be bottomless.Īt this point, the route, which has been so far over trunk lines, gets up. AN UNASSUMING young man was traveling, in midsummer, from his native city of Hamburg to Davos-Platz in the Canton of the Grisons, on a three weeks’ visit.įrom Hamburg to Davos is a long journey – too long, indeed, for so brief a stay.