Cash Machine
Methods of Payment
The following credit cards are accepted at the Main Entrance and at a number of locations in the park: Visa, Euro Card, Maestro, American Express and Dutch bankcards. You can also use pin and chip bank cards at many locations. In addition, there are two cash machines in the park in Fantasierijk and you can top up your Chipknip (Dutch back cards only). An Iris cheque (gift voucher from the Dutch tourist information offices (VVV)) may only be used at the Main Entrance and at the Visitors’ Service Centre. |
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Legend
Written by the Efteling
Translated by Milena
The Secret of Gravity
Once upon a time there was a very old and very wise alchemist.
His name was Gwendolcus and for as long as he could remember he had lived and worked in the castle of the king. He had his own laboratory under the vaulted ceilings of the cellars, where bats closed their wings for months in the winter and it was pleasantly cool in summer.
From the moment the first sun rays peaked over the hills until the moonlight was reflecting in the castle ponds, Gwendolcus worked on ‘The Sciences’ as he called it. Pardoes the Wizard Jester would regularly help with these. Pardoes lived behind the Storywood and past the Devil Mountains. He liked to see the comical side of the test results and infuse a little magic here and there. In this way, he and Pardoes succeeded in redirecting the atom streams in stone in such a way that they turned into silver molecules. He had applied this discovery to the stone path that leads to the castle so that it would sparkle in the midday sun.
The second phase of his experiments focused on redirecting the atom streams of iron into gold. His progress was therefore top secret but he was otherwise very open about his other findings. For example, he had found a way to capture the crackles of lightning in cannons and use it to light all of the lights in the castle. He invented a translation machine that used an ‘empirical linguistic convertor’ to turn lies into truths. He experimented with thickening the air between two poles by pulling the space between air bubbles into a vacuum. Eventually, he reasoned, people would be able to walk on air if he could only make the spaces tight enough. For now though, a surprising amount of test subjects among the palace staff ended up walking around with their legs in plaster.
His experiments with air however, had given him entirely new ideas: Gravity for example. He wondered why hair stuck to combs and why shreds of parchments stick to polished spoons. This attraction, he reasoned, is the same the whole world over. It was the friction of the air over the earth’s disc, which made the leaves of the trees fall down and not up in autumn, he was sure of this. Through a system of minimal headwinds, push storms and a little help from Pardoes’ magic twinkles, he learned how to influence this friction gravity. He had managed to levitate the king's sceptre in this way as a joke. In a transparent kettle, he managed to drop one of the knight's feathers as if it was a stone. During one of the king's parties, he pleased his master by making the wooden wine cups so heavy that they could not be lifted. He levitated the king's throne with the king still in it. He made a cooked pigeon fly again and made an apple so heavy that it sank right through a table. Everyone applauded the wise alchemist and the king enjoyed his fame. The alchemist had made him more popular than any king before him.
Gwendolcus didn’t really like doing those kinds of magic tricks, but he did it for the king and because all the nobles would send their alchemists, dowsers, wizards and sometimes witches to him to learn from him. Gwendolcus loved sharing the sciences with people (except of course, his advances in gold making because that was a secret), and if it meant he had to be silly at parties sometimes, it was worth it.
The king had two sons and a newborn daughter Victoria. The boys were the same age; equal in size, cleverness and mischievousness. They grew up at court, had the best rooms and the best clothes. One was called Oswal and the other Orbit. They didn’t just look alike, they also always wanted the same things. To the king's great sadness they begrudged each other everything. They were given anything they wanted but it was hardly ever enough. Pat one on the shoulder and the other would be angry. If Oswal found a nice sparkly stone, the other would steal it.
When their aunt gave Orbit a royal cart, Oswal took the wheels off it. They didn’t care about their little sister Victoria. When they were in the cellars with alchemist Gwendolcus, where the best and most interesting experiments happened they would fight over who could sit in front, or who could hold the test tube, or who would get to add the exploding powder, or who could turn on the burner. More than once, the alchemist had to lead them out of his laboratory by their ears.
When the king got older and the boys grew up, their rivalry only got worse. They argued about every girl. Orbit would always want to go out with whatever girl Oswal was with and vice versa. Princess Victoria thought both of her brothers were utterly stupid. When the king became ill he worried about who would succeed him. He suggested that his sons would divide the realm between them but this suggestion infuriated them as they both felt that they deserved the entire kingdom. Every day there was fighting. When one’s back was turned the other would try to talk their father into leaving him the kingdom. One day the king gathered all his strength and told his sons to leave the room. He sent for Gwendolcus. ‘My dear Gwendolcus’ he said. ‘My realm is suffering from all this conflict. You always have answers. Help me before I die’. The old alchemist nodded sagely and agreed to help the king.
He summoned the two princes. ‘The contents of this wondrous treasure chest is top secret’, the old alchemist said severely. He put his hand on the edge of the contraption that had been winched out of his cellar on a cart pulled by six horses. ‘No one can know its contents. You young ones must protect this chest against curious eyes. I am trusting you. Bring this chest to Pardoes the Wizard Jester. What’s inside belongs to him’.
Both kings' sons sat upon their magnificent black steeds. Two rows of fully equipped soldiers would accompany the transport. They whispered among themselves about the contents of the mysterious chest. One said it contained a barrel in which gravity was trapped. Another said he’d heard it was one of Gwendolcus’s new inventions but most were sure that the alchemist had uncovered the secret to turning iron into gold and was trying to smuggle a huge hoard of wealth out of the palace.
‘Only Pardoes’, said the alchemist, ‘can use the golden key to open the chest, and not until that very moment will he know who is worthy of following in the king's footsteps’.
The magic key to the treasure chest was in a separate box, in front of the wagon. It was sealed with two locks. Each of the princes had been given one of the two keys to the smaller box. ‘In this way, your highnesses both share the responsibility’, said Gwendolcus, and they set off on their journey.
When Gwendolcus walked back to the castle he looked up to where the king was looking out of the window and winked at him. Princess Victoria waved at her brothers until they were over the hill. The two princes had argued for a long time about which route to take. Orbit favoured the road to the west and spoke in horror of the swamps in the east, where innocent looking grasslands are actually overgrown moors. In the stinking, drab houses, mud monsters whose eyes peek out just above the plants lie in wait for unsuspecting travellers. They sink their claws into their feet and pull them down into the depths ever so slowly. The desperate final cries of those who saw the ground close up above them still hang in the shreds of mist between the bald trees.
Oswal on the other hand was utterly against the road to the west. Most travellers took that route. The endless sand plains where it’s so hot that any water you bring evaporates within a day. Perhaps somewhere there are pools of water, maybe even lakes but few who survived the journey ever found them. Instead, with terror in their eyes, they tell tales of walking sand dunes that would move from place to place, aided by the wind. Resting travellers would be ambushed in their sleep and buried beneath the dunes, never to be seen again.
Eventually, they decided to take the road right through the Storywood. They decided to accept the dangers of this road. They knew that in the shadow of the thick trees, villainous folk lived; brutes who would kill travellers without a second thought and rob them of everything they had. They knew that there were robbers who were able to dig entirely invisible pitfalls in the road. However after hours of bickering they finally settled on this route. It wasn’t a pleasant prospect but of the three evils this was probably the lesser because they knew the woods also contained kind creatures; fairies, dwarves, gnomes and trolls. They welcomed visitors, gave them food and kept them company. It was important to reach these creatures by nightfall, and so off they went.
They hadn’t been gone for fifteen minutes when they started arguing again. They argued about who got to ride up front. They quarrelled about who would sleep first that evening. They disagreed about the speed at which they should ride and whether the soldiers should walk in front or behind the wagon. Of course it was all really about one thing; the contents of the chest. The only thing they secretly agreed on was that since the gold was made in their own castle, it belonged to them. Bickering, they continued their journey but when evening fell they quieted down. Meanwhile, they both made plans to steal each other's key and make off with the loot themselves.
Shortly, they arrived in the fairy village, built on thick branches of wood giants, where it smelled of honey and vanilla. Harp music sounded through the trees and soft voices sang lazy songs. Bridges strung up from vines connected the branches. Brightly coloured birds twittered around the princes' heads and their soldiers. They were safe and sheltered, high up in the crown of a giant oak tree, so they laid themselves down and fell asleep right away.
When Oswal woke deep in the night, he crawled out from under his leafy blanket and crept to where Orbit slept. Carefully he pulled back the covers of woven flower stems and saw… that his brother wasn’t there! The leaves were still warm but Orbit was nowhere to be seen. Panicking he felt around the inside of his tunic and noticed that his own key had disappeared. Orbit had beaten him to it. He ran to the ladder made of vines and rushed down it.
There on the cart next to the treasure chest his brother was just opening the box containing the key.
‘You traitor!’, shouted Oswal. ‘ You vermin, you thief! You’re worse than the thieves walking around in this forest!’.
‘Oh yeah?’, said Orbit, ‘What about you? What are you doing here then? I just wanted to check if the key was still here. Just to make sure, no more than that’.
‘You’re a bandit and a cheat!’, cried Oswal, ‘give me that key!’ and he pulled on the handle with all his might. Orbit threw himself on the box and pulled the other way.
The box flew off the wagon, fell down, broke apart and the gold key landed with a thud between two rocks. Orbit jumped on the key and tried to lift it but Oswal pushed him away and wrapped his hands around the shaft of the key but it was really stuck. No matter how much Oswal pulled, the key could not be lifted. Now Orbit was pulling too. They huffed and puffed but it was immovable. It had become as heavy as two grown horses.
Suddenly they both heard a voice: ‘All the Twinkles, Gwendolcus was absolutely right!’. The voice startled them. Atop the treasure chest in the moonlight was Pardoes!
They stared at the Wizard Jester as he shook his head. ‘Gwendolcus predicted this. He changed the gravity of the key and the treasure chest. The key will stay stuck here and the wonderful contents of the treasure chest will remain hidden forever. Only one as honest as gold, one unblinded by the sparkle will be able to unlock the chest. Clearly this won’t be either of you! Nothing but greed and deceit. Neither one of you will succeed the king. You’re not suited to kingship. Away with you, and never show your faces again!’.
Neither prince was ever heard of again. Travellers would sometimes tell stories about two black clad masked bandits that worked together to make the forest unsafe and lived together in a robbers nest in the Devil Mountains but no one knew for sure. The treasure chest with its mysterious contents never left that spot. The key still sits heavily and immovable between the rocks.
After the death of the king, the kingdom was ruled by Queen Victoria the first, and she brought peace and prosperity to the land. And Gwendolcus? He still performs his experiments. Sometimes with his friend Pardoes but usually on his own. He still hopes to one day let people walk on air but he gave up his attempts to redirect the atom streams of iron into gold. Even the wisest scientist knows when he’s been bested by nature.
Translated by Milena
The Secret of Gravity
Once upon a time there was a very old and very wise alchemist.
His name was Gwendolcus and for as long as he could remember he had lived and worked in the castle of the king. He had his own laboratory under the vaulted ceilings of the cellars, where bats closed their wings for months in the winter and it was pleasantly cool in summer.
From the moment the first sun rays peaked over the hills until the moonlight was reflecting in the castle ponds, Gwendolcus worked on ‘The Sciences’ as he called it. Pardoes the Wizard Jester would regularly help with these. Pardoes lived behind the Storywood and past the Devil Mountains. He liked to see the comical side of the test results and infuse a little magic here and there. In this way, he and Pardoes succeeded in redirecting the atom streams in stone in such a way that they turned into silver molecules. He had applied this discovery to the stone path that leads to the castle so that it would sparkle in the midday sun.
The second phase of his experiments focused on redirecting the atom streams of iron into gold. His progress was therefore top secret but he was otherwise very open about his other findings. For example, he had found a way to capture the crackles of lightning in cannons and use it to light all of the lights in the castle. He invented a translation machine that used an ‘empirical linguistic convertor’ to turn lies into truths. He experimented with thickening the air between two poles by pulling the space between air bubbles into a vacuum. Eventually, he reasoned, people would be able to walk on air if he could only make the spaces tight enough. For now though, a surprising amount of test subjects among the palace staff ended up walking around with their legs in plaster.
His experiments with air however, had given him entirely new ideas: Gravity for example. He wondered why hair stuck to combs and why shreds of parchments stick to polished spoons. This attraction, he reasoned, is the same the whole world over. It was the friction of the air over the earth’s disc, which made the leaves of the trees fall down and not up in autumn, he was sure of this. Through a system of minimal headwinds, push storms and a little help from Pardoes’ magic twinkles, he learned how to influence this friction gravity. He had managed to levitate the king's sceptre in this way as a joke. In a transparent kettle, he managed to drop one of the knight's feathers as if it was a stone. During one of the king's parties, he pleased his master by making the wooden wine cups so heavy that they could not be lifted. He levitated the king's throne with the king still in it. He made a cooked pigeon fly again and made an apple so heavy that it sank right through a table. Everyone applauded the wise alchemist and the king enjoyed his fame. The alchemist had made him more popular than any king before him.
Gwendolcus didn’t really like doing those kinds of magic tricks, but he did it for the king and because all the nobles would send their alchemists, dowsers, wizards and sometimes witches to him to learn from him. Gwendolcus loved sharing the sciences with people (except of course, his advances in gold making because that was a secret), and if it meant he had to be silly at parties sometimes, it was worth it.
The king had two sons and a newborn daughter Victoria. The boys were the same age; equal in size, cleverness and mischievousness. They grew up at court, had the best rooms and the best clothes. One was called Oswal and the other Orbit. They didn’t just look alike, they also always wanted the same things. To the king's great sadness they begrudged each other everything. They were given anything they wanted but it was hardly ever enough. Pat one on the shoulder and the other would be angry. If Oswal found a nice sparkly stone, the other would steal it.
When their aunt gave Orbit a royal cart, Oswal took the wheels off it. They didn’t care about their little sister Victoria. When they were in the cellars with alchemist Gwendolcus, where the best and most interesting experiments happened they would fight over who could sit in front, or who could hold the test tube, or who would get to add the exploding powder, or who could turn on the burner. More than once, the alchemist had to lead them out of his laboratory by their ears.
When the king got older and the boys grew up, their rivalry only got worse. They argued about every girl. Orbit would always want to go out with whatever girl Oswal was with and vice versa. Princess Victoria thought both of her brothers were utterly stupid. When the king became ill he worried about who would succeed him. He suggested that his sons would divide the realm between them but this suggestion infuriated them as they both felt that they deserved the entire kingdom. Every day there was fighting. When one’s back was turned the other would try to talk their father into leaving him the kingdom. One day the king gathered all his strength and told his sons to leave the room. He sent for Gwendolcus. ‘My dear Gwendolcus’ he said. ‘My realm is suffering from all this conflict. You always have answers. Help me before I die’. The old alchemist nodded sagely and agreed to help the king.
He summoned the two princes. ‘The contents of this wondrous treasure chest is top secret’, the old alchemist said severely. He put his hand on the edge of the contraption that had been winched out of his cellar on a cart pulled by six horses. ‘No one can know its contents. You young ones must protect this chest against curious eyes. I am trusting you. Bring this chest to Pardoes the Wizard Jester. What’s inside belongs to him’.
Both kings' sons sat upon their magnificent black steeds. Two rows of fully equipped soldiers would accompany the transport. They whispered among themselves about the contents of the mysterious chest. One said it contained a barrel in which gravity was trapped. Another said he’d heard it was one of Gwendolcus’s new inventions but most were sure that the alchemist had uncovered the secret to turning iron into gold and was trying to smuggle a huge hoard of wealth out of the palace.
‘Only Pardoes’, said the alchemist, ‘can use the golden key to open the chest, and not until that very moment will he know who is worthy of following in the king's footsteps’.
The magic key to the treasure chest was in a separate box, in front of the wagon. It was sealed with two locks. Each of the princes had been given one of the two keys to the smaller box. ‘In this way, your highnesses both share the responsibility’, said Gwendolcus, and they set off on their journey.
When Gwendolcus walked back to the castle he looked up to where the king was looking out of the window and winked at him. Princess Victoria waved at her brothers until they were over the hill. The two princes had argued for a long time about which route to take. Orbit favoured the road to the west and spoke in horror of the swamps in the east, where innocent looking grasslands are actually overgrown moors. In the stinking, drab houses, mud monsters whose eyes peek out just above the plants lie in wait for unsuspecting travellers. They sink their claws into their feet and pull them down into the depths ever so slowly. The desperate final cries of those who saw the ground close up above them still hang in the shreds of mist between the bald trees.
Oswal on the other hand was utterly against the road to the west. Most travellers took that route. The endless sand plains where it’s so hot that any water you bring evaporates within a day. Perhaps somewhere there are pools of water, maybe even lakes but few who survived the journey ever found them. Instead, with terror in their eyes, they tell tales of walking sand dunes that would move from place to place, aided by the wind. Resting travellers would be ambushed in their sleep and buried beneath the dunes, never to be seen again.
Eventually, they decided to take the road right through the Storywood. They decided to accept the dangers of this road. They knew that in the shadow of the thick trees, villainous folk lived; brutes who would kill travellers without a second thought and rob them of everything they had. They knew that there were robbers who were able to dig entirely invisible pitfalls in the road. However after hours of bickering they finally settled on this route. It wasn’t a pleasant prospect but of the three evils this was probably the lesser because they knew the woods also contained kind creatures; fairies, dwarves, gnomes and trolls. They welcomed visitors, gave them food and kept them company. It was important to reach these creatures by nightfall, and so off they went.
They hadn’t been gone for fifteen minutes when they started arguing again. They argued about who got to ride up front. They quarrelled about who would sleep first that evening. They disagreed about the speed at which they should ride and whether the soldiers should walk in front or behind the wagon. Of course it was all really about one thing; the contents of the chest. The only thing they secretly agreed on was that since the gold was made in their own castle, it belonged to them. Bickering, they continued their journey but when evening fell they quieted down. Meanwhile, they both made plans to steal each other's key and make off with the loot themselves.
Shortly, they arrived in the fairy village, built on thick branches of wood giants, where it smelled of honey and vanilla. Harp music sounded through the trees and soft voices sang lazy songs. Bridges strung up from vines connected the branches. Brightly coloured birds twittered around the princes' heads and their soldiers. They were safe and sheltered, high up in the crown of a giant oak tree, so they laid themselves down and fell asleep right away.
When Oswal woke deep in the night, he crawled out from under his leafy blanket and crept to where Orbit slept. Carefully he pulled back the covers of woven flower stems and saw… that his brother wasn’t there! The leaves were still warm but Orbit was nowhere to be seen. Panicking he felt around the inside of his tunic and noticed that his own key had disappeared. Orbit had beaten him to it. He ran to the ladder made of vines and rushed down it.
There on the cart next to the treasure chest his brother was just opening the box containing the key.
‘You traitor!’, shouted Oswal. ‘ You vermin, you thief! You’re worse than the thieves walking around in this forest!’.
‘Oh yeah?’, said Orbit, ‘What about you? What are you doing here then? I just wanted to check if the key was still here. Just to make sure, no more than that’.
‘You’re a bandit and a cheat!’, cried Oswal, ‘give me that key!’ and he pulled on the handle with all his might. Orbit threw himself on the box and pulled the other way.
The box flew off the wagon, fell down, broke apart and the gold key landed with a thud between two rocks. Orbit jumped on the key and tried to lift it but Oswal pushed him away and wrapped his hands around the shaft of the key but it was really stuck. No matter how much Oswal pulled, the key could not be lifted. Now Orbit was pulling too. They huffed and puffed but it was immovable. It had become as heavy as two grown horses.
Suddenly they both heard a voice: ‘All the Twinkles, Gwendolcus was absolutely right!’. The voice startled them. Atop the treasure chest in the moonlight was Pardoes!
They stared at the Wizard Jester as he shook his head. ‘Gwendolcus predicted this. He changed the gravity of the key and the treasure chest. The key will stay stuck here and the wonderful contents of the treasure chest will remain hidden forever. Only one as honest as gold, one unblinded by the sparkle will be able to unlock the chest. Clearly this won’t be either of you! Nothing but greed and deceit. Neither one of you will succeed the king. You’re not suited to kingship. Away with you, and never show your faces again!’.
Neither prince was ever heard of again. Travellers would sometimes tell stories about two black clad masked bandits that worked together to make the forest unsafe and lived together in a robbers nest in the Devil Mountains but no one knew for sure. The treasure chest with its mysterious contents never left that spot. The key still sits heavily and immovable between the rocks.
After the death of the king, the kingdom was ruled by Queen Victoria the first, and she brought peace and prosperity to the land. And Gwendolcus? He still performs his experiments. Sometimes with his friend Pardoes but usually on his own. He still hopes to one day let people walk on air but he gave up his attempts to redirect the atom streams of iron into gold. Even the wisest scientist knows when he’s been bested by nature.
Cash Machine
This cash machine used to be near the entrance it was shaped like a safe and ofcourse has its own story
- This cash machine has been removed to make way for the new Efteling Grand Hotel -
- This cash machine has been removed to make way for the new Efteling Grand Hotel -
Legend
Faye and the safe
There once was a fairy, a tiny little fairy. Faye lived with her fairy folk in the grand magic forest. Faye was saving up for a new magic wans. Just like all the fairies in her village. Every week when she received her allowance she put it in a safe. In a magnificent golden safe. Every fairy put their money in the safe every week.
But what the fairies didnt know, was that the mean witch in the forest wanted that money to buy a new broomstick. The witch wanted to steal the safe! Because the witch didnt know how to save. She was never taught .
One evening the witch flew to the fairy village on her old broken broom. While all the fairies were sleeping and dreamt of thr moon and the stars, the witch took the golden safe. But the safe was much too heave for the broom . It snapped in half and the witch tumbled down safe and all. The loud noise woke the fairies!
Oh dear the safe was missing! All thefairies went in search for it. Faye wandered into the forest. She was a bit sad, because if the safe was gone forever she would never be able to buy a new wand.
There Faye spotted the witch and the safe. The witch cried. She told Faye how she wanted a new broomstick so very basdly. Faye wanted to help the witch but did tell her that she was not allowed to steal. The witch had to learn how to save just like all the other fairies.
Faye helped the witch. Every week they put some money aside in the safe . And give the safe extra protection it was kept in the Efteling, where everyone can see it. The witch, Faye and the fairy folk lived happily ever after.
Rens van Bijsterveld,
There once was a fairy, a tiny little fairy. Faye lived with her fairy folk in the grand magic forest. Faye was saving up for a new magic wans. Just like all the fairies in her village. Every week when she received her allowance she put it in a safe. In a magnificent golden safe. Every fairy put their money in the safe every week.
But what the fairies didnt know, was that the mean witch in the forest wanted that money to buy a new broomstick. The witch wanted to steal the safe! Because the witch didnt know how to save. She was never taught .
One evening the witch flew to the fairy village on her old broken broom. While all the fairies were sleeping and dreamt of thr moon and the stars, the witch took the golden safe. But the safe was much too heave for the broom . It snapped in half and the witch tumbled down safe and all. The loud noise woke the fairies!
Oh dear the safe was missing! All thefairies went in search for it. Faye wandered into the forest. She was a bit sad, because if the safe was gone forever she would never be able to buy a new wand.
There Faye spotted the witch and the safe. The witch cried. She told Faye how she wanted a new broomstick so very basdly. Faye wanted to help the witch but did tell her that she was not allowed to steal. The witch had to learn how to save just like all the other fairies.
Faye helped the witch. Every week they put some money aside in the safe . And give the safe extra protection it was kept in the Efteling, where everyone can see it. The witch, Faye and the fairy folk lived happily ever after.
Rens van Bijsterveld,
