So here's my general review of Busch Gardens, where we spent a day and a half this past weekend. The thing I liked the best about the park was its theme. It seems every other amusement park I've been to has been themed after some entertainment property, like cartoon characters or movies. Even Knott's Berry Farm is inexplicably sponsored by the Peanuts gang.

But Busch Gardens' theme is simply: Europe. The park is divided into different sections, but instead of calling them Adventureland or Superheroes' Corner or something, they're simply called things like Germany, England, or France. And an effort was made to make the various areas look, feel, and sound at least like a commercialized amusement park's attempt to resemble those various places (though I thought Italy focused a little too much on Ancient Rome -- no gondolas? What the heck?).

They even piped in theme music for each country, though their choices made me wonder who it was who decided on the music. Italy has traditional Italian cafe music with accordians and stuff, Scotland has bagpipes, Ireland has Celtic dance music, and so forth. But Germany is blanketed in polka music. It's kind of funny at first, but we actually ended up spending most of one afternoon in Germany, because a lot of the stuff we wanted to do was there, and by the end of it I wasn't the only person who was answering the question "What do you want to do next?" with "Get the heck away from these polkas!"

Even stranger, although parts of England had British Invasion '60s rock bands playing, other parts had classical music playing. German classical music, specifically. I recognized Bach and Beethoven easily. Oh how I longed for a prelude and fugue when those tubas were oompah-ing my brains to death.

The park, I thought, was poorly designed, in that it was difficult to get from any given Point A to any given Point B. You'd think it would be in the park's interest to allow people to easily get where they want to go. That way, they're happy and they recommend the place to their friends and their legs don't fall off. But I guess Busch Gardens has opted instead for trying to keep lines shorter by making everyone walk for 20 minutes before they can even get to the line they want to stand in. It didn't work for me.

One thing I will say for the park, though: surprisingly good food. When you go to an amusement park, you expect outrageously overpriced food, and in that regard, Busch Gardens did not disappoint. But you also expect the outrageously overpriced food to be of only mediocre quality. But we ate in Italy the first night and the outrageously overpriced chicken parmesan and canneloni platter I got was actually really good. I mean, restaurant quality. I know Anheuser-Busch is a food company, but I didn't know they made chicken parmesan. Bravo.

My only complaint with the food is that, in trying to keep with the European theme, they offer European ethnic food. That meant that when we ate in Germany (where we actually were entertained by a live polka band and dancers), they were actually offering boiled red cabbage! (I didn't check to see if haggis was on the menu of the restaurant in Scotland.) Even weirder: people were paying outrageous prices for it and eating it! (I got a bratwurst on a bun; Shelly got a pizza.)