The area of Austria WAS a kind of Wild West area in the first years of the park, explaining the color of the old rockwork. The Alpenexpress was then called Grottenblitz and had a Wild West Theming. Some of this theming was just now removed, e.g. a typical Western wind-driven waterpump that was standing around until a few weeks ago. Even the buildings the Alpenexpress drove by, were originally Western mine buildings that were repurposed as Austrian alpine huts. The whole area was part of a much bigger Adventureland in the 1980s, including the rafts on the lake, the paddle steamer, the restaurant thatched with reeds, the log flume and the mine train. In fact, Austria in Europapark is the only major land in the park that was not planned that way, but just repurposed as such in the 1990s after the concept of European countries was established and Adventureland was a bit of an outsider, so part of it was taken away to form Austria. Theming was adapted partially, but not systematically. So Austria was always a mixed bag thematically. With the expansion to the rafts and steam, and now the rebuilding of the log flume/mine train area, it should be much more consistent Austrian. Now they only have retheme part of the outside of Seehaus Restaurant.
