Denmark – LEGOland

We’re learning from past trips and trying new things. Today’s flight does not leave until after eleven. Leaving us with plenty of time for a slowish morning finishing up packing and having breakfast. Left the house around 0830 to make the 0900
aircoach from the Clayton. Johns in Sweden for the next few weeks so we actually locked the house up when we left today because no one would be home. Feels a bit different leaving the house empty. Timing has worked out so far that someone has always been in the house since we moved in.

Looking at the cameras now ridding on the bus, no ones in the house and nothing is blowing around in the wind hinting of a window left open or a forgotten kid. Yes, we have cameras here like we do in the states. We Picked up a hand full of small Wyze cameras a few weeks ago. They were 20$ each for a 1080p wireless camera. Great picture, good 2-way sound, motion detection and alerting all built-in. I wiresharked and fiddlered them and surprising the Reddit post from the manufacturer was honest about what they broadcast, nothing worrying at all to me about what they are broadcasting. The only complaint I have is they are accessible via mobile app only right now, but for 20$ ill deal.

Made it to Denmark

The airport security line in Dublin was long, and it was crowded all over the airport, far more than we are used too at 5 am. Maybe leaving on a later flight is not a great idea. Maybe it is better to leave early when most people are sleeping. The airport might have been busy, but The flight was amazing. The kids dealt with themselves the entire time without complaining or requiring much management. Mila and Khaleesi took naps or played with toys. Maddex played games on his phone. Roxi stayed in her seat and played on her phone or with toys. Hope this is the new norm and not some cosmic alignment fluke of nature never to happen again flight event. Another new rule from this trip – No more sitting on the back of the bus. Roxi vomited on the bus ride to the airport; girl gets car sick.

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Waiting to board the plane in Dublin

After finding our luggage, traversing the airport arrival zone, and a short bus ride. We picked up our rental car near the airport. Took us a bit to set up car seats and load the car; we’re out of practice with cars. As we were leaving we did the math on the bill and it was about 4,000kk too much. There’s no parking near the rental office, so we ended up doing a few uturns and parking in a bus stop while Michelle went in to check what went wrong. The extra charge turns out to be a deposit, so we’re good. We did not pay an extra 500euro for the car rental. After some driving, driving turned out to be nothing to be nervous about after a year of no driving.

Might have missed a few turns getting used to driving again, but we eventually made it our hostel without issue; not bad for a year of no driving. We’re staying at Danhostel for one night then we drive to a place near LEGO land for two nights. Then we’re back here for two nights. The hostel is tremendous. Big shared Kitchen, common space with kids play area, outdoor kids play area, and it’s on a massive outdoor park we can walk at night.

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Middle building of the DanHostel
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The outdoor play area at the hostel

Our first walk in the park was pleasant. Near the middle of the park is a set of three hills. The kids ran up the first one then begged to run up the next one. We made them stop on the second one for a while to take in the view before running over another one. After the hills we wandered around the park towards the pond area; we like water. We did not stay there long because the area was teaming with mosquitos. Like bugs were everywhere out to drain us of our blood and leave us with sores for days.

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Swap with all of the mosquitos

After our walk, Maddex and I drove to the store for some popcorn and snacks while the girls finished setting up the room. After Maddex and I made it back with supplies we started a show on the surface, ate popcorn, and prepared for bedtime.

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Watching a movie on the surface with popcorn

Road trip to LEGO land

Friday morning Maddex and I snuck out of the room around 0500 and played in the common area for a few hours before everyone else woke up. We did a great job sneaking out because no one even knew we’d left! Ninja training must be paying off. We were packed up and in the car headed across the country at five past eight. The first stop on our road trip extravaganza was a beach after crossing the massive Great Belt bridge that’s cost 240kk to cross each way

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playing in the indoor play area at 0500 in the morning
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Crossing the suspension part of the bridge

After the beach, we stopped a Lidl looking for some games and snacks. We came away with snacks and no games. It’s been a year since Roxi has been in a car and she’s not having the seatbelt confining her in a seat at all. Near the end of the trip she cried for a half hour; sigh. Denmark, unlike Ireland, seems to be the land of public toilets. They are everywhere and they’re clean and simple. The place we stopped at the beach has 2 toilets. Complete with normal flush toilets, sinks, and mirrors.

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Maddex on the boardwalk with a mega long bridge in the background
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We like each other — Baby I took you to another beach

Contrast to beach toilets in the states where they have no mirrors no locking doors steel toilets, stink like an outhouse and are covered with graffiti and drug leftovers. Denmark, so far, is top of the list of clean counties we visited. Took an extra hour or so to make it to our hotel due to traffic backup. It looked like a semi had a tire blow up and push a car off the road into a ditch. We had to merge 4 lanes into one lane to pass by all of it.

Eventually, we made it to our hotel. A converted school owned by Christian, his wife, and two boys. They’ve converted this school into a mega extreme family-friendly destination about 20 minutes from Lego land. There’s a 30×30′ blow up bounce area, mini golf, table tennis, life-sized out-door cheese, sandpit, goats to pet, a tent bounce house in it, indoor area with air hockey and pool, lego rooms, share kitchen in the old homeec room, trampoline in the ground, tent area for campers, swings, a large outdoor play area, BBQs and much more.

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We’re staying in the old Geography classroom complete with a pull-down map of Europe from 1991 dominated by the Soviet Union, lacking a number of countries. Has been fun for Michelle and I to work out what’s different. Having a classroom all of our own we have room for four beds, a couch, a table for 6 and a small kitchenette.

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Europe map on the wall in our room
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Kids eating some stuff in the kitchen area

The hotel, hestkaer family rooms, is down a small side road away from the main road, along the road are farms; it’s quite here. There are enough things to do here that we can let the kids roam free and play while Michelle and I take a break. Almost better than being back at home in the states on the property. Kids roaming free is a great thing for everyone’s happiness. About a kilometer from the hotel by foot is a store we stopped by to pick up some things for dinner and breakfast. then played the night away until we passed out.

LEGO Land

For some reason, LEGO Land does not open until 10 am. Our kids open around 6 am or sooner. Plenty of time to run around the place and play and have a bowl of cereal and leftovers for breakfast. We left the hotel a bit after 9 am and made it to LEGO land by 9:30 where there’s already a small line at the entrance to the park. Main gates opened at 9:45, and we were let into the start of the park. Then the guards moved out-of-the-way at 10 to let us run to the rides.

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Our first ride was the Ninjago laser ride. I took Maddex and Mila while mom took Roxi and Khaleesi to Duplo land to play on the smaller rides. Next ride is the new Eagle coaster which neither Maddex or Mila really enjoyed. Mila cried the whole time, and Maddex did not enjoy it. I guess neither of them enjoys roller coasters. Bummer because mom and I would both like to ride some more rides.

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Kids did enjoy the merry-go-round

The rest of the day we stuck to the kid rides. No matter what we try to bribe the kids with; any LEGO set they want, any LOL dolls they want, candy, treats, nothing will convince them to go on another fun exciting ride. Instead, we ride a slow train and a slow boat, and slow-… Don’t even know, but the rides we were on were all slow.

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After getting back from the LEGO Land we played for a bit and had some dinner. Then started a movie to wind the day down. The movie turned out to be a mess. Roxi and Khaleesi kept fighting and Mila and Maddex were only half interested. We eventually turned it off and listened the kids cry for a half hour before they finally passed out. Well expect Maddex, he crawled into his tent and was out mere seconds after brushing his teeth. Kids had a long day in the sun and were out of energy.

Road trip to Copenhagen

Doing the math Roxi has not been in a car for a year, she does not remember the car seat at all from what we figure. She did not enjoy the seatbelt and got car sick and vomited a few times on the drive. Khaleesi and Mila both fought a bit and screamed or cried on the drive. Maddex was all the way in the third row in the back and we hardly heard from him unless he was passing out snacks. As far as 3-hour car rides goes this was a rough noisy car ride. – does not make me miss having a car.

We didn’t see a toll booth on the other side of the bridge when we crossed it on the way so we figured no toll on the way back; Nope. We paid the toll after we crossed the bridge near the other toll booths, and it cost the same. 240kk both directions. Not cheap at all to drive over the bridge regularly. Would be intense if you crossed every day for a commute.

Eventually, we made it back to the Danhostel. We made it before our room was ready and had a few hours before we needed to return the car. We let the kids play in the play area for a bit while we cleaned out the car then we took off to the mall again for some food. After food, back to the hostel where our room was not ready yet. Michelle stayed with the girls to wait for the room and Maddex and I drove to the airport to return the car.

The car drop off area was packed with cars lacking space for us to drop the car. We left it between some other cars with the keys on the roof and the rental attendant said we were good to go. Hope they bill us correctly. From the car drop off we took a bus to the airport then wandered around the airport before we found the metro stop. We took the metro about 8 stops then transferred to another leg a few stops to get off near our hostel. From the stop, we walked the trails in the park back to our room.

By now we had a room, the girls had set up all of our bedding and Michelle started a load of laundry in the laundry room. – I say setup building because you’re issued sheets and blankets at check. Then you have to set up the beds yourself. When we checked out we took all of the bedding and dumped it in a bin by checkout. Not a bad system for the hotel. At the place near Lego land, you had the option to use your own bedding or rent theirs for 5euro a bed.

We hung out around the hotel for a bit then carried on through the park for the REMA 1000 for groceries and ice cream. We watched a movie and everyone but me was sleeping before 9, even Michelle passed out early. Was cute watching her try to read her book and kept dropping it on herself as she passed out. I think she had one of the longest nights of sleeps he’s had in a long time. Form about 9-630 with only a few quick wake ups in the middle of the night.

I stayed up until midnight listening to a book and writing on the phone. My headphones had a nearly dead battery. I could listen for 30 minutes with 5 minutes of charge; sigh. While charging I swapped from writing to reading via kindle. Max level of content creation and consumption to avoid sleeping. Our room was stupid hot making it harder to sleep. Evening sun on the windows. We closed the blinds to make it dark which blocked cooler air coming in. By the time it was dark enough and everyone was out, I opened the blinds and it cooled off in the room. Once it was cool enough I covered all the kids up with blankets and tried to pass out.

Touring Copenhagen

From the Danhostel it’s a quick walk to the metro line. We started on the metro above the roadway and ended our journey below ground at the Forum station. Right above the station was an impressive bike parking lot. Impressive, more bikes appear to be unlocked then locked in the bike park. The metro has no drivers so you can ride right in the front of the train and look out the front. The front is kid friendly too, they have stickers with train controls below the windshield. The kids loved acting like they were driving the train.

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Kids on the metro before they noticed no driver and you can sit at the front
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Bike parking lot

We didn’t really have a mission or destination. We figured we’d find city center and walk around until we found something cool. Looking on our phones we think we worked out city center and set off in that direction and found some interesting things like a glass box with wooden furniture in it in front of a college. Kids all ran into it explore, I took pictures.

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Next, we found a botanical garden to walk through with a sign that says dinosaurs this way. The garden was a nice walk. The Dino museum charge a bit more than we wanted to pay but it did have a large meteorite in front of the building. Maddex pulled the fishing magnet out of the pack and tested if it was magnetic.

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Michelle throwing a disc

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From the meteorite, we saw a tall castle behind some trees we walked too. Turns out we saw RosenBorg castles. We did not take the inside tour, but we used the toilets and walked around the castle grounds.

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Rosenborg castle

From here we walked towards the little mermaid statute the star-shaped fort Kastellet. We skipped the mermaid castle because there was a wall of people around it. but we did walk around the star walls of the castle. Impressive structure. 30 plus foot tall steep spoil walls going down into a moat. All of it hand dug in the 17th century.  I bet it took decades and hundreds of labors to build.

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bridge over the moat
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Windmill on one of the points of the star

From here we wanted to get some food, and maybe head back towards the hotel the evening. We walked back towards the metro looking for foods and other things to see. After chatting with an American crossing a street we ended up in the no car shopping streets. We came across a Lego store we had to shop in, some shops for snacks and found a used bookstore in the side of the church that we had to browse. Michelle recalls something about the no car zone here behind one of the longest in the EU. If it is not it has to be close because it goes on and on.

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Not many books in English, but lots of books
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No car shopping zone

One stop for food I picked up some lollies for the kids that turned out to be horrible. We bought the kids Tyrkisk peber suckers which are a salty licorice candy flavoured with ammonium chloride, that tasted like it had some peppercorn in it. Maddex bit into his and somehow swallowed half of it. the rest of the kids said nope and would not have anything to do with theirs. The Middle was far stronger tasting than the outside. We all licked the middle of Maddexs and made horrible faces – then we tossed everything else away in the rubbish. – wish I had pictures or even videos of the kids faces.

To the beach then home

Our last day in Denmark we got up early as normal and ate everything else we had packed up and took the Metro to the beach near the airport. Our plan was to spend some time in the sand, walk around a bit, then walk to the airport and fly home. We found the sand soon enough and the kids went straight into digging and tossing rocks into the water. We had a blast for a few hours at the beach.

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We made it to the beach
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so much great sand

After the beach we hiked towards the airport. On the way from the beach, we crossed over an inlet where we found a bike in the water. Maddex and fished for a bit with the magnet and tried to get it out. Sadly it was too heavy for a single magnet and we did not have a second one with us. We need a bigger magnet maybe. After fishing, we found some Tent thing with all kinds of exercise things in it. The kids loved climbing around and trying to work out.

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exercise tent thing we played on for a bit

The airport was about a half hour walk from the beach. Next to the airport was a McDonald’s with an indoor playland where we had lunch. At the airpor,t they wanted half of us at a time at the Passport check. The guy I got let me and Maddex and Mila through no problem. The gal Michelle got took about 15 minutes checking her passports. When we arrived they stamped us wrong with exit stamps instead of arrival stamps. I guess they eventually worked it out because they finally came into the waiting area.

While waiting to board the plan Roxi and Khaleesi were fighting and Roxi ended up tripping and falling on her face and busting her lip open. Lots of blood and mess and drama, then we boarded the plane. Durring all of the drama, I managed to leave my phone in the side pocket of my backpack unzipped. The bad was checked at the plane. I noticed after getting on the plane and was not able to go get it. Spent most of the flight being annoyed because my phone was most likely gone.

Thankfully phone was still in unzipped pocket when we landed.

All of the rest of the photos

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Sign displaying bus times was using digital ink – Fancy
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Indoor kids play area

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Cool looking hotel across the street from where we stayed

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Princesses with an odd building in the background
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Getting ready for bed
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Early morning chess game – Maddex won

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Maddex in his happy place – covered in sand
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Play area with trampoline
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Outdoor games area
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Big Chess board
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Waiting in line for LegoLand
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Lego friends and Millfam kid friends
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Maddex and I build a smaller capital building once
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little town made out of legos
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Princesses and a prince
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Such a challenge to get the kids to sit for a picture
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princess knights

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Fishing by some lions
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Bummer they were closed

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Green house looking thing in the middle of the botanical garden
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Rosenborg castle
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Kids and a fountain on the water front
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All of the controls worked – the kids moved this thing all over the place
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Inside the star fort
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Another picture of the windmill

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St Albans Church near the star thing looked to have obsidian stones on the walls. Maddex likes Obsidian

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fountain by the star thing
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no car shopping street
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Used book store in the side of a church
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Kids driving the metro
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crossing some water to get to the beach
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Even Roxi was running on the wall between sidewalk and beach
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Yeah sand
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Almost a light house
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Squid Tree

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