Hancks Year In Denmark: Legoland

The boys had a short week at school, so on Thursday we decided to surprise them with a trip to Legoland. Finally! They have been asking to go since we got here last August. It opened for the year in April, or maybe late March, and the weather hasn't been great yet so we were waiting. But as we looked at our calendar and realized that we have visitors or visits every weekend until we go home, we decided we needed to do it sooner rather than later so we didn't inadvertently miss it.

We got up in the morning and I started making lunches. The kids asked where we were going, and we just told them we were going to eat outside somewhere. Then we told them appropriate clothes and shoes to wear and by about 10am got into the car to leave. They really wanted to know where we were going! So they kept trying to guess. Billund is only about 45 minutes away, so it was nice that it didn't take long to get there. We got to the city, and there are some huge Lego bricks on the side of the highway. Anders said "Lego! Hey, this is where Legoland is!" and then they continued to ask where we were going. We drove into the parking lot, which had small but quite visible Lego insignia on everything from signs to trash cans. They started complaining, "this doesn't look like a fun place to be! Where are we? Where are we going? Why is there Lego on everything?" Generally they are bright kids, but they completely missed it. Every few seconds, one of them asked again why there were Lego pictures on everything. Svea figured it out, and started saying "Legoland! We're going to Legoland!" But the boys didn't pay attention to her. So it was quite a hilarious conversation to listen to.
"Where are we going?"
"Legoland!"
"Why is there Lego pictures on everything?"
"It's Legoland!"
"This parking lot is boring. Where are we?"
"Legoland!"
Finally, when we came up to the ENTRANCE to Legoland, the boys figured it out, but still not quite.
"Are we going to Legoland?"
Jeff and I had to try so hard not to laugh at the whole exchange.

It was fun to start our tour in the little Lego villages -what Jeff remembers of Legoland from decades ago. We liked pointing out to the kids which places they had seen in real life, and which ones we are still going to see when we go to Copenhagen and North Jutland before we go home. It was neat, also, that each sign in front of the displays told how many Lego bricks it took to build. The boys were fascinated by how long it must have taken to build everything.

This street is from Mogeltonder...the village we went to last fall when we realized only after we got there that there was a huge bike race going through the town that day!

It was also really interesting to see which of the pieces they had motorized. The tractors plowed, the airplanes drove around the runways, the boats made their way along the canals, the buses drove around, and the trains followed tracks around the perimeters of villages.

On this oil rig, there were several places where a button pushed would send up spouts of water.

When we go to North Jutland, we will see this church -most of it is buried beneath a massive sand dune now, so only the tower remains. That will be neat to see in real life!

The boys liked the button that made this hot air balloon go up and down.

The Queen's castle, which we will see the changing of the guard at when we go to Copenhagen. Even in miniature it was enormous!

Hollywood.

I laughed at the Payless Shoe Source in this display.

The boys' first ride. The line was only 25 minutes when we arrived. By the time they emerged 40 or 45 minutes later, it was up to a 35-minute wait to get in. The boys thought it was fantastic! Svea and I had a nice leisurely walk around the park for a while, and then waited on a bench for them to emerge from the Ninjago shop. Isn't it always the case that the ride ends in the shop.

Svea enjoyed a lovely hazelnut cookie while we were waiting.

Torben riding a dragon outside the Ninjago ride.

Svea loved the merry-go-round! The sign said that if their feet couldn't reach the foot rests, they had to have a grown up. After I got on and put her on the horse, we discovered she could actually reach them herself. But she liked having the company.

Torben and Anders also loved the merry-go-round! It was tough to get a picture in focus as we spun, though.

The boys were excited to see Mount Rushmore made of Lego. We told them we will take them to the real stone place in a couple of years as well.

This boat ride was also really fun for all five of us. Svea sat perfectly still on her little bench as the boat followed its course, and she wasn't scared a bit when we entered the dark cave. She, just like the boys, was excited by all the little vignettes along the banks.

"Treasure! Treasure!"

"Oooh, a monkey!" -They didn't notice the turtle.

There was music and dancing here, and the chickens moved as though they were eating grain off the floor.

The boys loved this ride too. You rode on a small boat equipped with water sprayers, and at specific points along the route there were the same sprayers for bystanders, and you'd see who got the wettest.

And these are brilliant! Outside of the water rides were these pods you could stand in, and for 20Kr get heated air that dried your clothes.

I laughed when I saw this sign on the edge of one of the water rides. In Korea, we saw these signs also but they had a car instead of a boat, and that was always intriguing to us. I guess it meant watch out so you don't go over the side.

Raising her arms to cheer for Daddy and her brothers as they rode the firetruck ride.

They are up next!

Apparently Torben was in charge of moving the gear shift to move forward, and he forgot. So they were quite a ways behind the rest of the trucks on this ride, but it allowed me to get a great picture! They finally figured it out, and rode to the other side to put out the "fire" in the building, and raced back. Anders said "hey! We were late starting and we weren't the last to finish!"

They also had a great time on the canoe ride -a log ride. Probably Svea would have enjoyed this one too, but the line was quite long and she wasn't very excited about long lines so we waited for them here too.

Quite a large Star Wars section this year. It is one of the temporary exhibits this spring.

We all rode the spinning observation deck that brought you 36m into the air. You could see all of Legoland, plus all of Billund. Svea sat perfectly still on her seat, and got up when the boys did to look more closely out the window, and then sat down again.

We also all took the monorail around the park. It was probably 10 feet in the air or so. Enough that you were going over people, but not so high that you couldn't see what was going on.