Last week we visited Legoland in Billund, Denmark. The whole trip to Legoland was rather spontaneous as we had no intention at all to go there this year but my wife found suddenly an offer (nearly 50% off) we just could not resist. Our little Nathan who is a giant Lego fan had no idea at all about visiting Legoland and we kept it a secret till the end. Lego is the most valuable toy brand in the world for the past four years or so when it surpassed Mattel. The brand has its roots in Billund, Denmark, where it still has its headquarters.
I had tons of Lego in my youth and so did my dear brother (who is 20 years older than me…) so Nathan got already a lot of Lego from my old sets and will receive more in the next years (old Pirate ships and of course lots of trains). I can’t really say why but I have always loved these toys and still love to “play” with it. For me it is just so fascinating what can be all achieved with these simple plastic bricks. Nathan quickly got a bit bored of Lego Duplo (which is for smaller children) and changed to real Lego when he was 2-3 years old. By now he has built on his own some sets for 8 + years old kids and together with me for 16+ years. The instructions are usually no problem at all for him but few smaller technic bricks can bring some difficulties.
Back to our trip to Legoland. As I said before we didn’t tell Nathan at all about this journey to Legoland, he only knew that we would visit some nice place far away. The theme park is roughly 2h away from our hometown by car so it was no problem at all for the kids. Even though we tried our best to keep it a secret from Nathan he eventually found out about it. We managed it really close to the theme park but just 5min away he spotted a road sign with “Legoland” written on it. Though our big surprise was gone it was still lovely to see how happy he was so we went to the check-in at our motel at the Legoland Holiday Village. Needless to say everything is Lego inspired there and our rooms had one of the old Pirate Themes (from the 1990s).
We had the bad luck that on both days it was raining. Thanks to the rain Nathan got his only souvenir, a Lego rain poncho. Even though it was raining on both days we had fun and even got in between some sunshine to warm up a bit. Each time the rain got too big we went into one of the inside locations such as the Atlantis by Sea Life Aquarium, some cafe or the 4D Cinema. Somehow we managed not to get soaking wet and let the kids have fun. As our visit to Legoland was so close to Halloween they had started to decorate the park a bit. This was not entirely to Nathan’s liking as he got scared a bit by a few things such as some witches or a Mummy sitting on a bench.
The park is very well maintained and clean. Nothing appeared to be worn out or dirty even though we were there during the off-season, on a Monday and it was raining. So the staff is doing a great job no matter the weather and time of the year. We had such a good time there with the kids that we definitely want to revisit the park again. Not that we go next year or so already but when Nathalie is also old (and tall) enough for some of the rollercoasters. This time she always had to stay behind with one of us and watch Nathan having the time of his life. Thankfully the kids were not too demanding and we were spared the fate of spending money on overpriced Lego in Denmark (+30-40% more compared to Germany!).
In case you are interested in visiting Legoland in Billund I recommend to stay at least for one night there to visit the park on two days. There is really much to do there, especially with kids so one day won’t be enough. Besides that I suggest also to eat in one of the restaurants in Billund as the ones in the theme park are a bit on the expensive side and really full the entire time.
Have you visited a Legoland before?
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There’s a Legoland south of us. Like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios aren’t enough!
How crowded was it? Crowded theme parks are my idea of hell.
At least when we were there it was not crowded at all. Sure there were people but you had to wait tops 5 minutes to get into a ride
Nice! That sounds not horrific.
My 10-year-old grandson has been to a couple of Legolands. He loves Lego, although he’s not as interested as he used to be. It’s good that the Legoland in Denmark is only two hours away. I hope Nathalie will enjoy it when she’s older.
I bet he will love Lego more again after a while. There are always “down” times with things you like to do.i never really stopped with Lego, no matter my age and others interests
It is amazing how the Legoland is outdoors and even wet, it is still going and nothing seems to be messed up as you said. Here in Melbourne, there is a small Legoland in one of the shopping centers. I think on some days it is limited to families with kids going in to visit, for crowd control reasons.
I guess the one in Melbourne is something like a Lego discovery center or so.in Tokyo we wanted to go into one but the entrance fee was too high and furthermore single adults were only allowed during special hours :0
Actually I think you are right that the Legoland in Melbourne is more like a discovery centre. It’s not exactly a theme park. If single adults only allowed during certain hours, it must means there are a lot of families visiting 😛
Wow so cool that it’s only 2 hours away from you! I didn’t realize that you lived so close to Denmark 🙂 What an amazing time for everyone, especially you and Nathan as Lego fans. Lego is quite popular with a lot of adult men too hehe. I would love to visit as it looks so interesting!
Yeah we are like one hour away from the Danish border 🙂
Legoland is fun, especially when you are fan of the toys 😂
I haven’t been to a theme park in ages! I think I read they are building a Lego park in Shanghai, but don’t quote me on that. For the moment we just have Disney although I will have to wait a few years before visiting!
No idea about any plans for a LEGOLAND in China but I do know that they are working on one in Japan. I guess in Shanghai it will be more like a LEGO discovery thingy thing (don’t remember the name right now ). Before the kids I hadn’t been either in theme parks for a long long time 😯
What an excellent couple of days away for Nathan.
He had tons of fun and it was especially nice as he had been ill the entire week prior to the visit to legoland
Thanks for prompting a memory of my time in Legoland way back in 2004! We were there until after 7 pm that summer! My son got a bit dizzy on one of the rides, but it was so much fun. I believe they add a new exhibit every year. So you must be living on Danish soil? Denmark is very close to my heart so I will now be checking out more of your posts!
2004! Back then I hoped to go myself still with my parents there but we never went anywhere due to watching out always for the money. Anyhow our kids enjoyed it and it is not too far away. There have been every few years some additions to the park and I believe it is a lot bigger now then compared to 2004, also they have those holiday resorts nearby for families to stay overnight(s).
We actually live in Germany, roughly 80km south of the Danish boarder. I am rather frequently in Denmark as I go fishing there with my brother and cousin. What is your relation to Denmark?
Aha! So you are in Schleswig-Holstein! I have some family that originated from those areas as well, prior to their immigration to Australia! But my relation to Denmark stated with an interest in my Grandmother’s family history, (they came from the areas around Herning), but it was when I visited Denmark that I fell in love with the culture, landscape and people. The summer of 2004 was a glorious one, only one rainy day while I was there, and I traveled all over the place, visiting as much of Denmark as I could. My son was also interested in Viking history, so we visited many Viking exhibits. Are you close to Kiel?
Indeed we live only 30 km away from Kiel so it is a 20min drive. My hometown is right in the middle of Schleswig Holstein.
In the city of Schleswig they also have a big viking exhibition and some buildings reconstructed from the viking town of Haitabu.
Schleswig Holstein and Denmark have anyways a long history together, belonging here and then to either nation / Kingdom. However my family is not from these parts as my mother is from Finland (to be more precise Karelia and Ingria) and my father from Pomerania (refugee after WWII and his leftover family was relocated to this city)
We have some kind of connection then albeit through region. I have a great grandma from Pomerania. AndI know of Karelia. There was a beautiful haunting song I used to sing as a member of a choir, about Finns leaving Karelia. One day I would like to visit the areas around Schleswig and Hamburg more. The closest I got was Lûbeck! Have you posted about the Viking exhibit on your blog?
No I havent posted about any Viking related things yet. Every year we plan to drive to Schleswig for the Viking weekend but somehow there is always bad weather or we dont have any time
I hope you get there, one year. I visited a Viking play in southern Jylland a few years back. It was awesome, even thoughI didn’t understand all the language! Are you fluent in both German and Danish?
No, I am not fluent at all in Danish nor did I learn the language in school. However some Danish is always understandable for us Northern Germans so I usually get the gist of it, talking on the otherhand is a total different matter
I have learnt Danish as an adult so I can speak but it is hard to understand spoken danish!!
I guess it is easier for me as the northern German dialect is more related to Danish but also due to me living years in Finland and thus being confronted non stop with Swedish
I didn’t realize there was a Northern German dialect! Fascinating! Lucky you being immersed in languages!
I must say dialects are rather funny. For example I cannot understand people speaking a bavarian dialect at all! Besides I lived and studied in East Germany (Saxony) for two year and the first weeks I felt like a foreigner as I couldn’t understand my teachers. To make matters worse one of my team mates (swimming) had such a dialect that some of our friends had to translate (by the way the guy with such heavy Saxony mountain dialect was 3rd in 100m backstroke swimming in the Olympics 2000!
So interesting!! In my studies of Norwegian I come across dialects. Spoken dialect would of course be much more difficult than written as there are many different tones and pronunciations. I am surprised to hear that it can vary so much in a country like Germany in modern days, as the cities are far less isolated than the mountainous regions of Norway! Although I recall my Danish exchange student mentioning that she couldn’t understand “Farmer’s” dialect and she lived in Jylland!! Did you ever revert to speaking in English because of issues communicating, due to differing dialects?
When dealing with other dialects I try my best communicating in German. However I remember one of my team mates in swimming (olympic 3rd 2000 in Sydney) had such heavy dialect that the others had to translate for me.