Back from Legoland at Last

Wow, now that's a break from blogging! Yes we're back in the country, after two fun-filled weeks in Denmark. While a diet consisting solely of hotdogs and spicy mayonnaise and the humorously sing-songy language may seem reason enough to visit the land of the Vikings, our real motivation was always to visit Legoland again. And again...and again, as it turned out.

In fact Legoland was so good - and we were savvy enough to pre-order season tickets on line to avoid queues and pressurised visits -that we returned no less than FOUR times. I'm so impressed with us that I'm going to repeat that: WE VISITED LEGOLAND FOUR TIMES.

We have been there before so knew what to expect. Holger had visited the place as a kid and while the 'old part' with the miniature cities and world landmarks constructed solely of Lego blocks are still there, useful things like electricity and hot food have been invented since those dark days and this is now an awesomely entertaining park for kids up to about 10 years old and their sentimental 'ol Mum & Dad. We couldn't wipe the goofy grins off our faces as we rode the Lego monorail, whizzed down the Viking water ride (block your ears to protect them from screaming girlies) and ripped around the loopy track on the Dragon ride. There is just enough adrenaline to keep the kids pumped, not enough to reduce them to tears. At every ride there's a huge bin of over-sized Lego blocks for kids to play in just in case there's a queue, although we rarely had to wait for more than 10 minutes.

We visited every inch of that park and still didn't get sick of it. From the very high tech Power Builder ride, where you pre-program your own personal chipcard with a series of moves which are later executed while you are strapped into a pod whirling on the end of a huge robot arm in a massive darkened building, to the Falck Fire Engines where families compete against each other to 'drive' their engine down a track, douse a fire then race back to the finish line, everything is fun. The underwater world with its Lego submarines and divers hovering in a real aquarium filled with sharks, rays and fish was brilliant. The 4D Bob the Builder movie was fun, especially watching the kids trying to grab the images on the screen then shrieking when they were sprayed with water from jets hidden in the backs of the seat in front. Even the pimply students manning the rides and snack venues are having fun, having sword fights with kids on the rides with foam Lego swords, and dressed in costumes as pirates, princesses and rogues.

Because we had season tickets we took life pretty easy, spending about 4 hours at the park before leaving, and returning a couple of days later. That avoided anyone getting too tired or sick of the place and prevented us from having to try and talk the kids out of wanting to go again. We'd all discussed beforehand exactly what they were allowed to buy from the huge Lego shop at the exit, a tactic which worked well to prevent the endless whines of "I want" that every parent knows and dreads.

Of course we did do other things in Denmark; we visited a very cool Castle, swam in the frigid Baltic Sea and flew Niels awesome kite on the beach. However I'll save those for another day. I'm still enjoying reminiscing about Legoland too much.