Lego Mania
Billund – 6th May
We moved on today to Vandel which is a small rural town not far out of Billund. Billund is the birthplace of the Lego brick, so all the buildings and attractions are Lego overload. There are Lego factories, offices, theme parks, houses, shops, structures and hotels, all designed to extract maximum dollar from you. It is about NZ$80-$90 per person to visit either the Lego house or the Lego theme park; of course it wouldn’t make sense to combine them and save the poor tourist a dollar.
Not being Lego enthusiasts we came principally to complete a couple of Lego themed geocaches and buy the granddaughters some genuine Danish made Lego. First up was the Lego House, 12000 square metres housing 25 million Lego bricks constructed into all sorts of things. Too tight to pay the entry fee we did the free climb onto the architecturally designed roof of 9 playground terraces, with the exception of the top roof that has 8 glass domes for standing on and looking down into Lego house. We went into the shop area, took a few photos, choked at the price of the Lego and decided the granddaughters would be getting a bargain buy Lego from Dubai airport.
Having escaped Lego House without spending a cent, even the parking building was free for 2 hours, we then went to the bakery and had a traditional Snegle Brunsviger = Brown sugar, butter and cinnamon filled bun drizzled with chocolate. Roger had the custard version which wasn’t very nice.
The next Lego attraction was Lego Land for a geocache, it was going to cost NZ$17.50 to park just to take a photo at the gates, so we lined up in the taxi rank, I rushed out took the photo I needed for my geocaching, and one of the lovely tulips (above) and we moved on.
The next Lego experience was to visit the original Lego House which is now a Teddy Bear Museum; however they are closed Mondays so that saved NZ$25 each.
The last stop in Lego town was the Skulpturpark (Sculpture Park); it was free and very interesting. I imagine the sculpture below by HRH Prince Henrik, of what looks like a dolphin being swallowed by a platypus with his genitals on display, would be quite disturbing to the average Kiwi kid, but not to Danes as their fables and bedtime stories are full of such creatures.
Our lunch stop today was cheese and pâté malt bread sandwiches.
We found a spot in the Vandel cemetery for our picnic lunch while we waited for our Airbnb to become available.
The type of plots in this cemetery seem to be common in Danish cemeteries but also appear, to us, to be inhabited by the more affluent.
Our lovely accommodation today is on a horse grazing farm. We are staying in the renovated carriage house and have all the luxuries of under floor heating and the obligatory indoor slippers.
The landlord’s first question was “why are you driving a German rental car”? I can see our indiscretion in choosing a German rental and lack of financial support to the Scandinavian economy could cause us some grief. Our manufactured-in-Germany Volkswagen even drew fist waving from a guy walking down the main road today.
Today’s ABBA tribute is from ‘Little Things’ (2021), for the Lego-loving grandchildren, assuming their Poppa remembers to buy them some.
Like that happy noise
it’s our children playing with their new toys
Little moments of happiness and of bliss
Does it ever get better than this?
