Though perhaps not the first thing you would associate with Denmark, one of the country's most universally beloved products is the Lego brick. Lego toys were invented by a Danish toymaker in the 1940's and the company is still headquartered in Billund, a town in Jutland. We went there yesterday with Bongsu's mom to visit the original Legoland theme park.
There I am with my mother-in-law in front of a tiny Lego reproduction of Nyhavn, a nice district in Copenhagen, and here's Bongsu and the Lego version of Kyoto's Golden Pavilion Temple:
The park is perfect for a one-day visit. There are tons of rides in the various theme areas (pirates, cowboys, jungle safari, medieval fantasy, etc) that would be quite enjoyable in themselves, but they are somehow much cooler with all the little animatronic robots and decorative things are all constructed out of millions of Lego bricks. For example, this treasure cave on the pirate ride:
Click on the picture for a bigger version if it is not clear enough to show the Lego nature of the little animatronic crabs and all the pirate booty.
We arrived by intercity bus at about 11:00, and since it was a regular Friday it was not too crowded -- we never had more than a five-minute queue for even the most popular rides. Rides closed at 17:00 and the park closed at 18:00, and in that amount of time we got to go on every ride and all of our favorite ones twice. We also spent a lot of time marveling at the huge display of very detailed recreations of Danish, Dutch, German, Japanese and American towns and buildings.
Leaving our apartment at 07:00 and getting back just after 22:00, we found the train/bus journey to be a good deal. A Danish colleague of mine had tipped me off to a thing called an Orange Ticket, that gives you a half-price ticket if you cross the Great Belt bridge-tunnel between Zealand and Funen in both directions on the same day (or following day). Plus we got to enjoy views of the lovely countryside on the journey:
So all in all, a highly recommended side-trip if you're in Copenhagen for a while.
1 comments:
It's Friday, and that means that the Weekly State Department Blog Roundup is up - and you're on it!
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