Big Adventures, Little World

After spending the day at LEGOLAND we flew out of Billund that night and made our way to Copenhagen on a little 45 seat plane. It was pretty cool, but sometimes felt like it was going to fall apart at times. Luckily it didn’t and we touched down in Copenhagen and made our way to the hotel, settled in then went and found some food. We found a little pizza place just across the street, and took it back to the hotel where we relaxed after the early, early morning and the long day of LEGO fun!

A view along Copenhagen Harbour

The next day was a Monday, and from what we found, most things were closed on a Monday on Denmark. They seemed to have had the whole 3-day weekend thing sorted out. Maybe the UK or Australia will catch up soon. So seeing as just about everything we wanted to do was closed, we just went for a bit of a wander around the city to check out all the sites. Copenhagen really is a beautifully city. It is really quite nice just to wander around slowly and take it all in. The city is great, it all just seemed a little slow, and not too much was going on, but was still nice. We saw a lot of places we had seen the day before in LEGO form, like the Rosenborg Castle and the Copenhagen Harbour lined by all the different colour buildings. It was really cool walking by the boat filled canals and enjoying the fresh sea air.

Our hotel package included use of the next door spa, so that afternoon we went back and relaxed in the spa, sauna and steam room for what seemed like hours. It was probably a couple, which was nice considering how tired we had been. It was definitely a big plus of hotel, and included nice cool citrusy flavoured water, or coal water, which was supposed to purify your body, as well as some fruit.

The next day we had planned on going to check out the Tivoli Gardens which is the second oldest amusement park in the world. Unfortunately it didn’t open until the day after we left and we couldn’t even go in to wander through the gardens which I thought we could do so we had to settle for seeing it from the outside through the fences. We did then get to go on to the Carlsberg factory though which ended with beer, so it wasn’t all bad.

Carlsberg Brewery's collection of over 20000 beers

The Carlsberg factory is really quite good and they had a collection of over 20000 different beer bottles, all still full and sealed. I couldn’t find any Coopers in there though which was a bit disappointing, but you can send your own to them to be added apparently. We also got to check out all the old brewing equipment, as well as sculptures that belonged to Carl Jacobsen, the son of Carlsberg’s founder, and then the stables with the big Jutland dray horses as well as the horse drawn beer carts that used to be used for transporting the beer. After going through the factory we sat down in the restaurant and enjoyed our 2 free beers before we decided to make our way to the hotel and on to the spa again to relax for the rest of the afternoon.

Our last day in Copenhagen we went exploring through the city again and this time we even left the EU (European Union) by going to Christiania, which is a small community of about 1000 people and are a law unto themselves. It is a place where people squat in the buildings and drugs are openly sold in the streets, but as they have their own laws, and don’t regard themselves as being part of the EU, it is all ok. It is quite a strange place, but very interesting. It was quiet when we were there, and felt odd walking through the little community of theirs. The main rule while in Christiania is do not take photos, or otherwise if people catch you, they will take your camera and break it, and possible break you as well.

We had a pretty casual remainder of the day just wandering throughout the city and through some of the parks before it was time to head on back to London. It was a very relaxing holiday, which was quite a contrast to some of our other holidays where we are constantly doing one thing or another, so it was nice to just get away and relax for a few days in the beautiful city of Copenhagen.

Now I know I have been to LEGOLAND in the UK before, but this was a chance to go to Denmark, the home of Lego, and see the original. From looking at the website I could see that it was quite similar to LEGOLAND Windsor, but it was in Denmark. How can anyone resist that? Elese had never been to any LEGOLAND, so it was something for her as well. Why am I trying to make excuses though, we all know it was mainly for me!

I’d booked flights into Billund, Denmark, and the airport there is right next to LEGOLAND and you should be able to just walk across the tarmac to get there but no, they decide to have rules and safety precautions. How lame. I digress though. So we were flying into Billund on a Sunday morning, and then had the entire day to spend at LEGOLAND before flying to Copenhagen that night. We’d be tired, but the adrenalin and excitement of LEGOLAND would soon overcome that. That’s what I told Elese anyway.

The entrance to LEGOLAND, Billund in Denmark.

After sleeping for a few hours at the airport then the short flight to Billund, we got on a bus to LEGOLAND. Once there, Elese lined up for our tickets while I walked around to check out all the cool Lego statues and taking photos. There were masses of people around and I thought there was going to be people everywhere once inside, but we were pleasantly surprised in more ways than one.

Firstly because it wasn’t as busy as the people out the front made it look and secondly because of how big the place was. It was much bigger than the UK version and the Miniland was absolutely huge! For those of you don’t know, Miniland is all famous landmarks made of Lego. It was just amazing.

We decided to head off and check out some of the park and go on a few of the rides, the better of them anyway, and then come back and check out Miniland a bit later on. So we made our way through the park having a look at all the different things all made of Lego. Much of it was similar to LEGOLAND Windsor, but it still amazed me, Elese too.

We rode a couple of the rides, but they are mainly aimed at children, but we still had fun. Maybe that says something about our mentality, or maybe we are just awesome. I believe it is the latter. We stopped for a bite to eat and then it was over to Miniland to check out all the amazing Lego structures based on real life buildings.

LEGO Model of the Millenium Falcon

Miniland was so much different than the one in the UK, because they mainly have landmarks from Denmark, whereas the UK one features mostly landmarks from the UK. The newest addition to it though was Star Wars Miniland! It was awesome, with a different section for each episode of Star Wars. It was very impressive and had so much detail and even all the little characters like R2D2, C3PO and Jar Jar Binks. We spent quite a while on the Star Wars ones, and a lot of it had interactive bits as well where you could press a button and the spaceships would fly or the little characters would move around. It was really cool. After Star Wars though there was still so much more to see from around Denmark and all over the world.

We made our way through Miniland which wasn’t really that mini at all. It just kept going all over the place and had Lego buildings everywhere. The majority of them were all from Denmark which was really quite cool, especially Billund Airport as we had just been there earlier and could see the comparisons between the real and Lego versions. We made our way through Denmark seeing the mini Lego sites like Amalienborg (noble families mansions), Lilleby (or Littletown) which was the very first LEGO Miniland village, The Amalie Gardens in Copenhagen, Copenhagen Harbour, Rosenborg Castle, Fredensborg Palace, Ribe (the oldest city in Denmark), Billund Airport and a host of other places throughout Denmark. Then we made our way around the world going to Dusseldorf in Germany, Beverly Hills, Hollywood & John F. Kennedy Space Centre in the USA, as well as places around The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Scotland. There was also a few larger scale models of some well know landmarks from around the world including Capitol Building, The Statue of Liberty, Abu Simbel Temples, Acropolis, Osaka Castle, Kronborg Castle, The Arabian Palace and a Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 Aeroplane. It really is something that is truly amazing. The amount of hours that would have gone into building it all and the sheer amount of bricks used is just incredible. I just think of how much fun it would be to sit there and make these models all day.

LEGO Model of a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380

We spent maybe a couple of hours going around and looking at all of Miniland but the day was getting on and we were going to have to make our way back to the airport soon. So off we went and went on one last ride, then made our way through the shops to pick up some of the coolest LEGO merchandise. One last thing we had to do was go up in a circular tower, probably 50 metres or more tall so we could see out over the entire park. It was pretty cool and you could see how much space Miniland actually took up as well as the rest of LEGOLAND as well. We got back to the ground and then our day was complete at LEGOLAND. It was a really fun day, but I expected nothing less from something that is as amazing as LEGOLAND. I could have spent hours on end there but we had to make our way onwards to Copenhagen.

Grease was the word tonight as we went out to theatre to see Grease: The Musical (just in case you hadn’t worked that out yet). It was showing at the Piccadilly Theatre and we had managed to get tickets for dinner and the show. For 20 quid, who could say no! So we made our way into Piccadilly Circus where the restaurant was close by to the theatre. The restaurant was called Tiger Tiger and was really quite cool from our first impressions. It was setup so that it turns into a night club at night with music playing and cocktails being served. We got shown to our table and then it wasn’t too long before we ordered, and were also informed of Happy Hour which was all drinks for half price. How could we say no to buying cocktails AND a bottle of wine?

Our starters didn’t take too long to come out at all. Elese had breaded Camembert cheese with cranberry sauce which was quite tasty indeed, while I had Herb and Spice crumbed chicken fillets with a corn chip salad. It was interesting and the chicken tasted a bit like KFC so it was great! Next up was our mains. We had both gone for the steak, which cost an extra fiver, but was definitely worth it. It was quite nice and juicy and cooked just how we wanted it. I hate when my steak is cooked differently than how I want it. We sat there finishing our wine before it was about that time to make our way to the theatre.

Once in the theatre it wasn’t too long before the show started and it was pretty good to start with as they came out and performed the Grease theme song. It was quite a small theatre and the band playing all the music was above the stage so you could them all playing, unlike for Priscilla where they were in front of the stage. (You could probably have seen them if you had decent tickets though). After the opening song they were into the storyline which is always interesting to watch when a musical has been adapted from a movie. The accents were a bit disappointing with the guy who played Danny sounding more like Elvis, and trying to act like the Fonz. Other than that though we had a lot of fun as they performed all the Grease favourites like Summer Nights, You’re the One That I Want, Beauty School Dropout, and of course Greased Lightning! There was all the other songs as well and they finished it off with We Go Together for a great finale of singing and dancing. All in all we had a good time and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Grease The Musical

Our last day on the slopes began late as we all just wanted to rest for a while before heading up the mountain. We got up there about 11AM and then we watched Kate as she attempted to get back into it after having the day off the day before. She didn’t want to keep us waiting as she wasn’t too sure if she was going to come out so Elese, Lucas and I went off on the same run we did yesterday, but changed it up a bit towards the end.

We went through to El Tarter down the Gall de Bosc run, and then made our way up the chair lift again so we could see Spain and France from the same spot. Then we started to make our way down the mountain again, like we did yesterday on the Òs run but instead of changing half way through we kept going along it and through the tunnel that was on the run. The tunnel was very narrow and Sam had recommended we don’t go through it because of that because we wouldn’t be able to make our turns through it that well, but by now we decided we were pretty much experts so through it we went. We picked up quite a lot of speed going through there because we weren’t doing the turns and just went straight through. We got through it ok, but as I came out I made the stupid mistake of trying to slow down and just ended up crashing. Next time I know just to keep going fast though! We kept going all the way to the bottom which was quite a long run and then back up to the top again to see how Kate was getting on.

Showing off my skills on the snowboard

We found Kate sitting down by the restaurant. She’d fallen on her bum again and couldn’t come out again which sucked for her and for us because we couldn’t show off our new skills and how awesome we were. We had a short break then Elese and I headed out again for one last big run! We went out towards El Tarter again along Gall de Bosc but we kept going along it all the way down to the bottom. It was a lot different to some of the other runs we had been on and was a lot narrower. The snow was a bit sludgy as well from all the sun which also made it quite icey and therefore faster and hard to fall on in some points. I had some big falls going through it, but luckily there weren’t a lot of others going through the run so I wasn’t really getting it the way of everyone. We made it to the end and then made our way up the chairlift, then up Tosa chairlift to the top of the mountain again as we did earlier. Then we went down the same run, Òs, but this time instead of going off through the tunnel we changed on to the Bosc Fosc run which we had been doing with Sam during our lessons.

We got back up to the top of the mountain 1 hour and 10 minutes later and had covered nearly 25 kilometres! It was an amazing day where we just got to get out there and do our own thing and was just snowboarding pretty much nonstop. It’s one of the most exhilarating things I have done and just nothing but fun. I haven’t skied before, but I don’t know why anyone would want to when they can snowboard instead. It’s just that much cooler! We spent the rest of the afternoon on the mountain top at the steak house where we had some mammoth burgers. They were delicious and what an amazing setting to be eating them in as well. Out in the sun, surrounded by the snow covered mountains. It really was a great end to our week of snowboarding.

Our last day of snowboard school meant our last day of being up on the mountain by 10AM. That was a relief. Though Kate had decided to stay in bed after hurting herself the day before, so Elese and I made our way up the cable car to kick some ass on our last day. We had perfect conditions as well! The sun was shining, you could see for miles, the snow had fallen all night and there was powder everywhere. It was stunning and made for some of the most beautiful views for the whole week.

We headed straight to a blue run, but this time with a twist as we were making our way from Soldeu, across to El Tarter by board. It was a lot different run to the one we had done the last 2 days but had some stunning views and some great runs through it. The fresh powder made such a difference too giving you a lot more control over the board and making it so much easier to manoeuvre, and made it that much softer to fall on as well. The falling was definitely happening less and less though. For me, it was mainly when I built up too much speed or others got in my way that made me fall over, but the speed was also what kept me going some of the time as well.

The time between stoppages was getting longer and longer so we got great opportunity to just get out there and enjoy the snow. It was an amazing feeling with the wind blowing past you and the sun shining down, with some of the most beautiful views you’ll ever see all around. We arrived at El Tarter and then it was up the chair lift to one of the highest points of the whole mountain range. From there we could see the mountains of France one way and the mountains of the Spain the other. They were all snow capped mountains as well and it really was really was just stunning. No rest for the wicked though and off we went again, making our way back to Soldeu.

The view riding the chair lift up to one of the highest points of the mountain range

The next part of the run was great, and the fresh snow made it even better! There were some steeper parts of the mountain but now that we had the hang of it, it wasn’t too bad. I even managed to try a few little jumps, although they ended with me crashing. I was still falling down, but the falls were getting much less frequent which was a big bonus for me as my body probably couldn’t take a lot more. We made our through the run and eventually it joined back up to the run we had done the previous 2 days for the last kilometre or so. Back in familiar territory we tried a few more jumps and I even got some decent air, and promptly fell flat on my ass, which surprisingly didn’t hurt at all.

We made it to the bottom of the run much quicker than the last time, and covered much, much more ground as well. It was an amazing end to our lessons, and as we sat at the bottom of the mountain at the café, Sam gave us our Level I Snowboarding certificates for our graduation from Snowboard School. That was it for the day though as we were quite sore and just wanted to sit back and relax for a while before we went out for our free pizza and beer at Fat Albert’s that night. So off we went and made our way back to the apartment for some much deserved rest.