Sunday 11 August 2024

Denmark - Let’s go LEGO!

August 2


Hello everyone!


You may also associate Denmark with little plastic blocks which have raised stubs on their top, allowing them to interlock together to create things. Possibly the most boring way of describing something which can be lots of fun…


A Lego Ferrari - unfortunately, you couldn't drive it

Lego is derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well"


Lego was first founded as a company shortly after the end of the Second World War. It is from Denmark as it was invented by a man called Ole Kirk Christiansen, who transitioned from making wooden blocks in his workshop in the 1930s to using plastic in the late 1940s. It is now one of Europe’s biggest and most successful companies, and the largest toy manufacturer in the world by sales.



Mount Rushmore statues...made of Lego bricks


The company’s expansion from humble bricks has taken them into a wide variety of fields, including movies, clothing, games…and theme parks. There are eleven Legoland parks globally, in places ranging from the USA to Malaysia. The original was built near the original Lego factory in an otherwise unremarkable area called Billund. 


The park currently receives an average of over 1.5 million visitors a year

A Thai temple made of Lego bricks


I really liked Lego as a kid. I still enjoy having a play with it if I’m with kids. I was staying near the spiritual home of the humble plastic brick. I was going to Legoland, even if it would be slightly strange for a middle-aged man to go there on their own. 


If you squint, you can see me loving life on one of the rides

Fries which look like Lego bricks!

I get the feeling that a lot of people either stay at the on-site hotel or drive to get to Legoland. Public transport involved a train from Odense to Vejle, then a bus going to Billund which stops outside the park. I timed my walk to Odense’s train station…badly. Well, unluckily. My phone also hadn’t predicted a biblical storm which resulted in my shorts becoming see-through and me being quite cold for the rest of the day as I stomped around in soaked socks and trainers.

There was also lightning zipping around in the sky

Unrelated to the weather but connected to getting wet, this ride had to
temporarily close because one of the boats sank. Not my boat, to be clear.

I arrived relatively early, only about 15 minutes after opening time. This meant that the lines for rides, which could have potentially been enormous on a weekend and in the Danish school holidays, were actually quite short. The longest I had to wait, a roller coaster called Flying Eagle, was only 20 minutes.

All rides had Lego structures around them

Flying Eagle

I say ‘roller coaster’. This is a park aimed at children. Nothing is going to be out-of-this-world hair-raising or scary. But I actually did find some of the rides more thrilling than I anticipated. Polar X-Plorer, for example, goes quite quickly, enters a tunnel, pauses…then drops the car and the track 5 vertical metres. 

Polar X-Plorer

By far the coolest ride was one which you create yourself, called Ice Pilots School. In this, you put in your preferred difficulty level, which out of 5, before then selecting a series of moves. I didn’t really understand what was going on so bashed the screen for a bit. You then take the swipe card to a platform which is surrounded by 5 robotic arms. You enter the seated harness at the end of the arm, strap in…and then get flung and spun by the arm in all directions and rotations. You can’t complain because it’s merely doing the move you asked it to do on the screen! Really enjoyable.


The arena


As much as rides, Legoland is famous for its creations using their plastic bricks. Many of their parks have a ‘Miniland’ which accurately creates towns, buildings or other things using Lego. Here they had created the nearby airport, Amsterdam and an area of the Scottish Highlands. What made it even better was the fact that many of the transport pieces actually move around the buildings.


The plane was slowly moving down the runway.
Having it take off would probably be too ambitious...

The boats move along the canals by being pulled by a track under the water


One exhibition they had was about some of the world’s tallest buildings. Each had been made to a scale of 1:150 - they don’t have that many bricks! I really appreciated the detail in the grand clock of Mecca.


Taipei, New York, Mecca, Shanghai and Dubai are represented

Incredible detail which took 1,597 hours
to build and contains 119,614 Lego pieces

Billund is on Jutland, the main landmass of Denmark and the one which is connected to the rest of continental Europe (Germany is below it). I had travelled to Billund from the country’s third-largest city of Odense, which is on the island of Fyn, sandwiched between Jutland and Copenhagen’s island of Sjælland.

Red = Copenhagen
Green = Odense
Blue = Middelfart
Orange = Billund

A sunken state of Odense's most famous person... 

Odense itself is known as the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, famed for his fairy tales. I saw the outside of his childhood home whilst in the city but didn’t make it to the large and expensive museum. I also didn’t get to go inside the cathedral named after King Canute. Canute the Holy, apparently, not the one who is infamous in Britain as sitting on a beach trying to control the waves.

Andersen was born in Odense in 1805

The cathedral was closed...to be actually used as a cathedral. Fair enough.

Odense is a nice place. It's quieter than Copenhagen but with similar natural features such as harbours, straits and green parks. 

A beautiful morning to run along Odense's river

Munke Mose park is lovely in the sunshine

It's also a useful base for exploring other places. I had time to kill - and an unlimited public transport pass - before returning to Copenhagen so headed west to the harbour town of Middelfart. The infantile part of me possibly went because of the name. Why I really went was to hike around Fyn’s northwestern shoreline along a trail called Lillebælt, or Little Belt.

Many of Denmark's islands are connected by bridges

The trail passes through Strib, which seems...wealthy

The weather and exertions of biking and hiking
warranted a passion fruit and mint ice-cream

It’s always nice to get out of the main city and explore a bit more of a country, allowing a more authentic and nuanced view about its features and quirks. Fyn, with Odense and MIddelfart, was a fun surprise. Legoland was an enjoyable day out which kids would love. It was great to visit the spiritual home of a toy from my childhood and one which is wildly popular around the world. Play on!

Cycling north of Odense along an area called Stige

The Legoland Dino is almost 9 metres long and made with 182,100 bricks 

Sailing under the Lego version of Tower Bridge 

The Taj Mahal. Made of Lego. Remarkable.


Love you all,


Matt

Friday 9 August 2024

Denmark - Trying to find the inner Viking

August 2


Hello everyone!


If someone said ‘Denmark’ to you, what would be the first things to pop into your mind? Chances are it would be connected to this…


Invading army!

The word ‘viking’ was originally used to describe a pirate


The land which now constitutes Denmark was a key part of the ‘Viking Age’, an era of Scandinavian seafaring and success between the eighth and twelfth centuries. They’re known in the UK as being invaders, with two incursions into English territory helping to shape the country’s future. As well as being the main characters in a particularly entertaining Horrible Histories book.


There were four main groups - Danes, Gauts,
Norwegians and Swedes - who all spoke a similar language


Their decline is often associated with 1066 (ask a Brit)


Not having luxuries such as long bridges, trains which pass through underwater tunnels or planes back in those days, the Vikings managed their vast territory with boats. The longboats were famed and feared, but they actually had quite a variety of vessels which had different purposes, such as sending supplies to faraway lands such as the Faroe Islands.


A picture in the museum showing a key aspect of Viking life

It would take three days to row to England, and two weeks to get to the Mediterranean


For a time, one of the main towns was in Roskilde, which nowadays is a short train ride from the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Interestingly, the latter didn’t really exist during the Viking Age. Roskilde, which I’d only previously heard of because of its massive music festival, very much did exist. This is partly why it hosts the Viking Museum.


Copenhagen is about 35 km away


They are continuing to make boats using
Viking techniques at the museum 

The other reason is because of what they have found in the fjord leading from the town to the Kattegat Strait and eventually the North and Baltic Seas. They know about the different ships used because they found them. At the bottom of the fjord. Due to risk from other factors, they decided to raise the remnants of the five boats and painstakingly tried to reconstruct them in the museum’s working harbour.



A copy of this orignal, called Skuldelev 3, was used
for over 30 years until being retired in 2016


The result is a hall of not-fully-completed boats - they obviously couldn’t find every piece. They have tried to rebuild them in the same way that they were originally built hundreds of years ago. Research of the wrecks has helped them understand a lot more about Viking culture.


They traded with places as far-flung as Constantinople and Baghdad


Weapons have been found to show how the Danes utilised their aggression


They also managed to learn, after synthesising with other information, why these boats were on the floor of the fjord. The Vikings had sunk them on purpose. They were scuttled after being used as part of a defensive wall on the water, stopping any potential invaders from reaching the town of Roskilde.


The little details are interesting - this protruding piece of wood
has a gap which would have held a shield in place

This vessel was probably built for fishing and whaling


It’s all well and good looking at Viking things…but what about using them? Channelling the inner Erik the Red or King Canute? This was the real reason I was here: to help sail a Viking ship. 


Those oars - not as easy to use as they look...

Mast. See, I know sea words.


This was great fun, arguably made better by having a skipper who looked like Jurgen Klopp with long hair and who initially had quite a blunt demeanour. There aren’t many pictures because he had harangued a man who was taking snaps during his explanation of how to manoeuvre the oars.


Our vessel, which left 30 minutes after it was supposed to,
meaning that I had to power walk to the train station afterwards


Having volunteered to go in the front row, I and one other man were responsible for setting the rhythm of the oars behind us. This was quite tricky as I had to look at and maintain my partner’s pattern on the right, whilst making sure I was paddling properly on the left and not smacking into the oars behind. We made the Klopp doppelganger laugh and state almost proudly at one point, “Wow you are both so out of rhythm.”


Vikings probably didn't have liefjackets and sunglasses


After paddling out to more open water away from the harbour, we worked together to raise the sail and navigate using the wind and our body weight. If nothing else, I realised that I would be hopeless on a life raft.


Our rudder, briefly used by an American teenage boy 

Sails were often made from wool


One other interesting thing to note about Roskilde, which came shortly after the decline of Viking Power: its cathedral. Standing tall enough to be seen from the harbour, it is a UNESCO Heritage Site made of 2.5 million little red bricks. It’s quite striking as a building. I didn’t have time to properly explore it, but the cathedral is the funeral church for Denmark’s royal family, 


The Cathedral was first built in the 12th and 13th centuries

The former queen Margrethe II, who abdicated early
in 2024, has already had her tomb prepared here


Roskilde was a fun, fleeting stop between two of Denmark’s bigger cities. Having tried to row a Viking boat, I now have infinite respect for their expeditions and seafaring skills. I certainly won't be a Viking anytime soon! 





Love you all,


Matt