Legoland. The real one in Denmark. Plus Germany and Switzerland

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And so the day of our visit to Legoland has arrived. We have had a beautiful run of fine autumn weather to this point, and of course today it is raining quite heavily.

Legoland has dropped back to shoulder season, which means it's open 4 days a week Fri-Mon only. Today is Monday, so it's our only option.

We get the bus from Vejle train station to Billund, which takes about 25 minutes and drops you right outside Legoland.

We bought e-tickets online so there is no queueing, and in we go. Once inside we grab some plastic rain ponchos from a kiosk and start exploring...

 

[offshore171]

A friend who travelled in Denmark during the summer, advised that Legoland was unbelievably crowded during their visit, with some rides having queues of up to an hour. There's a few reviews on Tripadvisor from July-early Aug saying the same thing.

However today, a rainy Monday in late September, there are no crowds. And despite the rain, all the rides and exhibitions are operating normally.

Legoland offers:

Attractions | LEGOLAND® Billund Resort

View our exciting unforgettable type of attractions we have at LEGOLAND® Billund Resort.

www.legoland.dk

Theme park style rides

Half decent restaurant options by theme park standards

Extensive outdoor lego structures

Indoor exhibitions, including an excellent underwater installation that combines real fish with lego structures.

 

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The large scale lego installations are extensive, many of which contain very complex animations and robotic motion.

 

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The famous Legoland spare ribs



All in all, a superb day out and in some ways the rain was a blessing. There were no crowds and every ride was operating.

 

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So why is Legoland in such an out of the way place?

Billund was the site of the first Lego factory and the company HQ remains based there.

Apparently around half the town works for lego or related service providers in some capacity, and most of the rest work in airport related jobs.

Ultimately, well worth the detour.

Except in July:

 

[offshore171]

Next stop, Hamburg


@RB recently posted a great report for Hamburg, but it looks like we saw a few different attractions, so I'll focus on those.

 

[Katie]

Oh, you didn't go to Lego House? That's a shame. It's definitely worth a full day of its own.

We enjoyed Legoland, and appreciated that many of the rides felt different to Universal/Disney ones. But Lego House was even better. Sorry to mention it after you've already left.

 

[RB]

Vejle is receiving plenty of publicity in our local press- Ryley Batt from here is arguably the best player in wheelchair rugby & the Aussies just won the world championship. ( not a lot of national press as it wasn't on free to air or fox sports)

 

[offshore171]

Vejle is receiving plenty of publicity in our local press- Ryley Batt from here is arguably the best player in wheelchair rugby & the Aussies just won the world championship. ( not a lot of national press as it wasn't on free to air or fox sports)
View attachment 303893

Now that you mention it, I saw some posters and banners about wheelchair rugby in Vejle.

Had no idea Aussies were involved, let alone going on to win it.

Nice one.

 

[AisleSeat]

We visited Legoland back in 2010. We only wanted to go the the shop (which is inside the park) so the peson at the ticket booth said we must buy a ticket and if we were back in 30 minutes, they'd get refunded. We went to the shop and then ran as fast as we could all around LL.

 

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We arrive in Hamburg HBF and walk to the hotel, Le Meridien Hamburg.

The hotel is right opposite Alster Lake and has fantastic views from the room and the rooftop restaurant, which also doubles as the breakfast room.





We'd actually stayed here a few years back and recalled that the restaurant was very good. However on trying for a reservation tonight, it's fully booked - on a tuesday!

So where would they recommend? They suggest this place:

Home - Casa di Roma

In Hamburgs Szene-Viertel St. Georg – mitten auf der Langen Reihe – erwartet Sie in stylisch-mediterraner Atmosphäre ein Restaurant der Extraklasse, in dem Essengehen zum köstlichen Erlebnis wird.

casadiroma.de

 

[offshore171]

The hotel makes a reservation for us, and it's only a block or so walk to the restaurant.

It's in the St George district, in a precinct of restaurants and cafes, quite close by.

So an Italian restaurant with a pretty generic sounding name, in northern Germany. I wasn't expecting too much. However Tripadvisor had some positive reviews, so things were looking up...



It turned out to be the best dining experience of the trip.

Not cheap, but it was absolutely superb food, fantastic atmosphere and a really wonderful waiter. Restaurant was full, on a tuesday.

They had a wine list to match

 

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Next day we set about exploring Hamburg on foot.

We wander past Alster Lake and make our way towards the Town Hall and eventually the waterfront.

There's quite a complex arrangement of canals and "locks"

Eventually we found ourselves at the biggest surprise attraction of the trip...

 

[offshore171]

I had read about this place "Miniatur Wunderland" on TripAdvisor

Homepage

www.miniatur-wunderland.com

MINIATUR WUNDERLAND (Hamburg): All You Need to Know

Book your tickets online for Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg: See 22,892 reviews, articles, and 15,649 photos of Miniatur Wunderland, ranked No.1 on Tripadvisor among 399 attractions in Hamburg.

www.tripadvisor.com.au

It gets incredibly good reviews on Google so I mentally put it on the "maybe" list of things to do, but then forgot all about it.

Then in our wanderings around the warehouse district, we stumbled upon it.

Should we check it out? Yes why not.

To say were were blown away is an understatement.

 

[offshore171]

It's a massive indoor installation of miniature worlds. The level of detail is absolutely incredible.

Cars use their blinkers. Ships sail, planes take off, cablecars climb mountains. There is just so much detail it is mesmerising to watch. You could spend days there and not see everything.

There is a large room of specialist craftsmen and women, who make everything from scratch by hand, and there's also a huge "mission control" style control room with large screens where they monitor all of the animatronics etc.

Each display transitions from night to day to on a cycle, and there are also interactive elements that the visitors can trigger via buttons.

We went in unsure what to expect and were absolutely amazed how good this was.

 

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It even had a cafe, which used ex-Lufthansa seats which was a nice touch.

Had the currywurst. Not bad.

 

[drron]

And fantastic car parks as well!

 

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After a long and enjoyable day wandering the streets of Hamburg



We make our way back to the hotel, and head up to the Heritage Bar at the corner of the rooftop.

The bar offers expansive views across Alster Lake, and there's sailing races underway. Entertainment sorted!


Photos from the hotel website, bar is at top left

 

[offshore171]

Next morning we say goodbye to Hamburg, and get a train to Berlin