Legoland!

This morning began with a very early wakeup. After my alarm went off at 6:30 AM and I biked downtown as the sun was rising, however, the tiredness was completely worth it. After all, I was biking to catch a bus to the coolest place in the world: LEGOLAND! It was a very long ride to Legoland, almost three hours. But honestly it wasn’t that bad. I got together with a group of three other students and taught them one of my favorite card games ever: whist! The bus ride passed pretty quickly, so much so that I was actually annoyed when we arrived at Legoland, given that I was about a third of the way through one of the best hands I have ever been dealt, a hand which I was never given the opportunity to finish. But the unfinished whist victory, like my early wakeup, soon paid off as we entered the park. First off, the weather was gorgeous. We’ve been having our share of cold and rain recently, but you never would have known that today. I was very warm with just my jacket, no scarf or gloves necessary.I just hope it lasts.

Once we entered the park we were greeted by mini-land, where you can view all of your favorite world sites, except miniature. And made of Legos. It's amazing what you can build out inch long plastic bricks. Everything from Nyhavn, to the Mt. Rushmore, to Mt. Fuji was replicated in mini-land. And some of it was awesome realistic looking! The Lego model of Amsterdam, for example, had canals filled with real water running through it, with lego boats and a lego drawbridge, that actually worked and lifted up when the boat needed to go through! And some of the models were huge! I can't even imagine the work that goes into some of them! The Statue of Liberty, for example, was made of 1.4 million lego bricks. That's a whole lot of Legos. And some of the models, of course, were distinctly Danish, such as Amelienborg, the Danish royal castle. I also enjoyed posing with Hans Christian Andersen. And I loved the lego solar farm and windmills. Take a look below at some of the highlights of Miniland:

Me and HC Andersen

Nyhavn

Amelienborg

Lego Solar Farm

Japan

Working Dutch Canals

As we continued, we saw more cool Lego models throughout the day, including my personal favorite of vikings fighting a sea serpent. There was also a safari, with rather large Lego elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions and other wildlife. It was amazing just how detailed the park got with their Lego models. In the trees there were Lego birds. The benches had Lego tourists sitting on them. Even the mailboxes in the giftshop were made of Legos.

Me in Firetruck

Lego Zebra

Lego Lion Pride

Lego Vikings in battle with Lego Sea Serpent

Lego mailboxes. Really work!

Trash barrel, with Lego-looking top

Probably the coolest exhibit in the park, however, was Atlantis, which was a real aquarium,
with real fish and sharks and rays, with Lego decorations. There were Lego scuba divers, Lego submarines, Lego treasure chests, and more! And the real wildlife was pretty... wild. The aquarium had one of those tunnels that you walked under so we were walking directly underneath the fish. It was awesome to be directly underneath a rather large shark, less than a foot away, separated only by a piece of glass. Also there were these GIGANTIC crabs. Seriously, move over Baltimore, these crabs weighed 22 kilograms apiece. That's about fifty pounds of crab!

Real Fish, Lego skeleton

No Legos here. Sure hope the glass doesn't break.

These crabs weighed 22 kg!

Tunnel through the fish.

And of course, since Legoland is an amusement park, there were rides, including a couple of pretty neat roller coasters. One of the cooler rides was called "The Dragon." It started out with a slow tour through a medeival lego world and ended with a couple of pretty sweet roller coaster drops. Another awesome ride was the "Power Builder" which is difficult to describe, but it was really innovative. First, you and a friend are given a plastic card which you load into a computer. Then the computer shows you pictures of various spins, flips, twists, and turns and you choose the ones that you think look the best. Then, you and that friend are strapped into two side-by-side roller coaster seats at the end of a really long, mechanical arm and are spun, flipped, and turned in the manner you selected. It was definitely faster and tougher than pretty much any standard coaster! There were also a number of water rides in the park, which we elected not to do. I know I said it was warm, but still a Danish October is seriously not warm enough for water rides. I was amazed at how many people in the park were doing those rides though! The Danes must just be used to it.

Scenery on the way into "The Dragon"

Finally, as a closing note, they allowed dogs into the park! They were everywhere, and I loved it but it really made me miss my dog. But how cool is that that they actually let people bring their pets into an amusement park?

Dogs in the Park!

Thanks for reading!