After leaving my luggage, I walked through the Sculpture Park on a lovely path that passes by the International School of Billund - I bet all those kids’ parents work for Lego!
Billund is where Lego started and the 2nd most popular place to visit in Denmark after Copenhagen. Lego is also one of the biggest companies in Europe and the largest toy manufacturer in the world by sales - 36 billion pieces are produced annually.
I had booked a combination ticket which included timed-entry to Lego House. There are various activities including robots, models, uploads of designs to digital formats, and just general fun. The parents were having so much fun and it was nice to see such an international mix.
Some photos from the visit including designs built by guests and Lego Masters:
A mathematician figured out that with 6 pieces, 915,103,765 combinations can be made and I was assigned #329,960,635 with my free 6 piece set:
You could also see the Legos being made:
I also participated in this Lego robot game where you could plant flowers, so the bees can come and you can collect honey - it was surprisingly really fun:
I then left, walked past company headquarters, and arrived at the original Legoland and the most popular attraction outside of Copenhagen. I had never been to a US Legoland and was impressed by Miniland, a recreations of cities and buildings:
Here are some of sites in Scandinavia…Copenhagen Harbor:
Lego House:
The airport:
Aarhus where I’m staying two nights:
They also had a safari with animals made out of Legos which reminded me of my South Africa trip last year:
Also some famous international sites…like Tower Bridge in London…
Rome’s Coliseum…US Congress behind it and the Statue of Liberty…
The Taj Mahal…
Mount Rushmore…
My morning was full of Lego Bricks and after 1-ish, returned to the hotel to pick up my luggage. I then walked about a block to the stop where I boarded the #43 bus to Vejle. It took about 40 minutes through the countryside. At the train station, I stored my bags in luggage lockers and boarded the #211 to Jelling for a 30 minute ride.
Conveniently, I’m using the Rejsekort app as the Denmark buses and trains don’t take Apple Pay or credit card like they did in Stockholm and Italy. The reason being the public transport is a zone system, but the new app is pretty easy as it tracks my location. I didn’t use it in 2022 as we had purchased the Copenhagen Tourist card that included public transportation.
Jelling is a UNESCO heritage site known for its famous runestones which are raised stones inscribed and often in memory of the dead.
These are from the 10th century - one raised by King Gorm of Old in honor of his wife and another was raised by his son, Harald Bluetooth in memory of his parents. It celebrates Denmark and Norway and the conversion of the Danes to Christianity.
With one of the first stone churches in Denmark, and the north and south burial mounds, the Jelling Stones are considered the premiere example of “pagan and Christian Nordic culture” - one stone refers to “Danmark” and the other, a depiction of Christ. Here are the stones:
Inside the church, there is a hanging ship like in Storkyrkan in Sweden. I learned it’s an offering, thanking God for safe passage and common throughout Scandinavia:
View of the church from the southern mound:
I timed the bus and boarded back for downtown Vejle where I grabbed a tuna sandwich from the bakery attached to the station, picked up my luggage from storage, and caught the train headed to Aarhus.
The ride was only about 45 minutes and packed, but felt like an eternity with the woman across the aisle who couldn’t stop talking to her friend. She barely took a breath and I think it would have been better if there was some more back and forth, but this woman was on some sort of loud diatribe before I boarded and continued until our destination.
After a five minute walk rolling my luggage and just west of the station, I arrived at Hotel Oasia which I found on booking.com. The hotel seemed really clean and I rested for a bit as my legs and arms were very tired.
When I started to get hungry, I left the hotel and found my way to the Strøget shopping promenade and got a shot of the church as the sun was setting…
I read that Aarhus has been on a burger frenzy and it made me want a burger. So I mapped to “Burger Boom” itself where I ordered a Ceres beer, homemade lemonade, and a Boom Burger and fries:
The city was hopping as there were scores of folks drinking outside and hanging out. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the nice weather and chatting the night away as I strolled back to my hotel!
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