Bricks & Stones

My hotel required a breakfast reservation booked through a QR code - the first I’ve ever seen and pretty smart as the Stockholm hotel really struggled with their crowd management.

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!

Dancing On My Own

Final breakfast at the hotel and I learned while watching YouTube last night that I was eating like a Swede! I saw the Kalles Kaviar next to the boiled eggs and rightly assumed I was supposed to eat them together at my first two breakfasts.

Kalles Kavier is a type of roe spread and is salty - it’s funny how Americans and westerners pair salt with their eggs and as Koreans, we sprinkle soy sauce. All around the world, folks need a bit of saltiness with their eggs. Alexander Skarsgård explained how to eat Kalles Kavier on the Colbert show and I happened to stumble upon it on last night’s YouTube rabbit hole as I was going to bed.

To be honest though, I have not been sleeping great on this trip. Usually I kick jet lag pretty quick and although I’m not napping during the day, I can’t seem to fall asleep. So I slept in more than I would have liked this morning and rushed as I packed and checked out before my last day in Stockholm.

I walked over to the tram / bus stop and headed to Djurgården, an island that has lots of museums and sights. Here’s a photo of the water as I crossed the bridge:



One of the most popular museums in the Stockholm area is the Vasa Museum. On display is a 17th-century ship that had been salvaged in the 1950s after 333 years when it sank in 1628. It’s 4 stories tall and apparently too narrow, and therefore didn’t get very far as it sank in Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage.

But it took all these years to raise it out of the water and if it hadn’t been a failure, it probably would have been destroyed and would not have become the largest conservation project in the world. It continues to be maintained as bolts get replaced and the wood preserved in an ongoing restoration project.

I viewed it at all angles as you can see it from below and and at different.platforms. As you walk in, you see the impressive bow:





Here’s the stern:





The sides… the ropes have been re-rigged and the ship is ~98% original:







This is a model of what the insides would look like:





Here’s a model of the ship:





I then walked over to the ABBA Museum dedicated to the most popular pop group to come from Sweden. The museum was fun as music played everywhere and I got to sing and dance along:





They won the Eurovision Award with “Waterloo” which was their breakout hit:



In the Stockholm Archipelago, they rented a house and wrote many of their songs there which were bright and fun:



You could sing in a booth and pretend you were in a recording studio. It was fun listening to the other museum goers get really into it. They also had this avatar on-stage experience to become the 5th member and I was goated into “Dancing Queen” by the security guard:



I also very much enjoyed the Silent Disco experience and there were several people in the room - you knew you were listening to the same song and channel by the color of the headphones:



Here are the chairs for Pierce and Meryl from the movie musical “Mama Mia”:



While I was in the museum, it apparently rained even though it wasn’t in the forecast. It was super sunny when I hopped on the tram and headed to Östermalms Saluhall, a food hall recommended by a colleague for lunch.

It was high-end and busy with tourists and people taking their lunch breaks. As I wandered, I was offered free samples of bear and reindeer jerky. I politely turned it down as my Noma experience in Copenhagen gave me my fill of both for a lifetime…



I decided to eat at the counter at Lisa Elmqvist and I ordered a ginger ale and warm fish soup that was delicious. The aioli with the bread was also fantastic and I enjoyed a roobois tea afterwards:



As I left the food hall for my hotel, it began to really downpour. The hotel seemed concerned I was heading out again without one of their umbrellas, but I pulled out my raincoat and own umbrella from my suitcase and headed to the tram / bus stop. I had read taxis in the city were shady and not reliable and even overhead the concierge explain it to another guest. Pretty surprising for a Scandinavian city which seemed pretty safe otherwise. I didn’t wait long for the 7 tram that brought me to Stockholm Central Station where the Arlanda Express leaves 3-4 times an hour. In less than 20 minutes, I was back at the airport.

At the airport, I got to scan my own baggage in (which was fun and different) and bought a few candy souvenirs (Swedish Fish!) and waited for my SAS flight to Billund.

Although the weather was a little colder than expected (this was even validated through eavesdropping of other conversations), Stockholm was lovely. In the future, I would love to explore the archipelago and outer areas, but really felt like I got to take a lot of Stockholm in.

Right next to my hotel, the theater was playing Joyride the Musical in honor of Roxette, famous for ‘80s hits, “Listen to Your Heart”, “Fading Like a Flower”, and “It Must Have Been Love”. When I watched the music video for “Fading Like a Flower”, I realized it was mostly filmed in Old Town!

Indeed Sweden has given a lot to the world - fish, pop music, IKEA, and you can tell it’s a very proud culture. I indeed enjoyed discovering on my late night YouTube rabbit hole of Swedish singer Robyn performing my favorite “Dancing On My Own” at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize concert - it felt like my trip experiences were colliding.

My flight to Billund was just 90 minutes and when I landed, I had a Danish hot dog for dinner. Then I boarded a local bus which took about 10 minutes and dropped me off in front of Legoland. My hotel, the Lodge Billund was just another block down the road.

Looking forward to my second time in Denmark where I’ll link up with Rachie and the family and getting to explore more of the country!