We left on Tuesday and just over an hour into our drive we were in Germany. The first thing we noticed was that the rest stops on the motorway had toilets all of a sudden. I know I'm a bit fixated on the toilets of Europe but it seems so absurd that one country has them and another doesn't. It's so much more convenient to know you can pull up for lunch and go to the toilet without having to search for one first.
My only real interaction with Germany was to purchase fuel, both times I had absolutely no idea what the register operator said to me but managed to complete the transactions without any real issues. Although Tan and the kids wondered what had happened on the way home as the person in line in front of me came out laughing quite loudly to himself. I'm paranoid that the people are mocking me saying things like "You stupid ignorant Aussie, we beat you in the World Cup!".
The German motorway was fun, the speed sign as you enter countries displays the main speeds for various situations, in built up areas, out of town and motorways. In Germany all but the motorway one was in a red circle, my suspicion was maybe it was only a recommendation. This proved to be true when we got to our first un-signposted stretch of motorway. Audis, BMWs and Mercs were flying past in a blur (we were doing 130km/hr). It seems that if you drive a German car it is compulsory to drive it as fast as possible on the motorway, even if there is traffic ahead you must drive as fast as you can and brake at the last possible moment. It is really quite crazy, the freeways don't flow very smoothly at all, even with three lanes. Trucks start overtaking other trucks, so cars move to the outside lane to overtake the trucks and all the Audis, BMWs and Mercs start getting frustrated. Their attitude was reflected in a t-shirt we saw on one driver at a rest stop - "F*** You - I drive a Mercedes" (without the asterisks). There were so many roadworks that they never really get to drive fast for long anyway.
Denmark made a nice contrast, the motorway was speed limited and we didn't spend long on it anyway. We were staying at Ribe an old town (Denmark's oldest in fact) on the west coast of the left part of Denmark. The drive there took us along more sedate country roads, a bit like England again with tractors and harvesters on the road. The countryside was very rural and scenic, with different architecture again.
We stayed in our first youth hostel in Ribe, a new experience for us. We had a family room with bathroom though so not much different than a motel except we brought our own linen and had to clean when we left. It was handy having a kitchen for breakfast though.
We ate out our first night, a Chinese buffet the hostel lady recommended. Denmark doesn't use the Euro so we had to withdraw some Danish Kroner and figure out conversion rates. Part way through our dinner Tan worked out it was going to cost about $160 AUD (eeeek!!). She was right, but it turned out all the restaurants were quite dear, Denmark just seemed to be very expensive.
Ribe still has a nightwatchman who has been patrolling the town at night for centuries, not the same man obviously there are actually a few of them as he is now quite old. The job officially stopped in the early 1900's but the town started it again in the 1930's as a tourist attraction. His job was part policeman and part fire/flood warden. He sings a song based on the Psalms, a different verse each hour. It was a free (always a bonus) and entertaining tour of part of the town.
Wednesday was Legoland. We arrived at 9.30am before it opened, and left at 9pm when it closed. The kids had an absolute ball, Ollie's comment was "it was the best day of my life", I suspect that was mainly because it's the first time he has been tall enough to go on all the rides at a theme park.
Thankfully the main attraction is still the Lego displays and models. Even though it is your typical theme park the fact that most of the decorations are made from Lego makes it seem less tacky somehow. The model towns and landmarks from around the world are really good. The detail they can create using Lego is amazing, I noticed the Lego canal houses of Amsterdam are as crooked and lean just like the real ones.
The trip back to Ribe that night was quite special as the kids, Emily especially, reminisced about all the fun they had playing with Lego as kids and were grateful for my Lego they had inherited. The Lego store was quite spectacular, there were Lego sets I'd never seen before. You could pick and mix your own blocks in all the colours, shapes and sizes by the 100g, even Lego figures i.e. heads and bodies.
The only bugbear was smoking (again), the park isn't non-smoking except for queues and eating areas but unfortunately this wasn't enforced. Dogs were welcome though, it's quite funny to see pople with their dogs at an amusement park.
We then had the long drive home again yesterday, some of the gloss had worn off by the time we got home but it had still been a fun trip. I did manage to smuggle a couple of Danish pastries out for the trip home, very yum!
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