Our route up to Scandinavia from Amsterdam needed a stop off point along the route, so we figured we would tie it in with a visit to Heide Park in Soltau, Germany.
Heide Park is owned by the Merlin group that owns the likes of Thorpe Park and Chessington in the UK, and as such you pretty much know exactly what you’re gonna get. It’s a great day out for the kids, and it actually feels like a slicker operation than the British parks. It might be due to the absence of chavs in Germany compared to somewhere like Thorpe Park I guess – the lack of shirtless chanting idiots and the obligatory queue jumpers made for a much more pleasant experience. We were also very surprised that we could have a healthy salad for lunch rather than the usual greasy fair on offer.
After a belly full of fun, we made our way back towards our woodland campsite in Sonnenberg, via the municipal swimming pool in Fassberg for a few lengths to cool down.
The next day we were off to Denmark. Hunters birthday is tomorrow and we have planned to take him to the Legoland park in Billund, so we are camping nearby at Riis Feriepark. Apparently school holidays in Denmark finish at the start of August, so we practically have the whole place to ourselves (including the swimming pool and water slides!) which is a nice experience. Another pleasant surprise is that fuel prices have dropped dramatically after crossing the border, so having expected Scandinavia to be an assault on the wallet we are actually off to a pretty good start.
We wake up on the 24th to an 8 year old in place of the 7 year old we said good night to yesterday. Hunter has been dropping hints for weeks about wanting a 3D doodler pen for his birthday and, would you believe it, a neatly wrapped present has appeared as if by magic (luckily Kate was organised enough to bring it with us!). So after a breakfast of Danish pastries all round we are off to Legoland.
This is the original Legoland park, and is situated in the same town as their international headquarters and original factory. It is also right next to the Denmarks second biggest airport, and you could see people literally walking from their arriving flights, suitcases in hand, straight to the Lego hotel, such is the draw of this iconic toy brand.
It’s a great park for young families and adult Lego fans alike. Our youngest Bam is 118cm tall which precludes her from most rides in normal theme parks, but in Legoland she can go on all but a couple of the attractions which makes for an easier day trying to limit everyone’s expectations. Don’t expect white knuckle rides, but there’s plenty of fun to be had, and the queue times are no more than half an hour for the most popular ones. We arrived at the park at about 11am, and we were still having fun at 5pm when the rides all called time.
Just time for a few more chocolate Lego bricks and a coffee in the café followed by a visit to the gift shop to round off the day. This gift shop is dangerous by the way, imagine your normal theme park gift shop tat, but on top of that there’s a vast amount of Lego sets, accessories and clothing to boot. Luckily we’re not furnished with a huge amount of space in the van, so we managed to get away with a few small purchases and a swift exit.
The next day sees us heading off to Copenhagen, but on the way we get a chance to stop off at the second birthday treat we’ve lined up for Hunter. During his last term at school, Hunter’s class had been learning all about the vikings, and when he first heard we were heading up to Scandinavia he had mentioned (many, many times) how cool it would be to see some real Viking history. Luckily for him our route took us straight past Roskilde, home to the Vikingeskibmuseet, or Viking Ship Museum. This brutalist concrete building overlooking the Roskilde fjord is home to the Skuldelev ships, a cluster of five original Viking longboats recovered from the bottom of the fjord in 1962. They had laid in that spot since around 1070 when it is though they were deliberately sunk to block access through this waterway to prevent an attack on the town.
This museum is so important because they are engaging in a form of experimental archaeology whereby they build reconstructions of ships in their on site shipyard using what they know of the original construction techniques in order to learn what these ancient people knew. Every time they build a new ship, they understand what they have done right or wrong, so the next time they can correct their mistakes and come a little closer to understanding their Viking subjects. So little is known about the Viking people due to the fact they didn’t write too much down. What we do know about is almost all gleaned from the remains of their civilisation that have been found along the years. Apparently the knowledge that this site has accumulated has officially been classed as living cultural heritage by UNESCO, which is quite something as they normally only deal with physical sites or items.
On top of the awesome display of Viking boats, the museum also offers a chance for kids and adults alike to indulge in sword fighting, toy boat construction and rope making. There is also the possibility of taking to the water in one of their perfectly reconstructed vessels to experience rowing a longboat as the Viking’s would have done. Unfortunately there was no spaces left for this today, although I think Kate was secretly pleased she didn’t have to spend 50 minutes rowing around the harbour!
The food on offer here in the cafe is also pretty appealing. I had a Viking Plank, consisting of smoked fish, local sausage and cheeses and accompanied by a delicious glass of local mead. Kates hot smoked salmon salad was a hearty feed too, and even the kids were happy with sausage and cheese sandwich and fish fillet.
All in all this place is a fantastic day out, and offers a real insight into something I knew very little about before today.