Legoland!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to be gifted with some free tickets to Legoland! (That's the original Danish Legoland. Legos are Danish, you know). So we hopped on a bus to Billund and rode all the way to Syddanmark.

We were joined by B's colleague, French J, and his girlfriend Lithuanian A. (Sorry, I know this is getting complicated, but we already have a J and an A. And we have to protect the identities of the innocent).

The bus trip was about an hour and 45 minutes. The bus picked us up just across the street from our apartment, drove through Silkeborg, stopped at the Billund Airport, and then dropped us off approximately at Legoland. Actually it was about a kilometer away, in the middle of a field, but we didn't mind, even though it was about 7 Celsius and raining. (That's because we're practically real Danes now. Cold and wet? No, pleasantly soggy and refreshing! Brisk!)

At first, we thought the key attraction would be Miniland, a huge replica of famous locations all built out of Legos. It was in fact very cool.

Look at all the windmills!

Copenhagen harbor

Anyone recognize this location? E did! (Answer at the end of post).

A little piece of home

But Legoland has a lot more going on than just awesome models. They have boats you can ride as you tour the models! And the boats are made of Legos!

Never thought I'd be on a Legoboat! (That's French-J and Lithuanian-A behind us!)

On our second boat ride of the day! Watch out for sharks!

We made some new friends, too.

B gets cozy with a Legolady.

E poses with a genuine ancient Egyptian. Hey, doesn't he remind you of this guy?

At the end of it all was a pretty impressive Lego store. Of course, they had all of the sets you could ever want, but they also had these:

Legos in bulk! (Look closely - they're actual Lego people parts!)

B is overwhelmed

Our day ended with some excitement. We weren't entirely sure where to catch the bus back (perhaps because we'd just been abandoned in a field earlier?) and it was the last one of the day. B and French J asked at a help desk, and discovered--oh joy! that the alleged stop was a mere 200 meters away. This seemed surprising as it was nowhere near where we'd disembarked that morning.

Well, we walked along for about 200 meters and came to a bus stop... that wasn't ours. No 913 X bus at that stop! After briefly reviewing our options, we decided to go search for another bus stop somewhere in the vicinity of the morning's drop-off point. Sadly, no sign of a returning bus stop did we see. So, with only about 12 minutes before the bus was supposed to come, we decided that our best bet was to walk (really fast) to Billund Airport. We could see it in the distance and knew it to be not more than 2 km from Legoland. Well, after tearing across the Danish countryside for just about 2 km, we made it in the nick of time! Exciting stuff.

* The mystery location? Norre Vorrepoer - home of the Nordsoe Akvariet, made famous in a previous ADAFT post!

After a Daft Delay, the Daring Duo Blogs Again

Well, as you have no doubt already noticed, we've taken our time posting the rest of the photos from our Paris trip. (And by "rest of" I actually only mean a handful. Not to fear, the other 385 will be available upon request). So, with no further ado, here are some pictures that show the ADAFT side of Paris.

Here E is about to sprint over to the pyramid with the newfound realization of humanity's biggest secret!

B practices looking moody and French. Oh, the unbearable ennui of it all....

Saint Chapelle

A gargoyle at Notre Dame

Another cool gargoyle at Notre Dame

Hey, where'd they get such good-looking gargoyles?

Springtime in Paris is overrated. Here's autumn in Luxembourg Park.

Our dinner spot at Luxembourg Park

B studies the rhino at the Musee d'Orsay. It seems to have armored plates--what nonsense is this?

Just before coming home.

"Cities With an Eiffel Tower" for $500 please, Alex!

We're back from our exciting trip! For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to find out where we went, it was Paris! (in case that wasn't obvious from the title) It was an excellent trip, and there's lots to tell, so we'll be doing this in two posts. The first will be mostly pictures. Stories and funny things from the trip will follow (probably tomorrow). We'll probably sneak some pictures in there, too.

So, without further ado, our tour of Paris in pictures!

Here's the view from our hotel room. The room itself was nothing to get too excited about, but the location was pretty convenient, and we had a nice miniature balcony. And, you could see the tops of the towers of Sacre Coeur, a living basilica on a hill above the city.
And here's Sacre Coeur. We went there the first morning, and it was pretty cool. There are really nice views of the city from this hill.


This is getting out of order, but here are some obligatory pictures of the Eiffel Tower. First, here's E on a bridge by the tower.
And, the tower from near the base.

Next up, some pictures of Notre Dame. First, from the front.

And, here it is from the inside.

And finally, there is a small park around the back. We had a lovely dinner here on our first evening.


Of course, Paris is famously beautiful at night. We particularly enjoyed being on the bridges at night, getting nice reflections of the many lights and buildings.

And here I am on a bridge at night.

Just two more for now. First, here's a picture looking towards the Grand Palais.

Finally, a funny little street full of restaurants with all sorts of styles of food. We had some pretty good falafel here for lunch one day.

Ok, that's all for now in pictures. These were some of the best of the first 200 pictures I took. Stay posted for stories from our trip, and the best of the next 199 pictures (yes, I took 399 pictures!)

ADAFT Goes AWOL

Hello lovely blog readers!

B and I are off for the week! We're taking a short mystery break to another European city. But we'll be back on Saturday with lots to tell you about. Plus, in the meantime you can enjoy B's fantastic pictures of Aarhus.

So until Saturday....

Vi ses! Hej hej!


PS--I really do mean lovely! I know who reads this blog and it happens to be some especially great people!

Autumn in Aarhus

E and I took a walk through town today. It's definitely fall here now (14 C, 10:50 hours of day), and we wanted to get out in it a bit. Here are some pictures of our day.

Some very Danish buildings, near our farmer's market

A nice little park

Cool trees in the fog, by the beach

It was a pretty foggy day

E tries to figure out if there's room for a stowaway on any of these boats

B contemplates a life as a sailor

Our ship coming in!

A path through the forest

Some fall colors just below the Queen's palace

Sun!

Bigger than a Breadbox?

We're playing a new game where someone thinks of a thing, and we have to guess whether it's bigger or smaller than Denmark. That's not including Greenland, of course.

In the most recent edition, we learned that Lake Superior is . . . . wait for it . . .

Twice as big as Denmark!

Roughly.

Still, pretty impressive. Things are big in the US.