December started well, with Alana coming for a visit on the 20th. I took the 19th off work and Kris and I went into Denmark for the day. We checked a few shops and went to Tivoli, but the terrible exchange rate and the pouring rain made the day a bit less exciting that it should have been.
We spent the night in a hotel near the airport, as Alana arrived at 6am the next day.
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| Alana arrives |
We let her have one relaxing day and then took off to Billund to visit Legoland for their Christmas Displays. We had originally planned to drive in and stay in Ribe, but there was a massive storm warning and Ribe is quite low lying. We ended up cancelling the accommodation (at the recommendation of the host) and rebooked a small place in Billund. We needed to cross the bridge to Denmark before midday as we were concerned that the bridge would close due to the storm.
We stopped in at Lego House to show Alana - it was closed but she still got to see it - and then settled in at our accomodation.
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| The weather was pretty bad |
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| Lego House - it was closed but the outside is still pretty cool |
That night was pretty crazy with wind and rain, but the next day was cold but clear and we had a good day for Legoland.
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| Just a few of the smaller branches that missed the car overnight |
Unfortunately many of the rides were closed and the Christmas specific things - snowball fight, iceskating and toboggan run were all for much younger kids. We still had a good time and headed home around 3pm.
Like last visit, the park was almost empty so we had almost free fun of everything. The only line we encountered was the line for Santa photos which, despite being only 5 people long, only moved one person in twenty minutes, so we gave up.
We started with the Atlantis aquarium again:
The toboggan ride was set up outside the cinema area, but it was for much smaller kids:
The water rides were closed down, which meant that I couldn't do my favourite pirate ride:
Kris found her own amusement as usual:
We checked the map to see where to go to next and chose the snowball fight:
It was located in the castle dining area - a part we had never been to before. The snowballs were fuzzy woollen balls, but there were cannons to fire them at
each other Dad.
We then showed Alana the new Lego Movie land:
and walked around the backside of the park where there was a Christmas stall area with donuts, glugg and a skating rink.
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| The kids decided to mug mum for a hug and to steal warmth |
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| The fountain was covered with the strange iceberg thing. |
To warm up for a bit, we headed into the car racing area and built some awesome vehicles:
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| Can you spot my car there - hint: its just four wheels and a frame.. |
They performed really well:
We then stopped outside for some family photos at the photo area:
Our final stop was the Miniworld to check out some of the displays:
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| Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel (Mecca, Saudi Arabia - 119,614 bricks) |
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| Shanghai Tower (68,820 bricks) |
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| Burj Khalifa (41,958 bricks) |
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| Amelienborg Palace |
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| Stave Church |
The strong winds had caused a disaster at the NASA display, with a solar panel down and several casualties:
We had a quick stop in the stores and the Christmas craft area where a series of displays were available for auction:
On the drive home, the weather started to close in, but we got home safe, despite this warning:
Christmas was great - we caught up with our friends for a meal and board games and it was great having Alana home:
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