Legoland Or Bust

We are back home and settled after five days on the road, folks! Our trip started bright and early last Saturday morning, when we cozied up in the car for the six-hour trek to Malmö, Sweden's southernmost city, and neighbor to our destination: Denmark. We arrived in the early afternoon with plenty of time to explore the city. I'd never been to Malmö before, and while it's no Stockholm, it had a very cute old town and a gorgeous gothic church, which The Swede and Jamie were generous enough to let me drool over. 

The Swede downloaded Pokémon Go last Wednesday, so by Saturday Jamie was obsessed. This entire summer will be embossed in my mind with that game.

On Sunday morning, we drove over the bridge to Copenhagen and arrived just in time for the opening of Den Blå Planet  aquarium. It was cool, but The Swede and I agreed that the one where Becca had her wedding at the Toledo Zoo was actually much better. So if you want to go to an aquarium and have to pick between Toledo and Copenhagen, go with Toledo!

Then we walked around Copenhagen all afternoon, basically just looking for this adorable harbor that we've all seen in pictures. Yeah, I'm that tourist. It was even more adorable in person, though, and while still not quite as awesome as Stockholm, I did enjoy exploring the city.

After our long walk, we were pooped and it was time to check into the hotel in a really beautiful, old building right on City Hall Square. The view from our room, seen above, was pretty spectacular. Also noteworthy: it shared a wall with a KFC. Fried chicken for lunch AND dinner, you guys. 

Monday morning we woke up outrageously early to make the three-hour trip to Legoland and arrive before the gates opened. We succeeded, but within minutes of entering the park it started raining. It basically rained the entire time we were there, but we were prepared with waterproof jackets and seven months of anticipation in our back pockets.

Legoland did not disappoint. Jamie loved it, I loved it, and The Swede was already feeling angsty about having to leave shortly after we arrived. There were long queues and it seriously rained the entire time, but it was very fun.

We stayed at the Legoland hotel on Monday night and the whole place was set up for kids. Lego pits everywhere. Food shaped like Legos. Competitions (Jamie won a badass kit!), magicians, balloon animals! It was awesome. 

We didn't stay very long on our second day in the park, which worked out well because we were able to drive for seven hours and made it almost all the way home. We ended up getting a room a few hours south of Stockholm on Tuesday night because we were all so pooped, but that turned out to be one of our best choices on this vacation because the hotel was right next to a water park where we spent a few really fun hours before making our way home on Wednesday. Five days on the road doesn't seem like much when I think about it now, but it felt significant so we were really happy to get home. And now, with nothing else planned aside from Jamie's birthday party, we'll see where the summer takes us!