Katharine22

I'll have to issue the standard apology for this report being too long and detailed. I'm including a lot of the travel-aspects (airline, etc.) because that is the information I wondered most about before leaving.

Days 1-2
We flew out of Chicago on Thursday, September 2, to London on British Airways. We got to the airport about 4.5 hours before our flight, since we weren't sure how traffic would be. I had been really concerned about flying with both a preschooler and my husband, who is 6'6". We were happy there was a nice play area in the terminal with Little Tykes toys, but we had to go out of the secure area to get food and clear security a few times during our wait.

My husband was assigned an emergency exit row and my daughter and I were across the row on the bulkhead. I do have to brag on British Airways. I thought they treated us great! Their agents were friendly, it was easy to order a kid's meal on-line. The meal came out about 30 minutes before we got ours, so we could get our daughter fed, then enjoy our meal. They also provided her with a kid pack at the bginning of the flight. On the return trip the pack even included a back pack. I was very impressed. I won't go on about the plane, since most of you are frequest flyers and probably really not impressed!

We arrived at Heathrow ahead of schedule (about 9:30am local time). I had cancelled our driver, so we ended up with quite an adventure! After a great drink at Starbucks (the best I have ever had...go figure) and a nice conversation with a Welsh couple, we headed out to wait for our 11:50am bus to Stansted. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:15pm and we were aiming for 5pm arrival at Stansted, so we were not in much of a hurry.

Well, 11:50 came and went. Cutting to the end, at 1:00pm, the National Express agent came out and told us that the bus was so far behind schedule that we couldn't count on it arriving. We were told to go to the main terminal and board another bus to Stansted there. Once we arrived at the main terminal, we found that a lot of others had also received this advice. The first bus filled up, but we were able to get on the second one, going to Cambridge. All the employees were in a bad mood because of all of this and talking bad about each other, which did not instill a lot of confidence. The driver seemed to be a bit of a crazy driver and there were a lot of sudden stops and moves, even on the motorway. He did make good time and we arrived at Stansted around 3:00pm. We ate at the pub in the airport. It wasn't particularly good, but the beer was (fairly) cold!

Now, about Ryanair. To give an idea of our experience, my husband kept "moo-ing" throughout the whole ordeal. He labeled it a cattle-moving operation. I expected this and took the low price over a better experience. But, we did receive an experience. I was surprised at how long the process took! Had we arrived after the magic two hour mark, I don't think we would have made the flight. I was disappointed to miss the nice shopping area in Stansted, because we had to rush to the plane.

The flight was all right, but we had a bumpy landing. Also, my daughter was sleeping during the descent. I have now learned that is a no-no. She had awful ear problems for a few days.

We arrived in Denmark around 10:00pm local time and to the house where we were staying around 11pm. So, a total of 25 hours traveling. Never again!

WillTravel

Katharine22, thanks for the report back on catching the National Express bus and Stansted airport. I'm glad you left so much time and this will be helpful to others planning same-day connections from Heathrow.

I caught the National Express bus from Victoria Coach Station last year to go to Stansted. I thought I had left plenty of time, but getting on the bus went slower than anticipated. Then the driver was told not to pick up more than X people at a particular stop (I think Marble Arch), because he had to leave room for people to get on at Golders Green. Anyway, when he got to Marble Arch, there were various people begging and pleading to be let on the bus, so he let them on. Then over the radio I heard him talking to this supervisor, who was extremely ticked off that he had not left enough spaces for the people at Golders Green. The driver said he just couldn't leave the people behind at Marble Arch. The supervisor was clearly furious. Obviously some people at Golders Green must have been left in a very bad way. Anyway, after all this, we arrived 1 hour and 45 minutes before flight time, and check-in went smoothly and quickly (fortunately). But it's almost impossible to overestimate how delayed you can get in London.

Katharine22

I should start with a background as to why we went to Denmark. I was a Rotary exchange student for a year in high school, ten years ago. I just finished graduate school. As a present to myself and my family (who sacrificed much more than I), we went to Denmark to visit. While living in Denmark, I lived with three families and attended a gymnasium (high school) in the next town. As some of you know, my husband and I were going to go alone in July (second honeymoon type of thing). We then had a death in our family and rescheduled for September, which meant we would need to bring along our three-year-old. I should also say that my husband has only flown twice and has never been out of the US and my daughter has never flown.

Day 3
We stayed with my former host parents-Ruth and Jorn. The first day in Denmark, Anna was very sick from the flight. She had an earache, a fever and was sick to her stomach. Jorn went out to the pharmacy to buy some medicine, but came back with aspirin. Now, as a good American mother, I simply could not give my kid aspirin! We ended up giving her another pain reliever, cut in-half and smooshed. She hated it, but it brought down the fever and by the end of the evening, she was able to eat an ice cream bar. The doctor told me to bring the children's Tylenol and from now on, I will never leave the country without it! After Anna fell asleep, my husband and I walked to the kiosk and bought my favorite-a Nugat Ritter Sport bar. It was nice to get a daytime look at the town.

Katharine22

Day 4
We finally left the house on Sunday! We drove to Aarhus with my host parents and got a taste of Fest Week! I have lots of crazy memories of it as a teenager, so going back with my family was quite a different experience. Fest Week is basically ten days of music and fun. There are concerts and performances in every venue from parks to churches. We went on the last day and hit the family-fun activities.

We went first to a "Bounce Land". It was about 30 air-filled climbers and trampoline-type bouncers. "Sicky" (otherwise known as Anna)took awhile to warm up to the idea of jumping-understandable with her sour stomach. She did get into it a little, though. I was glad, since my host parents had paid the entry fee! Anna only wanted to try the ones with no other kids on them! We found one in a back corner and she had a blast.

Then, we went to the other side of the small park to the train. It was a kiddie sized steam engine that actually ran on coal! It was pretty neat. Anna rode that several times and really enjoyed herself.

We then set out for lunch. Downtown Aarhus had changed since I was there. They opened up the river, which has created a nice canal through the city. There are a lot of restaurants and bars there. We found a nice outdoor cafe and had lunch.

After lunch, we set out on our own to explore Aarhus. Other than the canal area, everything was VERY similar to the Aarhus in my memory. A bustling university town with lots of shops and street performers. There seems to be music at every turn, even at times outside of the Music Fest.

Unfortunately, shops are closed on Sundays, so we weren't able to do any shopping.

Day 5
On Monday, we took the train to Hadsten, which is where I attended school. We visited the gymnasiet to see the school. I was surprised by the lack of security in the school. My job requires me to visit high schools in moslty rural Illinois. Even in the smallest schools, there are name badges, entry requirements and sometimes metal detectors. We were just able to walk in to the school in Denmark!

We met the rector, with whom I was able to speak in Danish. That was good, since he never allowed me to address him in English when I attended the school! The school was the same, it just seemed a little smaller.

We then went downtown to the "mall". We bought some snacks at the grocery store, which is where we had our first experience with card codes. I am going to post this separately, since it caused us quite a bit of money trouble on our trip. Basically, smaller shops, grocery stores and the train automat, were unable to accept credit cards without a code. I tried my debit card and code at one of these stations, but it didn't work either. The larger stores were able to run a credit card without a code, but one had to get out the intruction manual to figure out how to do it!

We then went to the park, had a drink at Jensen's Pub (my old high school hang out) and grabbed some lunch. Then, we took the bus back to Langaa. We had to take the bus because I couldn't quite figure out the train schedule. When I lived in Denmark, I had a thick little book that had all of the train and bus schedules in it. Now, everything is on-line. For the most part, you enter your start and end point and when you want to go and you receive a list of the times. Unfortunately, the list of times doesn't include the stops or where each train is heading, which is how they're listed on the board at the train stop.

My other "wow, Denmark has changed" moment was when I tried to make a phone call. The phone only accepted a special phone card-no money or credit cards. It is strange that this one moment in such a familiar place was my most uncomfortable moment of the trip. Being used to having a cell phone and knowing how things work, it just knocked me a little out of whack. But, we boarded the bus, which had the same number I remembered and off we went!

We spent the evening in Langaa with my first host family. We had a lovely dinner and wonderful conversation! It reminded me that, as Americans, we are generally not very educated about the world around us. I was having a very in depth discussion about American politics and the election with a Danish family. I certainly could not reciprocate (although, I could intelligently discuss the recent royal wedding of the crown-prince couple, which is the only news on Denmark in our local paper in the last five years or so!).

WillTravel

It's not a common destination, but I enjoyed Aarhus too. Was the Tivoli in Aarhus open when you went?

Patrick

Very nice report. I'm curious though after reading your title. Where are you from? Most places it would be illegal to marry a three year old, even if he is tall!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Katharine22

Ha. Same place as the virgin with baby!

Willtravel-I don't know if Tivoli was open. It is amazing how little you can accomplish in a long time when you have a little one along.

Katharine22

Day 6
Legoland

We drove to Billund. I was terrified, not having driven in a foreign country before. My host father prepared me with the basic rules and I pored over my travel book for tips. It was surprisingly easy! The signs were easy to understand, although there were a few that gave us a few laughs.

We originally planned to take a bus/train trip, but it would have taken 3 hours. Driving, it was about an hour and a half.

Legoland itself was a load of fun. We enjoyed all the models, then rode on the rides. There were a lot of little kid rides-airplanes, boats, helicopters, trains, merry-go-round, etc. Also, several neat activities. Anna cooked bread on a stick over an open fire, but we skipped the panning for gold. We didn't go to any shows. The one we were considering looked a little "old" for Anna. I hated to wait in line, only to have to fight our way back out.

We brought along our own lunch, which was fortunate as the concession prices were what one would expect in a theme park.

The park closed a little early, 5pm, I think. It was fine for us, but folks with older kids may want to make sure to check park hours if they are going off-season.

We spent our first touristy kroner at Legoland. There is an awesome shop that is basically a lego candy store. Bins and bins of every type of lego you can imagine. There was a whole section of people parts. My husband put together a few people to resemble his co-workers as gifts. He definitely did not plan to give them gifts, but the opportunity just presented itself. There were little bodies that said, "camera man". My husband works in TV, so obviously though that was pretty cool. Anna on the other hand, wanted to scoop lots of kinds of legos into our bag. I limited her to 1-3 pieces per "scoop". I should also point out that buying Legos this way is not cheap. It cost about $10 per 100 grams. For those who, like me, who are not familiar with metric, this is approximately the weight of a candy bar! We filled a small bag for $20 of all the "fun" pieces-doors, people, clear blocks, neat shapes, flags, etc. You know, there are never enough of those in the Lego kits. Anna really enjoyed the entire process of picking out the Legos. She is just now ready to move from Duplo to regular Legos, so it was all new to her. For Christmas,she'll be getting the basic starter set and will be able to add in all her extras. Obviously, I enjoyed this process, too!

We also shopped a little. I was again disappointed in teh prices of the legos. I figures that with the factory a mile away, they might have been cheaper. Of course, the main shop was pricey, but they did have neat things there. We came across a smaller shop, though, hidden away a bit, that had sale items. We all got sweatshirts for about $10/each and picked up some cheap, pretty cool posters. They also had Duplo blocks to buy in bulk and a big bin of cheaper legos. It cost about $50 for a medium tub. They were strange pieces, though, but there were a lot of people digging away!

Legoland was Anna's favorite part of the trip and I think the park is appropriate for infants to adults!

Katharine22

I'll continue on and try to finish this trip report!

Day 7 Aros

So far, Anna had been living on mostly ice cream bars and the occasional bowl of cereal. We finally went to the grocery store and bought "American" food- sandwich makings, bananas, chips, and even cookies. That was the turning point! After one meal of familiar food, Anna was a changed child. She tried new foods for the rest of trip and ate as well as she does at home.

I was really glad Anna was friendlier and was actually talking to Ruth (she refused for the first few days). Anna stayed with Ruth while Roger and I joined the Langaa Rotary Club for a tour of the new Aros Museum in Aarhus. It was a very nice museum, however, since it was a tour by a Rotary member on the financial side of things, it was a bit rushed. They had the "Boy" exhibit, which is a very large, human-looking boy. It was cool, but creapy, too. I most enjoyed looking at the older Danish paintings. I had seen many of them when I lived in Denmark and now they have all been moved to Aros. I am not a real art lover, but the oil paintings are such nice snapshots of 19th century life.

Day 8

On Thursday, we took the car and went shopping, empowered with the new knowledge that we would get a refund on the approximately 25% Danish sales tax!). We went to Randers to Jysk, so I could buy some dyner (down comforters). We then went to the big mall and wondered around for awhile.

That night, Anna stayed with Ruth again. They had a lovely time watching Disney DVDs and eating ice cream.

Roger and I headed to Aarhus by the train for one of the highlights of the trip (for me at least). We met with almost all of my former classmates! It was an absolutely wonderful reunion. I had recently attended my US 10-year reunion and was amazed by the difference between the two classes-the US class had all gotten larger, while the Danes had shrunk! Now about the fodd... We ate at Italia, a wonderful Italian restaurant in Arhus. It was a fairly large and there was a variety of food, incluing a buffet. I would highly recommend the restaurant, especially the pepperoni pizza!

After dinner, we went to a pub and consumed really large glasses of beer. I should talk more about the beer. This was the carrot I offered to my non-traveling husband and he loved it! His favorite thing was just going in somewhere and ordering a beer. They would bring something wonderful, straight off tap. No options, no choices, just great beer! Well, that night we drank plenty. We then had to literally run to the train station to catch the last train back to Langaa at 11:30 (very early for a Danish night out!). I found out the next day the some of our friends stayed out until the sun came up the next day. We, as parents of a preschooler, are too old to do things like that, but it would have been nice to stay a little longer. So, we ran sloshing through the Gaagade to the train station, narrowly making the train and arrived back in Langaa just after midnight. We then walked across town to get back to my host parents' house. This was the evening that most reminded me of my time as a teenager in Denmark!

Day 9

Ouch! I am not a teenager anymore! We got up early and headed to The Old Town in Aarhus. It is a nice open-air museum with shops and homes from Danish history. It was very educational and somewhat interesting. One note for those with young kids-cobblestones. We were able to buy old fashioned baked goods and Anna really liked the toy display with funny mirrors.

On Friday night, some other friends came over. We had pisked up some pizzas from Italia (since we didn't have time to cook) and carried them back on the train. We came back on the 4pm train and it was very crowded. Roger and I had to stand and Anna was able to play in a kiddie area at the end of the car.

Our friends came over with their kids. I had to remember all of my Danish etiquette-not taking anything off the table until everyone is finished and has had a chance to talk for a while; always leaving one item of food on the serving plate, not taking the last one... It was an early night, since we all had kids to get to bed.

Day 10

My host parents were out of town from Friday until Sunday. Saturday, we visited my other host family and then stayed in for the evening, watching Austin Powers...

Day 11

My host parents came home around noon and my host sister and her fiance were visiting. We had a nice lunch and watched Under the Tuscan Sun. Ruth, Jorn, Roger and I stayed up late, drank red wine and talked politics. It was a very interesting discussion!

Day 12

For our last full day in Denmark, we went shopping. WE bought gifts for everyone and poked a little around Aarhus (well, got lost. I had requested a special dinner-frikadeller and potatoes. Traditional Danish and delicious! We were busy trying to pack and spend our remaining Kroner.

Day 13

We woke up early to get ready to leave. Ruth drove us to the Aarhus Airport. It was pretty uneventful. We used Ryanair again. We were a little over on baggage allowance, but weren't charged any extra. We said goodbye to Ruth (it was hardest for her to saw goodbye to Anna since they had developed a friendship). We left Denmark in a light rain and had an uneventful, pleasant flight back to London...

Katharine22

On to London...

We arrived in London around 11:00 am on Day 13. Out trip on Ryanair was uneventful and Stansted was about the same as we had left it We had reserved a car through Just Airports and, happily, I didn't cancel the reservation this time! The driver was there to meet us just outside (psuedo-)customs. He had our name on a little board (which made me feel like quite the celebrity). He took our luggage cart and manuvered us to the parking lot. After getting the car and loading us in (we tried to get in on the wrong side), off we went. London driving was certainly quite an adventure in itself! I had to stop looking because I kept gasping, thinking we were surely going to get hit since we were turning the "wrong" way.

We got to the hotel in about 45 minutes. I had prebooked at the Days Inn Waterloo in a family room through hotels.com. We did have to wait awhile until a room was ready, but we arrived before check-in time. We walked to a bakery down the block and got sandwiches, then back to the hotel to have a picnic and a beer in the lobby. If we had realized how close we were to the park, we would have gone there! BTW-the beer wasn't near as good as in Denmark...

We then retired to the room, which was a very nice-sized room. There were two twins pushed together for us and a comfy futon couch, made into a bed for Anna. We all took a nap.

When we woke up, we headed out by foot to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which seemed like a good place to have dinner in London. We were certainly right. It was full of character and the food was awesome! We had a high-walled booth with plenty of room and allowed us to have a fun dinner without disrupting others.

After dinner, I thought we should try to see Pickadilly Circle at night. We, um, got a little lost and looked up and saw Big Ben at the end of the street. These are my favorite travel moments. We followed the street and wound up near parliment Square with a beautiful view of Big Ben all lit up.

We headed back to the room and watched some fun tv-a show about bad kids going to 50's school and bettering themselves. Good to see reality tv is everywhere!

OT

Hi,
I live in Europe and hardly look at this board, but I saw you post on the airline section and that made me open it.

I have really enjoyed reading your report from Denmark. Arhus and Billund brings back special memories for me. We used to travel by ferry on weekend trips from my native Norway to Arhus, and when our children were young we would go to Legoland.

Look forward to reading your report from London.

sol_veracruzano

loved the report!

isabel

Katharine - thanks for your trip report. For me it is very timely as I was just about to post a question about Copenhagen. So manybe you can answer it. I am trying to decide between Copenhagen and Edinburgh for about 3 days in March. I will be in London for a total of 10 days and want to go somewhere else for a few days. What do you think about Copenhagen at that time of year? Is there any hint of spring at that time (like there is in London and Paris) or will it still be very wintery. I'm not expecting shirt sleeve weather, but just wondering if it would really feel like winter. Another question is about the timing. I really only want to be away from London for about three days, it that enough to get a "taste" of Copenhagen? Any other insights you'd like to share? Thanks.

Katharine22

I am so glad that you're all enjoying my trip report. It has been fun writing it-even though it is taking awhile!

Isabel-I'm sorry I don't know much about Copenhagen. My only taste was a day trip (ten years ago!). We went to Tivoli and saw the major sights. As for temperature...I think it will still be cold. When I lived in Denmark, it was never bitterly cold, though. The hardest part of the winter months for me were the short daylight hours. I found this website with last year's daylight hours for March:
http://www.sunrisesunset.com/calenda...mp;time_type=0

Honestly, when choosing travel dates, that a major consideration. We knew the temperature could be just about anywhere, so we looked very carefully at daylight hours.

Hope this helps somewhat!

Katharine22

Day 14-An "American Tour" of London

We had big plans for our day in London... We got up and headed to the bakery down the street and had fresh croissants (sorry, Dr Atkins...), then headed to the Big Bus stop. We came to one and hopped on. The guide wasn't very good. He spent a lot of time telling us what the next stop would be and not what we would be seeing. We decided to get off for the river cruise. We walked by the Tower of London, but decided not to go in (it was expensive, we had a lot of things to do, etc.). I do regret that, since it was one of the destinations that interested me.

I should also point out that by now, my family and I had been having both quality and quantity time together now for 14 days! My daughter missed her friends, my husband missed home and I was beginning to miss the days when I could travel alone. We were all starting to snap at each other and the family decision-making process was breaking down. In the interest of the family, I thought it would be best to forego the intensive, one-day tour of London we had so planned, and go with an overview.

So, on to the river cruise. I know there has been some debate on this, but I really enjoyed it. We really liked the recorded commentary. Also, it was misty and cool outside, so it was nice to be inside the boat. It was a little early for drinks, but I liked that they (along with food) were available.

We got off the boat at Westminster Pier. I decided we would head up and look at the sights before rejoining the tour. Now, I should mention that this was a special day in London... There was a large protest in supprt of fox hunting outside of Parliment. There were vans of SWAT teams on the outskirts of the area and police EVERYWHERE! People with signs were pouring in from everywhere. News crews were all around and, of course, tourists (like us) were taking pictures of it all!

We walked along Westminster Abbey, but again, didn't go inside. We wondered out of the main tourist area and it started raining. This was definitely helping foster family fun! We found a restaurant and grabbed lunch.

We decided to get back on the Big Bus, but had trouble finding it. One passed us and I tried to flag it down, since we had been unable to find a stop. We ended up chasing it to the next stop light and climbing aboard. It was a recorded tour, but by this time my husband didn't even want to hear the tour!

We got off at Buckingham Palace, which is where our day started to turn around. Anna was so excited to see the Queen's house. On the first day, when we arrived in London and came into the airport, her first words were,"Where is the Queen." We had been telling her that we were "going to London to visit the Queen." As a three-year-old, she took this quite literally. After that, we changed our story and told her we were going back to London to see the Queen's house.

Her favorite things there, though, were the pigeons. She chased them, talked to them, took pictures of them, made us take pictures of them... Needless to say, we spent quite a lot of time a the Victoria statue playing with pigeons!

We got onto another live bug bus and were very happy with it. We ended up going back through the entire route and getting a nice tour of London. Except, by this time, the entire area around Parilment was closed. No traffic was allowed! Our guide and driver did a very nice job keeping us informed and altering the tour route. I was really glad that we had gotten lost the night before and had gotten to see that area already.

The bus didn't stop at our stop, so we ended up with a little walk back to the hotel. It wasn't bad, thoough. We went to the kiosk and bought loads of junk food. As our official last day on vacation, we binged! We did this as we watched the live news coverage of the protest, then the Parliment break-in. We decided to stay near the hotel for the rest of the evening and not venture out into what looked on tv to be rising chaos.

We decided to give Anna a little fun time. We headed down the street to the park. We were happy to find a small playground on the other side of the Imperial War Museum. Anna had a blast playing there. The sign, warning that adults without children were not allowed to enter, struck me as interesting...

We had dinner at the pub across the street. It wasn't very good, but the only restaurant open in our neighborhood. We then returned to the hotel to pack.

Day 15
After another breakfast from the bakery, our car came to pick us up. It was so convenient. We got to Heathrow without any problems and got to do some shopping and eat before we got on the plane. The BA flight again was nice and I especially enjoyed flying over the tip of Greenland. So beautiful!

We got into Chicago at 3:30pm, and after a brief stop at my sister-in-law's to pick up the car, started toward home. We finally pulled over at a hotel at 9:00 and slept, waking up at 5:00am. We were all just awake and ready to go. Flying west is definitely better! We drove the rest of the way home and dropped off my poor husband at work (he had a tv production the next day that he was in charge of, so had to be there!).

So, after 15 1/2 days, we were finally home. We all enjoyed our trip and my husband is excited about going back in the future (remember, this was his first international trip!).

Lessons we learned from this trip-Balance play and touring with a little kid. She is happier and, in return, we are happier.

Anytime our family travels through London in the future, we will have a car take us where we need to be. We can be adventurous when we retire and travel alone! With kids, better safe than sorry.


As for our favorite parts...For Anna, it was Legoland. For Roger, he said it was having Anna travel with us (did I mention that I love this man!). For me, it was being able to share my love of travel and my experiences in Denmark with my family. I feel like they are now "in on" this major part of my life.

Mathieu

Such a thoughtful, considerate and interesting trip report Katherine. You are the ideal wife, mother and traveller ! Well done.

I'm still struggling with getting my own report completed, and reading yours has given me the impetus to plug on.

M.

ira

Lovely report, Katharine

Thanks for sharing.