Day 1: Still in Germany. Sunday = rest day, as far as possible. We (finally) got to go swimming, much to the smalls' delight, in the Belauer See. Essie found an inflatable ball in the reeds, so we obviously weren't the first family to have that idea.
Day 2: Travel day. It transpires that he tunnel between northern Germany and Danish island of Lolland, featured in our atlas, does not yet exist so we end up taking a rather expensive ferry. The other islands we have to cross are, helpfully, linked by free bridges. The journey itself is relatively short, by our standards, and we arrive in Frederiksvaerk in northern Sjaeland mid-afternoon. The campsite (https://fredfyldt.dk/) is excellent, with an ACTUAL KITCHEN, a good playground, and very helpful staff. There are also washing machines. We're staying here for six nights.
Day 3: Frederiksvaerk. We discover the local Kvickly (supermarket) and try Danish soup dumplings. We also get a Too Good To Go package from the bakery in town, which includes carrot bread. After investigation, putting grated vegetables in bread seems to be fairly common here. No complaints from us.
Damien finds wild plums.
Since we're attempting to make this trip somewhat educational, we've started reading the Edda (Norse mythology) as a bedtime story. Raphaël now wants to learn to write in runes.
Day 4: We set off to visit Roskilde, which has VIKING SHIPS!!!! and a famous cathedral. After a wrong turn, however, we end up closer to Copenhagen, so we go there instead.
Travelling with children boils down to 1. finding good playgrounds and 2. finding good places for picnics, so we start by visiting the Kongens Have park around Rosenborg Castle. The children were not big fans of the playground, but they did find a statue with its belly button on display so they were happy about that. The parents found coffee, so they, too, were happy.
After wandering around town for a while in search of bread (another common feature of our days out), we headed off to the harbour to see the Little Mermaid statue, via another park for lunch. The Little Mermaid herself is rather underwhelming and surrounded by people taking selfies for Instagram. But at least we can say we've done it.
Day 5: Frederiksvaerk again, including a trip to the beach (the Danish Riviera, no less) and FROG CAKES. (There were photos. They have disappeared. I do not understand).
Edda extract of the day: "The heron of forgetfulness hovers over the ale-house".
We talk about alliteration in Norse and Anglo-Saxon poetry (because once a medievalist, always a medievalist...) and come up with our own phrases, most of which refer to some form of excrement.
Day 6: Second attempt to visit Roskilde, and this time we actually get there.
First stop: the cathedral (just the outside because we refuse to pay to visit a church ON PRINCIPLE) and the central square. The sketchbooks come out, but go away again fairly quickly when we discover a public piano and a collection of free-to-use children's bikes for riding around the square.
Second stop: the Viking Ship Museum, which came highly recommended. There's even a workshop with blocks of wood, hammers, nails and saws for Small People to try out carpentry. (No, I am NOT joking. Yes, we let Isidore use a saw. No, we did not lose any digits). Raph and Essie find some runes.
Day 7: A Very Excellent Walk around the lake near Frederiksvaerk. We see a beaver dam (no beavers though) and some stone age burial mounds, plus Damien finds even more wild plums (this is becoming a bit of a theme this week).
All in all, we rather like Denmark - and we haven't even been to Legoland yet!
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