dreamaastrid (
dreamaastrid) wrote2007-04-05 04:54 am
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The Overseas Delivery Experience with a 4-yr old in tow:

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Day One:
Sun - 4.15pm finally awake... slept 2hrs max on the flight over, and dh didn't sleep at all, and Mags slept maybe 1hr. Just had 4h nap. and I'm almost human..
so far - our friend's Cyd & Joe rock - they got us to airport, SAS lounge @ dulles sweet, inflight entertainment system very nice, baggage handlers suck - 3 lost bags, volvo limo driver very personable, hotel has soft soft beds..
Day Two:
5.23 am Göteborg - had a very nice dinner last night @ the hotel restaurant, Magali had little sausages off the kids menu - think mini hotdogs w/frenchfries - meal 1 w/kid - a success! Yeah!!
All she ate on plane rides was yogurt, bread, & all the snacks we packed - remember airline food + toddler = hungry, unless mommy brings snacks
Dh (who is pickier than M) - had a cajun burger - so 2 happily fed family members! Yeah! I had cannelloni - and it was very good..
Summary - meal 1 - successful - Yeah! I like just about everything but was worried that the hubby & kid would find things they like to eat
Stopped at the front desk after dinner - luggage had arrived - Yeah! we now have clothes... So back to our room, change clothes (now non-crunchy & non-smelly) and then out for a walk, fresh air, scope out the neighborhood - find that we are in the midst of downtown Göteborg.
We are right next to tons of shops, of course, they are all closed on a Sunday night @ 9pm/10pm local. And we are the only ones out walking with a small child at this hour.
But if our luggage had not arrived we would have had tons of clothing shopping choices. Our hotel is right on a canal and we find tons of bars/restaurants within walking distance, we find the Göteborg museum, at least 4 McDonald's within a few blocks.
A really nice crisp walk, winter coat w/gloves and hats needed to keep the LO (little one) warm.
Back to our hotel room, at the Radisson, and watch a movie on our portable DVD player for Magali since no kids shows on the local TV at this time of night. Note: the dvd player is the best xmas player her grandparents have ever given us - so worth its weight in gold on long trips with the kid.
Day Three:
We did the Universeum in Göteborg for Magali today, rode the tram to get there, Universeum is a cross between the science center & aquarium - the kid loved it - snakes (like from Harry Potter), Bruce sharks & Nemo, Marlin, Dora, & Mr Ray fish. (do we watch too many movies?).
There were animal footprints to track, monkeys, birds, fish, snakes & reptiles. Magali could test drive a Volvo car, a police car, a Volvo 18 wheeler. She could be an astronaut, make DNA strands, race row boats, run a race, walk a tightrope, ride a lift diagonalley sideways up a wall - so totally awesome!
McDonald's for lunch for the kid, walked thru a huge shopping centre, walked to the lipstick bldg along the harbor - past the maritime centre ships, found a play ground that looked like a ship, back thru the mall, a short rest in our room before dinner, and then out for dinner to Pizza Hut another safe bet w/the little one.
And she did get a Swedish flag today at the mall...
Dave was a big big kid at the universeum too, so good petting the sting rays & driving cars & rowing boats, and explaining skeletons & digestion & DNA & prime numbers to his little girl.
Day Four:
started awful, turned great, got rough, but finished really nice ...
Awful - Kid slept like crap, crawled into bed w/mommy, kept me up from 1am to 3.30am & then I woke with splitting headache. Set the alarm for 7am the night before but forgot to turn it on, so we overslept, and when I woke it was 8am & my head hurt so bad I thought it was going to split open, it didn't but nothing better than puking from a skull splitting headache... but definitely comedic looking back at it.
I was dying, Dave was throwing everything into suitcases, I was taking a cold shower & guzzling children's Tylenol, I crawled back into bed while Dave took Magali down to the breakfast, and as soon as I shut my eyes they were back, my headache was halfed, I dressed and we were only 'bout 10 minutes late getting downstairs for the limo driver to take us to the Volvo FDC (factory delivery center)
turned great - treated very well at FDC.. signed a few papers.. Magali got a coloring book, a storybook, played w/Legos, sat on cool Ikea type dog/horse furniture, the ladies doted on her..
Car was perfect, we test drove it around their test track.. Swedish meatball & lignor berry lunch.
We spent too many SEKs on car accessories - kids seatback pocket thingy, glasses holder, cargo net, cooler & tailgate picnic table. Got stuff at the souvenier store too - Volvo maglight, Volvo mouse pad, & Volvo diecast cars for the kid..
Volvo factory tour was really great.. and then we were set loose on the roads of Sweden.. maniacal laughter inserted here - MOO HAA HAA!
got rough - nice drive to Mellerud, but realized 1.5hrs into our drive we left our winter coats @ the Volvo FDC (doh!), get them on our way to Copenhagen tomorrow?
By the time we get to Mellerud, no problem finding Dragan's house or the hotel... but Magali is exhausted & hungry & super super super grumpy.
finished really nice - Dragan's place is maybe 3 blocks from our hotel, he suggests Thai for dinner. He walks up to meet us, we walk across the street. Great food, great company - Swedish friend, Thai food, Scottish owner of restaurant to talk with. Kid is again pleasant after food in her belly.
After dinner, Dave drops us in room, he & Dragan go out for a beer or 3, kid & I get ready for bed..
ups & downs - but overall great day...
tomorrow's plans - retrieve coats in Göteborg on way to Copenhagen...
Day Five:
drive... stop at a random Volvo dealer & ask if they can call the Factory Delivery Center to be sure coats are still there
drive and stop to take pictures of random castles
drive back to Göteborg... got coats, Yeah!
drive... see windmills... not that many oldfashioned ones... mostly they look like ginormous white airplane propellers..
drive some more... smell scenic Sweden... smells like cow poop...just like farms back in the states...
drive & drive some more
Stop for gas & potty, Dave gets out at the pump, inserts credit card, stares at screen, stares some more, asks a teen on a motorbike for help, luckily Swedish teen takes pity on us, and helps us use a gas pump
Dave comments how we know what it is like to be illiterate... we see words but have absolutely no idea what they mean
drive on to Mälmo.. see the Turning Torso & the castle not far from there
park in garage in Mälmo, find McD's just to use potty, light does not work but mommy has her handy dandy Volvo flashlight, so success!
but another Swedish illiterate moment - we can't figure out how to get back into garage without buzzing for help
drive some more
find Oresund bridge, charge the toll, great bridge crossing at sunset and then we are in Denmark
find Dragør, find most awesome B&B - 'Cottage Farm', 200yr old thatchroof farmhouse with courtyard parking, rooms look fully restored, wood beam ceilings, gorgeous place & so completely updated w/wifi & tv & fridge & most gracious host that loans us Disney VCR tapes for Magali & gives excellent directions for what may be open for food, find 'American Pizza' at 9.30pm
Day Six:
only one complaint about fabulous B&B - very light water pressure - and us longhairs had to stand under the shower forever to rinse..
breakfast buffet complete... so glad I got it included everywhere we stayed..tea, juice, cereal, rolls, toast & jam, fruit, eggs, cheese, meat, etc.. very similar to last two places w/the exception of breakfast fish...
then off to catch the bus from Dragør to Copenhagen
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bus ride to boat canal tour
we just love boat canal tours - did one in Chicago a few years back as well.. best way to see a city - on the water
got photos of the opera house, churches, palaces, submarine, tall ship, war ships, the 'Little Mermaid', light-house ship, canal marble bridges, etc...
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lunch at the RizRaz buffet, Magali & mommy happy! A mostly vegetarian buffet w/spaghetti, pizza, salads, veges, fruit & icecream... Yum!
Dave ate 'a beer'... and a powerbar thingy from his backpack
shopping.. Magali got a Hans Christian Anderson book, a Denmark flag, a little mermaid magnet, an easter egg cup, a pretty pink Danish summer dress....
We got stickers... maps....
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We walked from the shopping, over to the palaces, found a playground on the way. A nice Swedish mom was out with her daughter, and also watching her friends' two children. Her friends are violinists traveling with symphonies, mom playing in Copenhagen, Dad currently away in another country on tour.
Some mom bonding was done. Those of us with just one couldn't imagine three full-time and not being so totally frazzled. Even used our newly learned 'hej do' expression as we moved on and went over to the palaces.
At the palaces, the guards were steadfastly standing guard. And we got tons of pictures of the palaces.
One quick bus ride back to the farm and 12hours sleep for Magali...
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day 6 recap:
Magali loved the horses at the B&B
2kroner DKK will get you into any of the public restrooms, those coins are invaluable while traveling with a small child
playground breaks are wonderful
having a vegetable & fruit friendly child saved mommy from yet another day of McD's.
Day Seven:
At breakfast there were other guests, a couple here for bike week (as in motorcycles). Luckily they were parents as well and amused by our little one's breakfast chatter.
Off to the ATM for 1500 DKK, to pay cash for the room, and to have some money for the day.
Gassed up the car, without assistance I might add, a few sodas, a few maps and some digestives later we were on the road..
First we drove into downtown Copenhagen to find the dropoff center for our Volvo so we wouldn't be freaking the morning we had to leave and catch our flight. What should have been about 25 min. took us close to an hour. Did I mention the signage in most European cities we've been to really sucks? Street signs that are miniscule in size, on the sides of building on the far side of intersections, cleverly hidden behind trees & bushes? So about a 1/2 dozen U-turns and back tracks later we found the place and completed all paperwork that we could earlier. So the morning of our flight would hopefully go smoooothly..
Next our drive to Roskilde for our exciting Viking Day!
The Viking museum was great and very child friendly... We saw the five Viking ships that they pulled from the harbor and it took 25+ years to put them together in giant jigsaw fashion.
They had clothing to dress up like a Viking and run around on reproduction ships. A movie with the history of Vikings and information about the restoration of the 5 ships on display, information about the makings of the reproduction ships that were outside, and they had reproduction ships that you can take rides on in the summer months. That would have been really neat.
Magali was able to run around outside and stretch her legs and be out of the car for awhile.
We got a few books & stickers at the souvenier shop and we were off for the rest of our drive to Legoland.
Arrived in Billund and found the Legoland Village a few minutes after 8pm. They left our room open and our key in the room since we arrived after checkin.
Magali loved the room, and the playground, and the dining hall. Lego's everywhere: a table full of them to play with in the room, a Lego friendly playground, Legos to play with in the dining hall, and Star Wars video games for the kids to play..
We went and got the buffet from the cafeteria, and mommy & daddy split a bottle of wine with our dinner. Mostly a vegetarian type buffet, with a carving station at the end with beef, lamb, and ham.
Needless to say Dave did roastbeast and bread for dinner both nights, I had very tasty soups & salads, vege lasagna, quiche, fish (and I don't usually like fish) etc. And for the kid's buffet they had chicken nuggets, fries and hotdogs - what else could a toddler want?
Our room - the key ring was a big block Lego, the towel rack in the bathroom was Lego horses, the end tables were Lego play tables, the kid could build Legos on the tables or on the walls.
The window blind for the door was a Lego basesheet that could be opened or closed by using a Lego block.
The kid's bed was a bunk bed that folded out of the wall (like bunks on a cruise ship), so she was able to hang comforters and sheets from the top bunk and make a little fort/cave to sleep and play in.
Yes, this was a Hostel, but our room was nicer than our hotel room in Mellerud, and here for the same price we got breakfast, dinner and our park passes.
Day Eight:
Day 1 at LEGOLAND!!
Checkin at the reception at Legoland Village.
European buffet breakfast in the cafeteria with cereal, rolls, jam, juice, meat & cheese..
We had to do several loads of laundry before we headed out, that way we had clean clothes for the day. So a late start and we didn't get to the park until 12.30. So unfortunately we missed the Prince of Denmark and his son at the grand opening of the new ride "Atlantis"..
But LEGOLAND was phenomenal. It was walking distance from Legoland Village Hostel. And everything that you could think of was made of Legos. Dave & I were amazed at the detail of MiniLand. Replicas of major cities throughout the world, replicas of major tourist attractions & monuments throughout the world. Lego tourist, and children, and marching bands, etc. etc.
And the detail was absolutely amazing.
We were in Copenhagen two days before and the street where we got on our canal tour, was exactly reproduced. Every house, every tree, every street light, the sidewalk cafes, the name plates on the houses, the canal boats motoring up and down the canals, etc. etc.
Mindboggling the hours that had to be put into reproducing the streets down to the most intricate detail of people walking, riding their bicycles, walking their dogs, etc. The shop windows full of their wares...
The park rides were very toddler friendly, Magali was big enough to do all but a handful of rides. Definitely a park for the toddlers, elementary age and pre-teens.
Note: No big thrill rides.
We walked, we rode Lego trains & boats, we watched people baking bread over Indian campfires. So strange seeing people dressed as American Indians with Danish accents - LOL!
We ate, we shopped, we bought Lego keyrings, we snacked on popcorn & icecream, we were mesmerized by the Legos creations.
And mostly we were big kids and played, and played and played.
And lastly we headed back to the Legoland Village hostel, had a nice buffet dinner with a bottle of wine, Magali played video games, and played on the Lego playground, watched kids flying their remote control airplanes outside, and we found some fellow Americans to hang with, some New Yorkers: Pat, his wife Sylvana, their daughter Patty & son David.
Magali played in her make-shift fort in our room before we all crashed for the night.
Definitely the best way to end our vacation, saved the best for last.
Day Nine:
Day 2 at LEGOLAND!!
Back to the European buffet breakfast in the cafeteria. Checked out of the hotel by 10am. We saw our New York buddies at breakfast and they were hitting the road for Copenhagen..
Got to the park and headed to "Atlantis".. Got to ride the Top of the World ride with a full 360 view of the park and surrounding airport from the highest point in the park.
Wandered back thru MiniLand took a zillion more pictures of everything we had missed the day before.
Finally found Atlantis - a aquarium theme attraction complete with fishes. And the kids could touch the starfish, and put their head in a Lego shark head, and the kids could craw thru a tunnel in the center of an aquarium.
We had lunch at the Castle restaurant. A nice sit down restaurant, almost had the place completely to ourselves. Compared to the food court area over in Legoradotown that was a mob scene.
We indulged in Roast Beast, Soup & Bread. The King's Ale for the hubby, and Magali got spoilt and had her lunch of pancakes and icecream.
Tried to do any rides we had missed the day before. We took Magali on almost every ride in Duplo Land, and we took her to the playground area and she ran from thing to thing to thing, up and down stairs, and ladders, and slides, and down fireman poles, and pretended to drive ambulances, motorcycles & tractors, and rode farm animals, and horses, and played in houses, and stores, and in the hospital, firehouse, & police station.
She rode the kid size ferris wheel, and planes. Which she told me "they (the planes) are from Texas mommy", and when I asked her how she knew she told me, 'cause of the big star on them'. LOL! Kids and their logic.
And we just had a wonderful day.
All our little girl wanted from Legoland was a pink plush princess kitten. But we also got her a pink girlie girl Lego picture frame set complete with a fairy & kitten & flowers.
And the Lego egg cups, and salt & pepper shakers were just too cute so I got those for our weekend breakfasts.
Magali slept most the ride back to Copenhagen. We got back to the B&B around 9pm, they put us back in the same room, left our room open with the key in the door.
We headed out and got snacks, cash to pay for the room, etc.
After Dave & I tucked the little one into bed, we packed everything completely so we would be ready to roll in the morning. Car would need to be dropped off at the Copenhagen delivery center about 20 min. from our B&B, and taxi ride to the airport and a long day of travel ahead..
Day Ten:
a long long day of travel...
found the drop-off center, caught the Taxi to the airport, got some European chocolates in the duty free shop..
luckily they have Lego play areas throughout the Copenhagen airport..
long long flight with no naps or sleep for any of us... we did however figure out how to play the video games in the in-flight entertainment system so that did entertain Magali a bit..
traded off who got to sit beside the Magali, play with her, read to her, take her to the bathroom, feed her snacks, the prepared sealed apple/grape snacks from McDonald's are great. The day before I bought all the ones they had in the fridge at the McD's we stopped at so we'd have them for the flight.
How to expedite your way thru customs when you get home? Have an exhausted 4 yr. old melt down into a tantrumy mess and then they come and wisk you to the front of the line and wave you thru..
And this time our luggage was on the same flight as us. Yeah! Our friend Joe picked us up at the airport - Yeah! Joe rocks!!
Did I ever mention I get motion sickness? Well our flight wasn't bad until the last 20 minutes of the descent, very very bumpy and I got very very sick. So when we got back to Joe's I laid on the sofa for awhile before we could head out so that my stomach could catch up with the rest of me.
Dave, bless him, drove the last few hours home and Magali and I crashed at 7pm... I woke about 1 am, and scarfed the carryout Dave had picked up the night before
and home at last was wonderful...
The Day After:
I got all caught up on laundry, I napped. Magali and I soaked in the tub which was wonderful as everywhere we stayed other than the Radisson were showers only..
Magali and I did grocery shopping, unpacking, she played with her new toys, we picked up the cats from the kennel.
It was so gorgeous yesterday that I put the kid and the cats out on the screen porch, hung the hammock swing and it was so nice to have a day to recover from the trip...
today back to the grind...
Trip Recap:
So, the car rocks, Sweden rocked, Copenhagen rocked, Roskilde rocked in a Viking kinda way, Legoland rocked in a tiny, ridiculously detailed OMG! kinda way, and the flight home so totally did NOT rock, but being home again rocks like nothing else.