Welcome to the first post of our 2025 summer holiday. Our trip will mainly take place in Norway! Except we didn't want to travel super long days. So we split our journey in two and added an extra day to visit Legoland in Billund, Denmark!
We left on Monday morning, to stay overnight at Legoland. On Tuesday we drove on to Hirtshals to sleep, so that on Wednesday we could take the ferry from there to Larvik, Norway. We'd booked all of the above quite far in advance, because of the high season.
Legoland Billund, Denmark
From our starting point in the Netherlands to Legoland is 743 km, and on average it takes just over 8 hours to get there. Our trip went smoothly, and the busy spots were exactly where we'd expected them beforehand. It was a bit busy near Bremen, but Hamburg took the crown. We got stuck there for a while because of roadworks and the resulting traffic jam. After that it got fairly "quiet" pretty quickly, and we drove on to Legoland. The last stretch in Denmark was a bit odd, since there's no motorway running to Legoland. We arrived well before four o'clock.
Our stay (room) at Legoland
We booked our stay at Legoland directly with Legoland itself. We booked our room at the Hotel Legoland. There are tons of room types to book, in different themes and also, for example, with a view over the theme park. We, on the other hand, went completely basic, as cheap and no-frills as possible, and booked the Business room. Exciting? No. New? No. But everything works and it's clean. So we found it a pleasant room to stay in. The only thing that bothered us a bit (though it's somewhat understandable) were the kids running around above us at some rather unusual hours (11:30 PM). On top of that, our room was right next to the hotel's loading and unloading dock, so we heard trucks quite early (4:00 AM). With earplugs in, I had a perfectly good night!
The, eventual, afternoon at Legoland
Straight after checking in and settling into the room for a bit, we headed to the park. You can easily reach the park straight through the hotel. The weather forecast for Tuesday looked really bad, so we wanted to grab every possible dry moment. Moving at a genuinely brisk pace and with clear priorities, we went into the park. First we went into the shops, then the Lego miniature section, and after that we wandered around to go on a few rides. We had a really, really nice afternoon, and thankfully a dry one too. As far as we're concerned, a lot of the rides are aimed at young children. There are certainly a few rollercoasters that are a bit more intense, but we could skip plenty of it. To be fair, we didn't see the entire park (most of it, though), because Tuesday was genuinely pouring down. That wasn't going to get any better either, so we decided to have a relaxed breakfast on Tuesday, pick up some Lego at the Lego House, and drive on to our next stay.
Hirtshals, Denmark
When I said goodbye to primary school after 8th grade, we went to Denmark. I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember the emptiness and how few people live there. That was still exactly the case! We drove past miles of green fields, deep green forests interspersed with a few more green hills. The choice to drive on to Hirtshals was a good one, because we kept driving further and further out of the rain. So by the time we arrived in Hirtshals, which lies on the coast and is mainly a harbour town, it was bright blue skies and scorching hot there. We arrived at our B&B at quarter to 3, and what a picture that was. We stayed at B&B by the Sea Hirtshalts. What a lovely B&B, and in such a beautiful spot! There are tons of different rooms to book. Just pick whichever suits your wishes best.
We had a really lovely afternoon in Hirtshals. After walking around through the dunes, we walked on past the fish shop to the fish restaurant we'd picked out. Luckily there was still room inside for us, because a lot of places were already full or reserved! At Hirtshals Fiskehus you order outside at the counter, find a spot somewhere with your receipt, and it's served to you at the table (inside, at least). It was genuinely great quality food! After eating we went to have a look at the harbour, by the breakwater, and then waited out the rain shower at the B&B. We still wanted to head to the beach for a bit. Once the weather cleared up again, we went to look at the sea! This didn't last very long, since there were some fairly threatening showers coming in, which did indeed arrive complete with thunder.
The crossing, from Hirtshals to Larvik
Then it was already Wednesday again. Check-out time at the B&B was 10 o'clock, which was a bit on the 'early' side for us, since we'd only be taking the 12:45 PM ferry. Except the ferry company does ask you to check in before 11:45 AM. So we were in the car by 10:15 AM, filled up with fuel at 10:30 AM, and drove to the check-in queue at 10:45 AM. We were definitely not among the very first, but we were on the early side.
What a unique experience! We stood pretty much still from around 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM on the area where you have to line up before finally boarding. We were parked in front of our size of car, in the first row. During that time we walked around the site, I did some reading, and we watched two ferries come in. One of them was headed back to Kristiansand, and that was the one we had to board.
Boarding went really smoothly, though we did first have to go up a huge ramp! We were one of the first cars on the boat, so we could get out of the 'garage' pretty calmly and head to our seats. We'd decided to reserve seats. People, do this, or make sure you're seriously on time, so you're one of the first cars parked in that boat. I actually saw people sitting on the floor and on benches without a backrest, well, four hours is a long time then! Our reserved seats were spacious, comfortable, and the toilets were very close by. Eventually we grabbed some food at the bar, browsed the little shops, and then settled into our seats. The crossing took the scheduled amount of time, and we docked at 4:30 PM in Larvik, Norway!
