Worldschooling: Denmark

Years ago I told my son if he was still into LEGOs when he was ten years old, I’d take him to the “mothership” ie Billund on the island of Jutland, Denmark. Welp, he turned ten and is still obsessed with the “highly complex interlocking system” of bricks by LEGO so the planning began one month after his tenth birthday.

We learned the geography of Denmark in a unit study and labeled the islands, the major cities, bordering bodies of water and started mapping out where we wanted to go.

Naturally the boys became curious about the foods and the culture of the country and we came across foods such as smorrebrod and frikadiller which, ironically, I had the ingredients for in my fridge that same day. More on this to come…

We gathered books from the library and did independent research on Vikings, castles, geopolitical influences, and one of my sons started learned Danish on Duolingo.

Then, the day arrived for our trip to begin and we’ve been in Denmark for two and a half weeks although it feels like an eternity as we near the end of our trip…

Lessons learned the hard way:

• Drinking water is not accessible, nor is it free. There are ZERO water bottle filling stations and even though the drinking water is rumoured to be safe, the staff at restaurants will look at you as though you’re insane if you ask for tap water. We’ve paid $3-5 per bottle and $25 DKK per person EVERY time we sit down at a restaurant for a jug of water.

• Getting around Copenhagen is easy on public transport if you’re Danish; however, Google Maps and the local metro don’t match. Many times the app would say, “M3” but in person I’m looking at colors or “Spor 1-2”. Note: Outside of the cities, Uber is not always an option and buses may run every 30-45 minutes.

• Food is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive and we’ve traveled to London, Hawaii, even Sydney Australia and nothing compares to the cost of food in Denmark- nothing. We ate at cafes, 7/11, McDonalds, and street vendors and still faced $15-22 per person for street tacos or a cheeseburger plus the 25% tax on everything. Even the local smorrebrod which is a slice of rye bread with lox or chicken salad can be $20-25 per slice and the locals recommend 2-3 per person. What the what?

But, did we have a good trip? Yes, of course; however, in retrospect, we would’ve scheduled a shorter trip to Denmark that allowed 3-4 days in Copenhagen and then taken the train to Billund for the LegoHouse and then taken off to neighbouring Germany or Austria.

Here’s what we loved in Copenhagen and Billund …

• Nyhavn district

• Danish Architecture Museum

• Experimentarium

• Vesterbro vintage shopping and thrift stores

• Food halls

• Tivoli Gardens

• Harbor baths and Broens Food Hall

• Aperol spritz and danish pastries

• LegoHouse (Legoland Billund is NOT worth it at all…it pales in comparison to the San Diego location)

• WOW Adventure Park and Lallandia are also both in Billund and I recommend staying near the Billund airport for more ammenities. We thought camping would be cheaper, but had literally nothing around us.

• Ribe Viking Village

We wished we could’ve seen some more of the castles, but navigating the train systems was more challenging than expected and the costs higher than anticipated so we scrapped those in the interest of saving coin.

I highly recommend packing water bottles, food savers such as beeswax food wraps, grab-n-go snacks from home, wet bags, outlet adaptors and a quick dry towel. Staying alongside the harbor in Christianshavn was our best decision as we were able to shop at the Super Brugsen down the street and cook at least a meal or two at home to save money. Plus, it’s walking distance from Nyhavn, museums, bus stops, harbor baths, street vendors, food halls, and Freetown Christiana.

Worldschooling is about learning a culture by immersing in it. We had no idea what to expect or what to prepare for and that IS when learning takes place! We learned about the currency, cuisine, history, language, and lifestyle of the Danish people by living alongside the Danish for an extended period of time. We challenged ourselves in new ways every day and after walking 20,000-22,000 steps a day we decided a kaffe (coffee) and creme danish or cardamom bun was in order. Sorted!

Happy worldschooling!