Summer vacation: Denmark (What?! Agan?!) and Stockholm

Ok, chill everybody, we passed through Denmark and made a pit stop coz it was too tiring for my poor hubby to drive all the way from Germany to Sweden.  It was a 12-hours drive people! So I split it into 2 parts - 6 hours to Copenhagen and 6 hours to home.

We took the ferry this time from Germany to Denmark, so that the kids could gain new experiences.

Before we drove up into the ferry, we stopped by the huge supermarket to buy candies, lots of it! Beer and some wine.

The hostel we stayed in Copenhagen was located in the middle of town with great view and within walking distance to Tivoli.

We made a quick visit to the science centre in Copenhagen..

We drove back to Sweden after that.  Rest at home for 3 days and then drove up to Stockholm! Gröna Lund here we come!

 

That was what they each thought about the ride...

Ivan wanted to go by himself, my baby is big now.... *sob*

Chris refused to get off the car, so we had to bribe him with a train ride, which we ended taking twice.... coz he refused to get off that as well!

There was endless waiting for Jovan and hubby to be done with their excited and not for the faint hearted (like me!) rides.... 

Like this!

"Yeah! We did it!"

Some of us flirted with the camera to pass time....

then jumped into the bumper car and managed to look cool and cute at the same time!

We took the bus back to our hotel after that.  Stockholm is a nightmare when it comes to finding places to park the car, limited and super expensive!

Stockholm is a beautiful city where the old and new clashes together to create an interesting landscape.  I told hubby that I would like to visit again just with him.  

See ya again soon Stockholm!

Summer vacation: Movie Park, Bottorp, Germany

From Denmark, we drove to Germany.  It was so HOT in Germany, I think the temperature was around 28 to 29 degrees when we were there!  Once we passed the border and drove into Germany, we needed to fill up the car with gas, so we drove into a gas station, filled up the car and went to pay.  Hubby wanted to go to the toilet.  The old guy at the cashier told him, 12 cents (Euro).  Hubby said that he doesn't have Euro, and asked the old guy if could he charged 12 cents more on the receipt and gave him the coins instead. The old guy couldn't speak English and started ranting about in German.  Another young guy next to him started talking to him and told him that it could be done. (Hubby knows some German.... whatever that was left over from his school days...) Then the old guy turned to hubby and said "Ok. Ok." but went ahead and just charged us for the gas! No coins!  We asked him about it and he continued mumbling in German! The young one who obviously knew English won't step in to help.  Hubby found the whole situation so absurd he started walking away, laughing.  I got really angry with the poor service and asked quite loudly about 10 steps away from the cashier,"No coin? No toilet? So we can't go to the toilet because nobody speaks English?! Nobody heard of customer service in this place?!" Directing my questions at both old and young men at the cashier.  The young guy refused to look up and the old man started saying something and waving his hand like sweeping away a fly!  My first impression of the Germans and it was a very bad one!

We continued driving for awhile and decided to stop and eat at MacDonald's at Hamburg.  As my gastric was acting up, hubby wanted to buy milk for me.  So he asked to change the coke that came with the meal to milk instead.  The counter guy told him that it wasn't possible, we could only buy milk if we order Happy Meal!!!! What's up with that Germany?! For such a big so-called first world country, customer service doesn't seems to exist!!!!

Ok, enough complaints.  Here comes pictures!

We stayed at the Chillten Hotel which is a clean and relatively new hotel with very friendly staff.  Only down side is that they don't have air-conditions or fans in their hotel rooms and it was freaking hot!

The Movie Park was about 15 to 20 minutes drive away from the hotel.  It looked quite old on the outside.

But inside was quite alright, kind of like Universal Studio.

With many shops to tempt the weak minded like me.....

Many familiar faces especially if you have Nickelodeon channel! Dora the Explorer! Avatar - The Air Bender! (I think....)

Cool guys under the hot sun!

Angel looking forlorn.... maybe wondering if anybody is gonna build a One Direction theme park someday? 

Up and coming star in Formula 1.

Chris couldn't figure out the situation - why would Spongebob and Patrick want to take a picture with him???

Big kids going on a dizzy ride...

Spin, spin, spin....  Both Angel and I felt sick after this ride!

Yup, the attack of funny-faced Ivan again!

So funny!

So good!

So cute!

Such a baby!

Chris was not in some pictures coz he always had some other stuff to do or in this case, the car was too hot to the touch! =.="

Chris,"Can't believe my folks are taking picture again! What's up with them?"

Weeee! Free as a bird!

Cutest mummies I have ever seen!

Saw this guy with this super cool long dreadlocks when we were leaving! 

Both the hotel and the Movie Park are located in a city calls Bottorp.  The city feels old, dirty and relatively dead.  It used to be a vibrant mining town many many years ago but now it feels like the city is slowly dying.  People living there have a guarded look when they were looking at us.  We did feel like we were gonna get mugged anytime while we were walking on the streets.

Germany doesn't leave a good impression on me.  I can get quite worked up when it comes to poor customer service and this country is really lacking.  Even in the theme park, there were staff who couldn't speak English with poor customer service.  Not being able to speak English is not a big problem but poor customer service is.

I would probably change my view of Germany in future (if someone managed to convince me to visit again) but now... *tsk tsk tsk* *shaking head*

Summer vacation: Denmark - Legoland (Again?) & Lalandia

 The day before we left for our road trip to Denmark - Germany - Denmark, there were double rainbows in the sky!

Polly was also looking forward to her holiday with grandma, who would bring her in a caravan driving around Sweden, playing golf and enjoying summer.

Faces of kids getting bored in the car (almost 2 hours to grandma's place to leave Polly and then around 4 to 5 hours drive to Denmark - excluding toilet breaks and eating.) 

Chris looked skeptical about something....

 

Funny-face Ivan attacked again! Hmmmm....

 

Ooohhh..... long drive you say...?

It'll be a good holiday!

This was the cabin we stayed in Denmark.  It was difficult to find cheap accommodation at a good location especially when our family is so big.... but I think I did a good job this vacation! :)

Rows of cabins...

Child labour!

Awww.... 

We went to Legoland the next day.  First stop checked! Hey.... wait a minute.... the flag was the wrong way!!!!

Men down! Men down! Story learnt - never stand too near the propeller.

Man down! But his team mate just ignored him... maybe he was just taking a quick nap.  Tough job being a Lego figure in Legoland...

Chris was really appreciating Legoland this time.  He was looking and checking out everything.

Safari ride

Told hubby that Angel could go on the ride with Chris but he insisted that he should do it.  Well, he couldn't fit in the last time and not this time either.... 

Kids' meal in Legoland, Lego shaped potato!

The Frog for small children, with a supervisor in the middle.

Train ride through the mines.

Charmers!

Cotton candy is a MUST!

So is sharing! :)

Only Jovan and Ivan could managed this ride without getting dizzy... @.@

What is summer without ice cream? 

Gobbling it down fast so that he could explore other stuff...

"What can I help you with?" asked the smartest boy in class.

"Nothing.  I'm just sitting here looking sweet." replied the sweetest girl in class.  (Man, I think I need to go to the doctor soon....) 

Chris was trying to figure out what exactly this is.... a human? A balloon? Some sort of animal....?

The boys found these Lego "wardens" standing by the pedestrian crossing and decided to equip them with some weapons... you never know what kind of psychos are crossing the roads nowadays....

Bored kid taking picture of himself in the cabin.

The day after Legoland, we went to Lalandia.  It is a entertainment mall with retail shops, eating places, arcade and a big indoor water amusement park. 

 

The fake sky is very well done inside the mall!  No more pictures after this coz we're all getting into the water!!

Next post, Movie Park in Germany!