Mrs. T, Baby T1.0, Baby T2.0 and I spent 1 month in Denmark recently. We arrived in Denmark in mid-December and returned Vancouver in mid-January. Since Mrs. T is from Denmark originally, we have been visiting her side of family and friends in Denmark every year and half. Now we have two little kids, visiting is even more important so the great-grandparents and grandparents can see and play with the little ones.
I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me to work remotely. So instead having to take 1 month off work, I only took 2 weeks off and worked remotely for 2 weeks. We spent a week in Copenhagen then the rest of the time in a tiny town about an hour southwest from Billund. In fact, the town is so small there’s no Google Street View!
All in all, it was great to have some time off and to spend more time with Mrs. T, Baby T1.0 and Baby T2.0.
Highlights of our Denmark Vacation
1. We had A LOT of hygge every day. It was a great way to relax and spend quality time together.
2. Sat in the freezing cold (around -5C?) to enjoy hot chocolate (all you can drink! I had 3!) and delicious cakes from La Glace.
3. I had a lot of pickled herring and liver pâté. I must be Danish in my previous life or something.
4. Visited Tivoli one night to check out all the beautiful Christmas lights. Baby T1.0 also got on a few rides with his grandparents and really enjoyed it.
5. Spent time playing Lego & Duplo with Baby T1.0 and Baby T2.0. It brought back some great childhood memories since I used to play with Lego a lot as a kid.
6. Had a lot of chocolates, Christmas cookies, Danish pastries, and other delicious treats.
7. I must had eaten 6 months worth of cheese during our Denmark vacation. Because we purchased cheese directly from the cheese maker, cheese was cheap. A kilo of cheese was 65 DKK (~$12 CAD). We also had a tour on how the cheeses were made.
8. I didn’t manage to gain any weight! (I was a bit surprised given all the food we ate)
9. One of the sales guys from work found out that I was working remotely in Europe and invited me to visit a customer. I ended up spending 24 hours in Berlin. Back in 2004 I spent a lot of time in Berlin and my short stint this time brought back some good memories.
Lowlights of our Denmark Vacation
Unfortunately there were a few lowlights that we encountered during our one month stay in Denmark. 🙁
1. One of our suitcases was delayed by more than 24 hours when we arrived in Copenhagen. That meant Baby T.10 and Mrs. T had no change of clothes, resulting us needing to get diapers and clothes. Luckily my Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite credit card has luggage delay insurance that we can file a claim.
2. The entire family got sick and threw up around Christmas. I ended up spending the entire day of Dec 26 in bed. Did you ever had to throw up when there was nothing in your stomach? Not fun.
3. On the way back home we were flying from Billund with connections in Frankfurt and Calgary. Our Billund to Frankfurt flight was delayed which meant that we had very little time to catch our connecting flight. We ran like crazy when we arrived in Frankfurt, carrying one kid in our arms each. We made it to the boarding gate and the agents were still helping many passengers to board.
Unfortunately we were denied boarding even though we had valid boarding passes and travel documents (we never found out the reasons). Instead, we were told that we got rerouted to return Vancouver via Beijing. We thought it was a ridiculous idea to fly half way around the world to return home, especially with two little kids. So we ended up staying in Frankfurt one night and took the same Frankfurt-Calgary, Calgary-Vancouver flights home on the next day. We are now filing another insurance claim with Capital One and formal complaint with Lufthansa.
Thanks for the low down on your trip Bob. Looks like a great trip! And all the food and that you played with lego, lol.
Wow, getting stopped on travelling? That’s crazy and really bad. I can’t believe they did that. At least you made it home 🙂
Tristan
We had a great time in Denmark. Wish we could stay longer haha.
Wow, amazing cheese! Sounds like a great time despite the down points! It’s never fun being sick over the holidays… How long did your full flight time end up being vs the normal time since you went halfway around the world?
Hi Steven,
We didn’t fly through Beijing so we took the original scheduled flight but a day later. Total flight time was around 15 or 16 hours.
Great photos Tawcan – sorry you and the family got sick but it doesn’t look like it spoiled your holiday too much.
Everyone should have a bit of hygge!
Wow! It has been a long time that I had time to visit your blog (and many others as well). Very glad that you happened to do that kind of vacations. I’m still enjoying my time in Costa Rica, but we are heading back to home in a couple weeks. We got to take advantage of every second!
Thx for the input on this country!
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Hope you are having lots of fun in Costa Rica. 🙂
Awesome trip and pics. I’m sure the grandparents and great grandparents loved seeing the little ones. Sorry to hear the whole family got sick around Christmas time…it’s tough being sick and even worse when the kiddos are sick too. That really sucks to hear about the boarding issue. I’d be interested to hear how they respond to your complaint. How do you deny board with absolutely no reason??
Thanks Andrew. The grandparents and great grandparents loved seeing the kids and spending time with them. 🙂
The gate agents told us that our tickets were rebooked and we were to fly to home via Beijing. Whether we got rebooked because they were oversold on the original flight or not we could never get any response. 🙁
Wow, look at all that cheese! How in the world did you manage to NOT gain any weight?
Glad to see you had an enjoyable vacation. Best of luck with your claims and navigating the bureaucracy.
Haha I have no idea how I managed not to gain any weight. Maybe because I was constantly running after the kiddos? 🙂
What a great month. good that your employer offers that flexibility.
Airline companies can be strange sometimes…
Yes airline companies can be strange sometimes… flying half way across the world for some reason made sense to them. 🙂
Ugh! That boarding issue totally sucks. I’m glad you guys could get back safely though. What a pain. Hahaha, were the upset stomachs from all that pickled herring? 🙂 Anyhoo, it looks like a beautiful trip! Sorry it ended on a sour note, but it still looks badass. 🙂
Lol the upset stomachs wasn’t from all the picked herring. It was some sort of stomach bug. The trip was great despite all these troubles we encountered.
Hi T for the denied boarding may be you can check European Commission Regulation 261/2004.
Thanks M, we have looked into that already.
Think of all the extra frequent flyer miles you could have earned by returning through Beijing! 😛
Glad you had a good trip otherwise.
Haha I didn’t even thought about all the frequent flyer miles. Darn I missed the opportunity lol.
The first part sounds LOVELY! The second part… I’m so sorry! And WHY didn’t you want to fly to Beijing with 2 little kids and not even stay?! 🙂
The first part was a lot of fun. The suite case delay and throwing up weren’t too bad. The denied boarding part wasn’t fun at all. If the kids and Mrs. T had Chinese Visa (I have multi-entry once due to work), maybe we’d have considered staying in Beijing for a few days. But that idea of flying half way across the world wasn’t something we were looking for at the time.
Great that the job allows this flexibility and you use it for important things in life =)
Haha I have it pretty good. 🙂
Wow, look like you had a great time. I’d love to visit Denmark and try out some of the pastry. Yumm!!
We had a great time and had lots of great food!
That last low light is what makes me so nervous about traveling long distances. I’m so sorry to hear about that return flight craziness. Still, the photos are amazing. And cheese. You’re speaking my language! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Penny. Not sure how the airline decided it was a good idea to fly with 2 little kids half across the world. 🙂
Very cool! Looks like a great trip Tawcan!
Thanks Mr. Tako.