Legoland, the final installment

I was going to save this for the next Story-telling Sunday but I couldn't wait and I thought of a good one for that so here is the final installment of our trip to Legoland in Billund.

I had left us after the Viking had assisted in retrieving the keys from the boot of the car. We quickly clambered into the car and left Legoland car-park. We needed to find a hotel and get a meal. Remember we speak no Danish and between us we can order beer and bratwurst and chips in German. We drove along the road and came to a place called Vandel, I kid you not! the car was full of Vandal jokes, all bad and all instantly forgettable when we spotted a sign for a hotel.

Mr M when he was much younger

The receptionist spoke really good english and assured us that they had two double rooms, available. We signed in and picked up our bags and were shown to the rooms. Smudge and Nettie had two single beds pushed together while Mr M and I had two single beds along one wall of a long narrow room. There was only one pillow on each bed but the sheets were clean and so was the room.
We met up with Nettie and Smudge and asked the receptionist if they had a restaurant. It was shut. Of course it was, for goodness sake this was the tourist season and it was pretty late, seven o'clock! I asked if there was anywhere we could get a meal. She said yes there was a grill bar just along the road. I noticed Smudge's face during this conversation and wondered what had caused him to go expressionless. He does this thing when he is under pressure or doesn't want to do something, where his face just shuts down and he kind of battens down the hatches. So difficult to describe it.
Anyway, the nice lady gave me directions and off we trotted. Mr M and I took the lead and in a few minutes we saw the sign.
"look," I said, "Grill Bar, just like she said."

Me when I was young and skinny (newly in love) good grief
look at that hair!

"Thank goodness for that" said Smudge "I thought she said Gay Bar, and I thought I'm not that hungry."
"I gave him a look that said his prejudice was showing and he explained that he just wanted to sit and eat quietly and the gay bars in Germany can be very rowdy and noisy so I forgave him.
We went in and through pointing and nodding we ordered burgers and chips and drinks. The minimum age for drinking in Denmark is 21 and you have to show ID so there were several teenagers in there wearing cowboy boots and tight jeans and drinking milk shakes. There was a juke box in the corner and one of the lads was feeding it coins.
I pulled out the money and raised my eyebrows at the lady in the universal method of asking how much, she rattled off something in rapid-fire Danish and as I stared at her blankly Smudge said twenty eight seventy five. I was so impressed that he had learnt to count in Danish and as we went to the table I said so. "Thank's Mum" he said, "but I read it on the till."
As we ate the music began to play. Now all fans of The Blues Brothers will recognise this quote "They have both kinds, Country and Western". We listened fascinated to You picked a Fine time to Leave me Lucille and other Kenny Rogers hits IN DANISH.
The rest of the holiday was a bit of an anticlimax really, except for two American gentlemen who appeared at breakfast the next morning and Talked about toothache, rootcanals and infections and everything else designed to put intrepid-I've-been-to-Legoland Mr M off his breakfast but they were too late, he was on his second plateful.

So there it is.