Day 2 started with an hour bus ride to a ferry where the bus itself boarded the ferry for the hour ride to the island of Samsø. The activity for the morning was at the Samsø Labyrinth. This is in the Guiness Book of World Records as being the largest Labyrinth in the World. The place is in the woods of a Christmas Tree farm an area of which covers more than 5 soccer fields! Within this area there were 7 stations that each team had to find. Oh and we had to do this WITHOUT A MAP!!!!! Yet another insane challenge, and something the labyrinth owners had never done for a group before. Steve strikes again. We had about 2 hours to find all 7. We were able to somehow find all 7 with about 20 minutes to spare. We were the fourth team to arrive back at the start having found all 7 (if I didn’t mention before there are 12 teams competing in this tour). Once all the teams returned at the appointed time we had a vegetarian lunch (something that was all produced locally!).

After lunch the teams were split due to another sneaky Steve move. (Yesterday Steve told each team to pick a team member to do a trivia challenge. He then, of course told us after each team submitted their pick, that that person WOULD NOT be the one doing the trivia challenge, that would be the other person!) Maribeth then had to do the trivia challenge which was again going through the labryinth answering questions along the way and based on their answers were told a direction to go. They had to get 9 correct letters. Apparently this was very difficult and the team of three Maribeth was grouped with were only able to get 4 letters. They then all came to meet with the rest of us who were bussed to another challenge.

So the rest of us were taken to Samsø Downhill where we did 2 challenges in Zorbs at the only Zorb location in Denmark. We had get into these huge inflatable balls and make the ball roll acting like a hamster in a wheel. It was crazy hot in them and the slalom course we had to navigate was challenging. And on top of all of that they were timed races. Kelsey did a great job on her runs!

The last part was just for fun. We each took a Zorb run strapped inside a Zorb rolling quickly down a hill! It only lasted about a minute but it was rediculously fun!! Click on the link below to see the video of Maribeth and Kelsey rolling down the hill in a Zorb.

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After that it was back on the bus for a trip to the next ferry. This ferry took us across the bay to where we hopped on the train to take us to our next destination which is Copenhagen, Denmark. Tomorrow is already looking like its going to be another crazy challenge day based on the teasers Steve gave to us!

So away we go. Well, sort of. We all got up on time and got into the “team” shirts that we had made. They have our team name and mascot on them (each team had to come up with a team name (and reason for that name) as well as a team mascot). Our team name is Kanalima, which means 50 in Hawaiian (we love Hawaii and the trip is a destination 50th birthday trip). Our team mascot is our dog Caymus and we had a drawing of his breed placed on our shirt sleeve! We had breakfast with a number of other teams then headed to the airport for the short flight to Billund.

The security lines were crazy long in the Brussels airport, or at least ours was and it was SLOW. We eventually made it through and got to the gate in plenty of time. We next had to board a bus which took us to our plane on the tarmack.  We boarded then started for the runway. We must have been right in line for takeoff when we were informed that we were being sent BACK to the gate to pick up a co-pilot to replace one that got sick in Billund and needed a replacement. About an hour and 45 minutes late we finally departed for Billund.

We finally arrived at Billund, took a taxi to the hotel and literally dropped off our bags behind the check-in counter and then got immediately back in the taxi to LegoLand.  We were escorted to our first challenge by Matias who gave us our instructions. We had to draw on a whiteboard the picture of a windmill which we would then have to make out of Legos. Teams will get extra points for height, extra blades on the windmill and if the windmill would actually spin.  We did beat the 1 m height requirement to get extra points for that but certainly did not reach the maximum height of some of the other groups. Our windmill did however spin and some of the other groups did not do that. That was 45 minutes of sheer craziness. Oh and that was only the first of three challenges.

The second challenge was a mastermind type game where we had to find hints hidden throughout the park given different clues, and then use the clues to determine the color and location that a Lego would go on a game board. There were 10 slots that had to be filled with up to a maximum of six colors being used.   We were literally walking around the entire park for approximally 2 1/2 hours solving quizzes and finding clues. We did however get the 10 colors in the correct location on our first try.

After a short break the teams met up again for instructions for the third challenge. And yes again the third challenge had us running all around the entire park. We had to do activities on five separate rides in the park.  The cool thing here was however that all the rides are closed to everyone except for our group. Steve (evil mastermind) states that this is the first time Legoland has ever done that for a group. It was awesome.  Up to this moment we still don’t know how the final standings came out as of yet. One was using fire type houses and filling water cups to fill a bucket without spilling the water. Team with the most volume wins points .  The second ride involved 3-D computer game simulation.  The third game was another water challenge where a small cup of water was placed on the front of a small car that we had to drive through obstacles and over bumps to try to keep the most volume of water left and fill a bucket. Each of us got to do one run through the race course and fill the bucket. We did really well on that challenge filling our bucket with 1.3 L of water!!

The fourth ride involved in getting in spinning cups and having to make a Lego truck. We only got to about the fourth step as this was very difficult to keep oriented and follow directions and put this together while spinning at a relatively high rate of speed. Luckily no one got sick!

The last ride involved basically a robotic arm twirling us around like an astronaut or someone in a fighter plane and we had to throw large rubber Lego bricks into one of three baskets. Landing it in one of the closest two baskets to the take off ramp would get one point and in the farthest basket away would get two points. We were told that we tied for the most points with a whopping three points. One in a one point basket and one brick and a two-point basket.  Kelsey then got to take a ride on a higher speed of the same game with more twists and turns and upside downs.

After finishing all the challenges the entire group took a walk back to our hotel where we formally checked into our rooms and then sat down for a group dinner.  Then it was off to bed. Tomorrow we go to Samsø, Denmark for morning and afternoon challenges. This is absolutely crazy fun and it’s only Day 1. We have spent time chatting with each of the groups over the course of the last 24 hours and it’s been fun getting to know everyone. What a Blast!!! Lets see what Day 2 has in store?!?!

All right! So here we go! Today was repositioning day. We moved from our hotel in downtown Brussels to the Sheraton Brussels airport hotel – the “team hotel” for the beginning of the competition portion of our trip (Competitours.com). Most of the teams have checked in, although 2 teams leaving Philly had flights canceled and needed to re-route to the first destination city. The first destination city, we just the other day found out, is Billund, Denmark!

So this evening we all arranged an informal meet and greet in the hotel lobby bar. Everyone who could make it, did. It was great to finally meet most of the teams who we have been texting with over the last few months. A wonderfully diverse group of people who we can’t wait to travel with across Europe.

And now for the competition part. So when we get to Billund we first go and check into our hotel and then meet up with our Tour guide/evil genius, Steve (aka “THE STEVE”) who will give us our formal intro to the competition. Then we will go down the street to our first challenge destination – LegoLand! This is the Original LegoLand and the place where Legos were invented. Just like everything on this tour (much like the tv show The Amazing Race) we have no idea what challenges we will be doing there (although we were told there are 3 separate challenges we will be performing)  and we have no idea where the next city will be the following day,  until Steve gives us that information tomorrow evening. Lots of unknowns but that’s all part of the fun of this travel competition!

Today was a much more laid back day. Did more touristy stuff after sleeping in a bit from our busy day yesterday. We all went down to downtown Brussels and just did a lot of walking around. Got some coffee. Did some shopping (we thought we had enough power converters for all of our electronics. We were wrong). Then we continued to wander around town until it was time for lunch.

We decided that we wanted to find a small pub or something of the sort to have a bite to eat, grab a beer and watch the Belgium versus Tunisia World Cup match.  With the United States not making the finals, we decided to adopt Belgium as our team to cheer for during the tournament since this was our first stop in Europe.  Little did we know that we were jumping on the bandwagon for one of the favorites. I looked up and found they were number three in the world rankings going into the World Cup.

Turns out cheering for the Red Devils is a good pick. They are on fire. They won 5-2. The pub we ate at was small but had the nicest waitress (Fanny). We wanted to grab some food and watch the game but apperently we were late for lunch and the cook was off until dinner. While we contemplated our beer and simple snacks order, she apparently figured out a way to get us some hot lunch food cooked up. Not sure if she or the bartender did it but someone cooked us up Belgian style Bangers & Mash, salads and a Bolognese Spaghetti for the group. They were all terrific. Watching the game was a blast among the locals. What a fun afternoon!

Hired a private driver for the six of us travelling together today. Took a trip first to the medieval town of Ghent, Belgium. The town dates back to 900 B.C. (from what we could find). We walked around the town and started by stopping at St. Bavo’s Cathedral. This place was amazing. The ceiling was estimated buy the group as 6-7 stories tall. The architecture was unbelievable. We then walked to an actual castle which was surrounded by a river and a mote (although that part is dried up now).  The tenth century castle is named Gravensteen. I have never been in an actual castle before (don’t think we have many of those in the good old USofA)! This was really cool. We then stopped at a little Mediterranean restaurant for a light lunch which was very tasty.

Next we loaded back in the van and headed to the town of Bruges! A quaint little Belgian town with chocolatiers, pubs and souvenier shops on every street! There was a bustling central square and many waffle shops as well. We spent a couple hours walking around the town,  then met back up with our driver for the ride back to Brussels. Only a couple more days before our team travel competition. Getting excited!

Adventurous day in Brussels. 😳 So after a nice breakfast including, suprise, Belgian waffles, we headed to the city center to explore the city. Unfortunately, one of us (not one of the adults) realized she left her cellphone on the bus. After tracking down the next tour bus that came by, two of us spoke to the driver and he  looked up and contacted our bus driver and he actually found the phone on his bus!! He then turned it in to their central office. The driver we talked to then drove us to the next stop on HIS tour and dropped us off to one of his partner drivers on another route, who was heading back to the garage/office and he drove us there.  Yay, we got the phone back and that driver went on to drive us back to the Atomium (see previous post) where he called out to another driver on the original route and got us on his bus taking us back to the city center where we met back up with the rest of our group. Whew!!! The drivers who helped us out were so amazingly accomodating and friendly!!! What a wonderful experience after what could have been a horrible start for our first full day in Europe.

Once we met up with the rest of the group we had a late lunch at a restaurant in the central plaza. What a beautiful place. Buildings dating back to the 1690’s!!! The food and Belgian Beer was wonderful and our waitress Sarah, who was very sweet, was having a really bad day (a patron pulled a dine and dash right before we put our order in – what a jerk (keeping it PG)) but we actually got her smiling by the end of our meal!

Next it was back to the hotel for a bit of World Cup watching (Croatia over Argentinia – WHAT?!?!) then out for light tapas at a quaint little reataueant down the street from our hotel. A full day of multiple adventures!!!! Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow!!!

Arrived in Brussels after a nice flight, about an hour early! Met up with other travel friends at the airport and headed to hotel. Dropped off luggage and then headed out for a tour of the city on the Hop-on-hop-off double decker bus. Fun ride around town. Stopped at the Atomium very popular tourist site  that was built for the worlds fair (seen in the pic above). Had lunch in the restaurant in the uppermost ball of the atom. Awesome view of the entire city. Then hopped back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. Struggling to stay awake to get on the local time 😆! Will see how much longer we make it today.

About to embark on our European adventure. Can’t wait to get started. Going on the Competitours travel competition. 11 days in Europe, multiple countries, multiple challenges, and anticipate lots of fun. Going to meet 10 new teams of 2 and one team of current friends!

First try adding pics to the blog. A learning process for sure.

Welcome to our family travel website! Future posts will include our upcoming travel blog with photos. Aloha!