Exploring Scandinavia & the Low Countries

Our pretend travel adventures exploring Scandinavia and the Low Countries trying their culture, activities and food.

Denmark

I still think often of our day in pretend Denmark. The concept of Hygge was new to me and arranging a cosy family day was such a treat. Denmark is full of awesome adventures for children too with Lego being a Danish invention. The kids really enjoyed playing with Lego and Duplo and building castles and playgrounds in the garden.

The other absolutely awesome thing about Denmark for kids is the author Hans Christian Anderson who wrote The Little Mermaid, The Ice Queen and countless others. I bought the kids a big book of his fairy tales and, as they love dressing up, they themed their outfits too!

Part of our enjoyment of Hygge was making time for family time, and we did this by having a movie night and watching one of my absolute favourite films – Hans Christian Anderson – starring Danny Kaye.

The Netherlands

I had planned out Dutch day for ages but we finally managed it when the UK was emerging from Lockdown. This is where I would encourage people to check out their local area – as it might surprise you. We found a perfect Dutch style windmill just down the road from us in Lytham St Anne’s! The kids loved running to it, round it and climbing up it and in our post lockdown state we were all excited to explore somewhere new.

The other thing we discovered on our Dutch day (aside from Miffy being Dutch!) was that we had a reasonably local Dutch Bakery near us. I suggest google searching something like ‘Dutch café Liverpool, Dutch restaurant Liverpool, Dutch bakery Liverpool’ and seeing what the results are. It was been a very rare thing that I haven’t managed to find something exciting, on theme and often independent.

Belgium

Freddie loves boats and so we had been keen to take him on a boat ride on our local canal, it seemed the perfect timing for us to incorporate that with a pretend visit to Belgium – who are famous for their canals. I have actually been to Belgium quite often but always on a history trip and I was keen to make this more about the culture than the history. I would definitely recommend having a look on Groupon when you are planning your pretend days – there is often both deals to be had and inspiration to be found.

Of course, Penny’s favourite part of the visit was finding and going to a local Belgium Chocolate shop which made chocolates by hand. Again this was a great opportunity to support small and local businesses which is a major incentive of these pretend days.

Belgium was great for kids shows to watch with both Tin Tin and the Smurfs!

Sweden

I can’t believe how little Freddie looks on these photos! Our visit to Sweden was so long ago now the first of all of Scandinavia and the Low Countries. It’s important to be creative on these days and to get out of doors if you can. In Sweden I did this quite simply by theming a treasure hunt to be a Viking treasure hunt which the kids really loved. This worked well for Pirates in the Caribbean too!

The final piece of advice I have for anyone planning a pretend travel day is not to be afraid to be obvious!

Did we go to Ikea on our pretend Sweden day? Yes we did.

Did we enjoy the meatballs? Hell yes.

And did I get a shopping trolley’s worth of candles? Also yes….

And that is how to explore Scandinavia and the Low Countries, one country at a time… Norway next?

And if you want to read more, here are the links to Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and The Netherlands