The gateway to Jutland is made of Lego. Not literally, I admit — although when you see what can be built from Lego on a trip to Billund, that’s not entirely implausible. But it’s the original Legoland park which tempts most people to visit this part of Denmark in the first place.

And from there, to discover there’s Viking history, a royal palace, a Second World War bunker in the dunes and Denmark’s oldest town all within 50 miles.

In less than a week, we fitted all this in and more, exploring the wild west coast and flat Jutland farmland, as well as checking out some of the area’s family accommodation.

Because even if you’re grown-up (on paper), the new Legoland Castle hotel is fun. A Lego dragon roars outside while a Lego knight on horseback brandishes his sword. Inside another Lego dragon dozes by the fireplace, boxes of bricks are stacked around every corner and there’s a daily building competition.

Inside our room, there’s a ‘treasure chest’ by the kids’ bunk beds — clues dotted around the hotel and play area reveal a code to unlock their Lego treat — while a Lego cat sat above our bed, the walls decorated with Lego characters.

When my husband called out that the shower in the bathroom was made of Lego, I had to go and check to make sure he was joking.

The added bonus is that the hotel is walking distance from Legoland Billund itself (plus a separate entry for guests to skip the queues). Alongside adrenaline thrills on rides galore, the themed areas feature everything from Lego recreations of world landmarks in Miniland, panning for gold, and an aquarium.

Even my cautious daughter was tempted onto her first rollercoasters and quickly hooked.

Completing the Lego experience is the Lego House, a few minutes’ drive away, and designed to look at if it is made of — you guessed it — Lego. Here you can get your own hands on the bricks, although there’s also a museum covering the brand’s history.

Divided into several different areas, each is designed to let your imagination and creativity run riot: building Lego fish to transfer into a digital aquarium, creating Lego worlds, creatures and vehicles, even making a stop motion video.In the MiniChef restaurant, we ordered lunch using specific shape and colour bricks, which are scanned before your choice is delivered to a waiting robot in a brick-shaped box.

By this stage, I practically had to bribe my daughter and husband away with the promise of animals. Spectacled bears to be precise, at the Givskud Zoo nearby.

A combination of safari park and enclosures, the four bears are the latest addition, joining lions, giraffe, elephants, gorillas, giant otters and a fun dinosaur area where huge models tower imposingly over visitors.

The inspiration for Paddington, they’re rather bigger than their fictional counterpart, prowling and padding through the undergrowth, occasionally menacing a tree or two.

But if Lego is one of the area’s biggest attractions, it’s another famous menace which provides the other: the Vikings. So we prepared to hunt down a few — after a day relaxing at Lalandia, a holiday park that’s home to Scandinavia’s biggest waterpark, set a brick’s throw from Legoland.

The site, with its spacious self-catering cottages, also includes mini golf, bowling, several restaurants, soft play, arcade and skating at Winter World, all tucked away inside a huge building with the Aquadome.

And while we were leaving Lego behind, we weren’t short of things to play with at our next stop: the museum at Kongernes Jelling is one of the most impressively interactive I’ve visited.

The staff solemnly informed my delighted daughter that she could touch anything — unless it was marked orange, which meant she had to touch it, to bring the exhibits to life.

The focus is two ancient rune stones dating back to the 10th century, one in the reign of first Danish king Gorm the Old, including the first known mention of Denmark, the other created for his son Harald Bluetooth.

Both still stand in glass cases near a small church, flanked by two burial mounds. Inside, there’s a chance to learn about Norse mythology, and everyday Viking life from trading to which weapon will finish off your opponent fastest.

Further south, the Ribe Vikingecenter brings this all to life. A recreation of three Viking sites, it’s a reminder that they farmed and built towns as well as their more notorious marauding.

We watched glass beads being made, stamped a silver coin and explored Viking dwellings. Historic Ribe itself was settled in the mid 9th century, and the country’s oldest cathedral overshadows picturesque cobbled streets lined with crooked beamed houses.

At night, the Night Watchman still walks his rounds — although this ancient duty is now a free 45-minute tour.

To discover the country’s Jewish links, we needed to travel forwards a few more centuries: the community dates to the 1600s, not long after King Christian III was putting the finishing touches to Koldinghus castle, the royal residence in Jutland.

Burned down in 1808, it is being painstakingly restored, with a chance for all ages to dress up in the height of 17th century royal fashion (I’m glad ruffs are no longer daily wear) and exhibitions of royal artefacts.

A British-made gilded silver dressing set has perhaps the most dramatic history: owned by Caroline Mathilde, granddaughter of George II and wife to mentally unstable Danish king Christian VII, she was later divorced and banished after an affair.

Bought by a Jewish family, the set fell into Nazi hands when they fled Germany in 1938 to New York. Eventually returned to them, the case and its precious contents were later auctioned and returned Denmark.

There are more wartime stories to be found among the dunes of the Jutland coast, at the Tirpitz bunker museum.

A relic of the Nazi occupation, by the time its construction began in 1944, the Danish resistance — alongside many citizens — had helped the vast majority of the country’s Jewish population escape, with over 7,000 people fleeing to unoccupied Sweden.

The bunker itself was never operational and the museum shares tales of individuals on both sides, but also the longer story of the coast from Viking times to hunting ground for amber, ‘Baltic gold’.

It’s a long way from the bright colours of Legoland but a journey through Jutland is the perfect way to discover Denmark and its history, brick by brick.

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