Discovering the Danish town where plastic bricks trump smartphones

Legoland Billund makes a fun family holiday, whatever the ages of your brood - (Robin McKelvie/The Independent)

“We are all about the brick,” smiles Kathrine Kirk Muff, of Lego House, as we sip a coffee in the slick café in the massive, multi-floor oasis dedicated to the wildly popular plastic toy. “Lego is at the heart of the ‘Capital of Children’ that is Billund – and we celebrate that. Billund is somewhere that everyone can enjoy.”

It’s impossible to ignore Lego in this town of just under 8,000 residents in central Denmark. Arriving at the airport, Lego takes centre stage and I’m left in no doubt that Billund is home to the Danish company’s headquarters. A 10-minute bus ride away is the Hotel Legoland, which emerges like a fever dream I had as a kid, when I was a huge Lego fan. It even looks like it’s built of Lego and there are opportunities to play with it everywhere. Plus, of course, the chance to buy Lego in the many guises that it takes today.