A Trip to the Circus

This past Saturday I took the kids to see a circus in Holstebro and we had a lot of fun! Why Holstebro? Isn't Holstebro an hour and a half a way from Aarhus? Why yes it is... see the map below.



Wasn't this same circus in Aarhus the weekend before? Why yes indeed... but, you see, Leysia and I were under the erroneous impression that the circus was going to stay in Aarhus for two weekends. So, when we saw the tents just five minutes from our apartment, we told the kids, "Hey, that'll be fun. We'll go to the circus next weekend!" And, we did. We just had to drive for an hour and a half to catch the show in Holstebro! :-) (Sigh.)

Anyway, this circus goes by the name of Arena and they put on a very enjoyable show. (For more information about circuses in Denmark, you can check out this website, which offers text in both Danish and English.)

Here is a picture of the main circus tent.



Here's a picture of the kids eager to go inside and see the show.



And, here's a picture of Max in front of the tent, showing off his stunning good looks. (I've said it before, I'm biased.)



The show featured elephants, horses, seals (!), clowns, magic tricks, and performers of various sorts. Max is at the perfect age for magic tricks. He believes in them completely and was twice completely stunned when a trick was performed. The first trick involved a variation of the magician trapped under water in handcuffs trying to get out, he escapes at the last minute with his assistant somehow ending up in the container handcuffed and trying to get out. ("How did he get out?!?!" Max says to me with extremely wide eyes.)

The second trick involved an assistant getting inside of a device into which six burning torches were placed. After the last torch was in position, the device was opened to reveal that the assistant had disappeared. ("Where did she go?!?!?" says Max, big eyes still in place and still just as wide.) The performers were also excellent, mainly performing impressive feats of balance and strength.

Finally, Lilja spent the show seated on my lap viewing everything very intently as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on! She especially enjoyed those acts that featured animals and would say "Bye Elephant!" or "Bye Horse" whenever an animal left the stage.

Both of the kids also enjoyed attending the show with papa, since they were able to wrangle cotton candy, popcorn, AND a chocolate bar out of him. (They are starting to work together on this... help I'm outnumbered!)

Even though Leysia stayed at home that day to rest, she had fun listening to Max and Lilja tell her stories about the show.

In summary, much fun was had by all!

Enjoy,

Ken