Denmark, Day 3 & 4 - Copenhagen!

We woke up on the 3rd day to slightly colder weather, but excited about spending time in Copenhagen.  Denmark is made up of a lot of islands, and Copenhagen is on the largest one.  Until 1998 you had to take a ferry to that island, but then they built this massive suspension bridge (at the time, it had the highest pylons in the world).  I can't imagine how much it cost to build, but you'd better believe that everyone who drives across it is still paying through the teeth for it - $45 toll to cross it, and another $45 toll when you come back.  Ouch.  But we were expecting it, so we were prepared.

We went straight to the apartment we were going to stay in that night. Four young single adults own this place, and Joe dubbed it "The Frat House". It wasn't so bad, and the kids loved the hammock inside, and the playground outside. 

Then we headed out for some sights - down to the harbor

and our first stop, the Little Mermaid.

For me personally, the Little Mermaid statue has always represented Denmark.  My grandma had a little statue of her from when she visited Denmark, and I've always wanted to see it in person.  Yay me :)

From here we walked along the coast on Langelinie (the long line).

 

Below is the Gefion Fountain (by Anders Bundgaard) - the legend says that the goddess, Gefion, changed her sons into a team of oxen and with it ploughed Zealand (the island that Copenhagen is on) out of Sweden's earth.  Unfortunately, the fountain wasn't on while we were there.  My dad says it's pretty impressive when it's on :(

Next was St. Alban's Anglican church (Denmark's only Anglican church).

We continued our walk across a bridge over the moat that surrounds Kastellet (the Citadel or Fortress that is shaped like a star)

 

After that we drove over to another part of town, specifically looking for this very unassuming church -

The Copenhagen Cathedral, or Church of Our Lady, is special because it is home to the original Christus by Bertel Thorvaldsen, as well as his statues of the 12 apostles.

We had to wait a while to get a good picture of the Christus, because there was a woman with a professional photographer there, and she was sitting right in front of it and she was getting a LOT of pictures.  Anyway, while we waited we enjoyed the rest of the church, and even some beautiful organ music.

 

In that same general area we also saw the Radhus (town hall)

 Statue of Hans Christian Anderson on H. C. Andersen's Boulevard

 Tivoli (the famous amusement park) was across the street, but of course we didn't go to that.  Instead we spent a lot of time in the Stroget Pedestrian Street (the longest pedestrian street in Europe), where there was tons of shopping and souvenirs and food, and there was the Gammel Torv square with the courthouse and the Caritas Fountain, and lots of people, and a bunch of other stuff.

 

My dad and one of his Viking ancestors.

 

And I was told by a friend that I HAD to get a hot dog with the works - not because it was good, but just because it is a very local thing to do.  So I did.  It was...interesting.

No, that's not a thumb, it's a hotdog....I'm pretty sure.  I like hotdogs, but this was not my cup of tea.  I mean, the hot dog itself (or thumb) was fine, but the strange concoction of toppings (pickles, onion, crunchy chip type things, and three different sauces that somewhat resembled ketchup, mustard, and some other red sauce) - nope. I prefer my hotdogs with mustard (no ketchup), and either sour kraut or coleslaw.  Chili is also good.  But I digress.

 

Again we hopped back into the car and drove over to the Rosenborg Castle, which houses the Royal Crown Jewels, and is surrounded by the King's Garden.

 

Wouldn't you know it, the place closed at 4 pm, and we got there at about 4:15.  Across the street was the Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery).  They were open until 5.....except on Mondays.  Hahaha!  Oh well, I don't know if I would have wanted to go anyway, because there current main exhibit is all about sexual liberation and the women's movement, and the posters they have up ALL over town are of a completely naked woman, carrying a cross (the cross wasn't covering anything up though), and walking through the Copenhagen Stock Exchange.  Yay women? I don't get it.

 

It had been a long day anyway, so we decided to call it a night, and went back to the apartment.  The next day we woke up and it was COLD and windy.  Icy windy.  But we were determined to see a bit more of Copenhagen before we moved on. First we went to Nyhavn (New Port). 

 

All of these houses were built in the 1600's and early 1700's.  Hans Christian Anderson lived in three of these houses at three different times of his life.  Then we walked over to Amalienborg Palace, which is the queens winter residence.

 

 We got here at about 10am, and again, let me point out how COLD it was.  We had planned to hang around this area until 12pm so that we could see the changing of the guards, but everybody was so cold and miserable that we decided to just make things quick and get out of their.  Fortunately, we still did get to see some of the Royal Guard.

And we did get to see some of them marching from checkpoint to checkpoint.

Can you hear the wind blowing in the video?  Freezing!

Across the river from the palace you can see the Opera House.

And across the street, on the other side of the palace, is Frederiks Church, or the Marble Church.

We ducked inside for a minute to warm our bodies before walking back to the car.

 

 And that, my friends, was Copenhagen.

Denmark, Day 1 & 2

Spring Break - DENMARK!!!

I'm 1/4 Danish.  I was practically born there....which is tricky, since my Mom never went there.  So really, you can see why it was important for me to go there at least once during my life. 

I let my Dad plan this trip, because he actually HAS been to Denmark before.  He served a mission for the LDS church there when he was a young lad.  So I figured we were safe in his hands, and we were.

Heading out for a 7 hr. drive (it was longer) the first day. Joe was driving and didn't make it into the picture.  Sorry Joe.

Our first night we stayed just over the border in a town called Tonder.  We used Airbnb for all of our lodgings, so it was a mod-podge of houses/apartments/cottages.  We never knew what we were going to get from night to night (well, I did, but nobody else did).  It worked out pretty good, and I would do it again.

Joe dubbed this one the "Ikea house".

It was really small, but cute as could be, and didn't feel cramped at all - good used of space.  An open kitchen/living area.

 2 small bedrooms downstairs.

 And a loft upstairs with enough beds for everybody, and then some.

 The best part was the awesome playground outside....

 ....and the view!

We woke up and drove 1/2 hour away to Aabenraa (FYI - the double A's are pronounced with an O sound).  This was one of the towns that my dad served in, and he just wanted a quick trip down memory lane.

 This was Easter Sunday, so memory lane, and all the other streets, were EMPTY!  I guess everybody was at the church :)  We heard the bells from the church, calling the people to service, and we followed the sound.

 

I was tempted to go in for the service, but I think I would have had a mutiny on my hands.  Instead, I became obsessed with the doors in the streets.

I need doors like that in my life.

Next we headed to Ringe, for an early check-in to our place for the night - Alfred's house.

 This place had character.  I would like to live in a house like this.

On the one hand, he had Legos for the kids to play with.  On the other hand, there was some highly questionable art in the bathroom that was straight in your line of sight whenever you were sitting on the toilet, but...well...let's move on, shall we?

After we checked in, we went to the nearby city of Odense.  My dad served here as well (his first area, I believe), and we even found the house he lived in.

There's a funny story behind this house.  He and his companion had to move into this house because they got kicked out of their last place.  When my dad was younger he had a false front tooth that he could flip in and out of place with his tongue.  One day he flipped it out and grinned really big for his landlady.  He thought it was funny.  She didn't.  As luck would have it, she had the exact same thing, and thought that he was making fun of her, and gave them the boot!  To funny :)

In Odense we walked through the downtown area. 

We visited the Cathedral and the gardens surrounding it, including a memorial to Hans Christian Anderson.

 

Next we tried to go to the Hans Christian Anderson house/museum, but they were about to close (4pm - why does everything close early?), so we decided to come back to that on our last day in Denmark, and we headed back to Alfred's house.  But on our way, we came upon Den Fynske Landsby - The Funen Village.  This little village allows you to see what everyday life was like in the country in the 19th century.  There were poorer farms and wealthier farms, a mill, granary, school, an inn, prison, etc.  We got there 1/2 hr. before they closed, but we thought, what the heck, let's do it!  And what happened within 2 minutes of getting there?  We lost Alex.  Grrrr.  He wandered into the theatre and somehow got himself locked in there.  Joe and I told the others to go ahead while we searched for him, and it only took a few minutes to find him (although it seemed like longer).  Then we all RAN through that village, and darn if we didn't see the whole lot of it :)

 

My dad with his nose to the grindstone.

 

We kept laughing because inside a lot of these buildings were these dummies/mannequins set up, and they kept startling us every time we came across them unexpectedly.  Plus, they could have been weeping angels (sorry if you don't get that reference).

 

We REALLY wish that we could have spent more time here!  There are a lot of demonstrations that they do.....when it's not right before closing time.  There are animals on the farms.  And everything is hands-on.  Our favorite thing was the wooden stilts we found, and I think we spent a good 10 minutes just playing around with those.

 

Finally we headed back to Alfred's house, and his naughty art, and basked in the glow of our first glorious days in Denmark :)