Hello blog world! This is Alexa, also known as Addison’s little sister. We are currently on a very long train ride and I decided to finally take Addison up on her offer, or rather plea, for me to write some blog posts about our trip. So I’m just going to pick up right where she left off. Just wanted to let you know that Addison isn’t crazy and referring to herself in the third person in the subsequent posts. Well, she is crazy, but for other reasons…I digress.
After a short 2 hour flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen wherein Mom napped, I finished reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, which I highly recommend by the way, and Addison and Dad did something involving electronics. Side note: I believe Addison was playing Candy Crush, which she is extremely addicted to. After our arrival in Copenhagen, we walked to our apartment (#10 and situated right next to a shoe store called “Naked”). The apartment we rented was a very nice two bedroom, one bath right in the heart of the city with a nice open living room and a small kitchen. We unpacked, freshened up, blah blah blah, and headed out to explore the city square known as the Stroget and find some food. We decided on a cute bistro place called Café Norden that had delicious food. Mom had the most beautiful salad I think I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Right next to Café Norden was a little crepe stand and the worker looked like he could have been a Backstreet boy. I had been craving a Nutella crepe the entire trip and since it was so easily within our grasp, we went over to Backstreet Crepe Boy and ordered two Nutella crepes. Gathering from past experiences, I did not believe that one could mess up a Nutella crepe. But unfortunately, it was probably the worst Nutella crepe I’ve ever had. Backstreet boys know how to produce mediocre records, but apparently they do not have very good crepe making skills. The Nutella to crepe ratio was way off; we totally got ripped off on the Nutella front. I’m not bitter at all. ANYWAYS, after our crepe adventure we walked around the city for a little while, picked up some breakfast items at the grocery store, and returned to our apartment to retire for the evening. This is about the time we discovered that our apartment’s location in the center of the city meant that sleeping would be extremely difficult due to raucous ruffians (oh, the alliteration!) who stay up to the wee hours of the morning drinking and singing at the top of their lungs just to spite us for being Americans as well as menacing motorcyclists who rev their engines at the exact moment they passed by our windows. UGH! Not very fun. But it is what it is, I guess. We lived to not sleep another day.
Bright and early Monday morning we walked to a youth hostel and purchased Copenhagen cards, which are essentially the same as Stockholm cards, just a different city (and country, if you didn’t know). Next, we went down to the harbor and took a boat tour of the canal. Our tour guide was a cute bearded man who spoke English, Danish, and German whilst giving us a hilariously entertaining tour of Nyhavn (Noo – hown) which literally translated means new harbor even though ironically it is one of the oldest harbors. We saw most of the city’s landmarks such as the Opera house, the Playhouse/Theatre, the residences of the Queen and Crown Prince, the Navy shipyard, and the famous statue of The Little Mermaid which was created by native Dane Hans Christian Anderson. One interesting story our tour guide told us was about how during the reign of some King Christian (there were 10 or so) there was a serious lack of clean drinking water so the Navy built a brew house to make and store a bunch of beer that they would be able to drink since the water within the beer had been pasteurized. Apparently the King ordered enough rationed beer be on hand for to equate to each soldier having 31 liters of beer a day! Must have been really rough on the liver. Overall the canal tour was an hour of peaceful sailing around Copenhagen’s beauty and we learned and laughed a lot. Two thumbs up! After disembarking from the boat, we went off in search of sustenance and I spotted a sign saying “Rooftop Café” so we investigated and ultimately ate lunch there. The rooftop café was at the top of the Post and Tele museum, which was a very odd museum that seemed quite boring to me but may have been directed towards fun for small children. Our lunch was tasty but the service wasn’t the greatest and Addison was resting her head on the table in protest for the majority of the time we were waiting for our food – which was a long time. She was a grumpy gus until we got some food in her and we discussed how her eating habits resemble a diabetic’s in some ways. She must intake a certain amount of carbohydrates every couple of hours or she crashes. Hard. Alas, our food was finally served and Addison returned to her normal state. Hooray! We made our way to the Round Tower, which was very close to our lunch spot and climbed to the top. Most of the way up was not stairs, however, but a cobblestone ramp because when it was built the King wanted to be able to ride up the tower on his horse and ring the bells. It was a pretty view of the city and once we made our way back down the ramp we returned to our apartment for a siesta.
Our evening adventure was conquering the amusement park called Tivoli Gardens for several hours. We purchased green wristbands that allowed us to ride any ride an infinite number of times. First, we rode on the swings that are super high up and gave us a wonderful breeze and view. Next, we rode the newest ride in Tivoli called Akila that flipped and spun us all around and was a little too fast for Dad’s taste. Our whole family also rode a rollercoaster called The Odin Express that went around the track three whole times and Addison and I were in the front row of the rollercoaster, which is always a blast. We rode another rollercoaster called The Demon twice because it was fun and the line was shorter the second time, when Addison and I were able to ride in the front row again.
Addison and I rode a ride called The Dragon that spun us and rocked us back and forth so fast. The entire time we were screaming about how we weren’t going to physically be able to have children after this ride. Finally, Addison and I waited in line for 45 minutes for a ride called Vertigo, but dad chickened out so Mom and Dad had drinks & dessert beside the ride as they waiting for us. It was definitely the most unique ride in the park; essentially a biplane holding four people that spun so fast and in every possible direction. It was absolutely, certifiably insane and we loved every second of it. Definitely worth the wait.
Sadly, our adventures at Tivoli came to an end and we went back to the apartment to not sleep some more.
Our next morning in Copenhagen began early in the morning when we strolled towards the Palace grounds and ducked into the chapel/sanctuary area of a beautiful church named Trinity Church (like the important one in National Treasure where everything is buried, but sadly not that one). There was nothing particularly special I remember about this church. It was not very large and not as ornate as many of the other churches we had previously visited, but at the same time that also allowed it to have a more understated and down-to-earth quality that cannot be underestimated. After a quick look around the church, we continued on our path to Christiansborg Palace and explored the various elaborate rooms that we were given access to. This palace was unique in the respect of its history; the actual structure we visited was constructed fairly recently, in the last century or so. The grounds we visited had previously been the home of two former palaces that both burned down due to stoves overheating and catching fire. Apparently the second time it burned down, the fire had started underneath the Great Hall within secret passages beneath the floor and when the firemen arrived they were not aware of these passages and therefore were not able to locate where the fire originated. I guess the phrase “Secrets, secrets are no fun!” applies to royalty too! Although the palace was definitely beautiful, but lacked the
WOW factor of other palaces, one example being Stockholm, because it was built so recently. Granted, there were a few things they were able to save from the fire that were incorporated into the current structure, but it just wasn’t the same. After exploring the palace, we tried to visit the ruins of the old palace but they were closed and Addison was not happy.
Instead, we went to the nearby Theatre Museum that showed the history of Danish theatre from the 18
th century to the present. They let you onto the actual old court stage and had costumes and set designs of previous productions. It wasn’t a very lengthy museum, but it was a pretty cool stop for a theatre geek like me! At this point it was lunch time so we stopped by a nearby café and grabbed some sandwiches. We happened to sit down at a table outside next to a woman with her two week old baby and her mother. Somehow, we struck up a conversation with them (I think my dad commented on how precious the baby was) and realized that they were from our hometown and that the woman had graduated from a nearby private school and the University of Georgia, where she met her husband. Her husband worked for a large shipping company and they had lived in Copenhagen for two years. We had a very long conversation with both of them, and eventually her father as well, when he showed up; it was a really cool unexpected connection with home. We went to Denmark’s National Museum after lunch and honestly, it sucked rocks. There were a lot of rocks in the museum, if that gives you any indication of how bad it was. We made it through one of four floors before ditching and going back to our apartment to rest. The plan was to siesta and than go explore more and perhaps kayak but things didn’t really go according to plan. Mom and I had been feeling pretty gross for the past couple of days – sore throats, stuffy noses, etc. and that afternoon we hit the wall, so to speak. We all were exhausted and decided to have a night in. Addison and Mom went to the grocery store and picked up pasta and we ate dinner at the apartment, played cards for a while, and then watched a movie called Vicki Christina Barcelona. Scarlett Johansson was one of the two main characters (Christina) who were best friends with opposite viewpoints on love that spent the summer in Barcelona together. They met a mysterious, passionate painter and many love triangles ensued, some of which also included the painter’s former wife who was portrayed by Penelope Cruz. The movie kind of ended exactly where it started, with a whole bunch of drama in between. It wasn’t amazing or terrible so it worked perfectly for us in our pathetic state. When the credits rolled, so did our eyes, right into the back of our heads…
Since we had rested up the afternoon/night before, we were ready to go Wednesday morning. We started off in the Kings garden, which had beautiful open green spaces and park benches, flora and fauna, etc. Then we went to the SMK Museum (Statens Museum for Kunst) which is the national gallery of Demark that contains the largest collection of Danish and International art from the early Renaissance to contemporary art. There were many sections of the museum and we visited most of them. Each section was interesting in its own right. There were very beautiful landscapes, portraits of the rich and paintings of everyday town life. One of my favorite parts of the museum was a large room with giant canvases portraying scenes from the Bible and from mythology. We went into the modern art section of the building and I was the only one who was interested in it at all, so we left pretty quickly. Overall, it was a great museum with a ton of artwork and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who travels to Copenhagen. Right after the SMK Museum we went to Rosenborg Castle for a little while, which was built in the 1600s as a country palace for King Christian IV. In the 1800s it was opened as a museum showing the royal family’s history. My favorite parts about the castle were the amazing plaster work in the ceilings – it boggles my mind how people can carve sculptures into a ceiling and have it survive over many centuries – as well as the many exquisite clocks that we saw; they were truly breathtaking. We went back to our apartment for lunch and a mini-siesta before heading to Christiana. Basically this hippy colony asked Denmark for independence and Denmark said alright, why not? So within Christiana anything goes, pretty much. They sell weed on stalls in the street like most places would sell fruit. It’s a very unique place, to say the least. We walked through Christiana just looking at everything and then were on our way once again (Mom was a tad uncomfortable).
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| We climbed that! |
After our short detour into hippie-town, we went to Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church of Our Savior). But we didn’t go inside the church per usual. Instead we climbed up the black and gold spire of the church that was built by court architect Laurits de Thurah during the 1700s. The weird thing is that the stairs go on for infinity. There is an observation spot near the top of the spire and then there are more stairs leading to the tippy-top. The stairs get smaller and smaller until it is so tiny most people cannot go any further, so they just go back down. It was a stunning view on the top of the spire and we took a bunch of pictures like typical tourists. Next, we went on another boat tour of the canal from a different spot. It was different than our first boat tour because 1. It was at night so the lighting/temperature was much different and 2. Our tour guide wasn’t funny this time. Dad, Addison and I were joking about how our tour guide must only be including funny tidbits in Danish that just didn’t have the same effect in English. The tour was peaceful and nice and afterwards we found a Mexican restaurant to eat at called Mama Rosa. My burrito was way too spicy, but I survived and than we walked home and stopped for ice cream on the way – the lemon was scrumditiliumptious!
On our last half-day in Copenhagen we wanted to make sure to fit in everything we wanted to do so we rushed over to the Zoologisk Have (The Zoo) and hit all the highlights: lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) …also leopards, seals, polar bears, monkeys, and elephants. Right when we got there we went to the lion exhibit and saw two female lionesses and one male lion along with two BABY LIONS. They were so flipping adorable playing with each other and following after their mom. At one point the mom picked a baby up by biting its neck and carrying it and it was so cute I thought I was going to pass out. I wanted to stay at the lion exhibit the whole time because it was so cool but little did I know there were BABY TIGERS too! So. Much. Happiness. We weren’t as close up to the tigers as we were to the lions but there were about six tiger babies and they were positively precious and wonderful in every way. As an Auburn family, we all absolutely loved the tigers and were barely able to pull ourselves away to look at a few other things before we left. We saw a couple of leopards lounging and they were gorgeous – can you tell we love big cats? The other really awesome zoo sighting was of the polar bear. They had just built a new polar bear exhibit that allowed you to see underwater when the polar bear was swimming and it was incredible. He was humongous; I think his paws were probably the size of my face. Next, we raced over to the Carlsberg Brewery which is Denmark’s classic exported beer. I’m not an expert on alcoholic beverages and certainly not on beer because generally I find the taste of beer similar to that of trash, but surprisingly I was not bored at all! The information presented was all pretty fascinating and they let us try different beers, including the original Carlsberg recipe you can’t get anywhere else – not bad tasting, which is a glowing recommendation in my book. We ate lunch at the Carlsberg Brewery and then went back to our apartment to fetch our belongings and board an overnight ferry to Oslo, Norway. That is where I must leave you, because I only agreed to write Copenhagen and I’m sneakily not counting the overnight ferry because technically we had already left Copenhagen at that point. Muhaha. It’s been grand folks. To whoever is reading this, if anyone, hopefully you have enjoyed my sister-overtaking-blog for the time being and continue reading even though sadly you will have to read Addison’s writing again. Just kidding! Sort of…alright, I’m done. Really. Starting now. Now? Meh. K BYEEEEEE
