Copenhagen: Part Two

Back to the vacation story...

Monday morning began with another trip to the bakery. Fresh baked danish, tea, and blueberries is a really lovely way to start everyday.

After breakfast we headed to the main station to try and figure out the bus schedule for our departure Tuesday and also to finally rent bikes to get around town. They were closed by the time we arrived on Saturday and we assumed they were closed Sunday as well. They were actually open though, so when we discovered that we felt pretty stupid. We waited in line at the bike place while a woman put approx. 35 cable ties on the bike basket to make sure it was nice and tight, only to find out that they didn't have any bikes with baby seats left. We tried to figure out the bus schedules, which involved waiting in queues for what seemed like hours (probably only a total of 20 minutes in three lines), only to find out no one had any idea where the bus we needed stopped or when. Thanks a million, really. Orrin did find another bicycle rental place advertised, so we decided that, since we were headed that direction anyway, we'd add a little detour to see if this place had a bike with a baby seat.

On the way we passed Rundetaarn (The Round Tower), which served as an astronomical observatory in the mid 1600's. Most of the 35 meter climb was along a spiral ramp that turned around the hollow core of the building. From the top we could look out over the entire city of Copenhagen. It was really pretty interesting and made me feel much better about what had been a pretty frustrating morning.

The second bike shop also held no bikes with baby seats. So we continued on foot, grumbling along towards the Little Mermaid statue to the north of the city. Along the way we found one of the free city bikes that Copenhagen provides in the summer. These are the worlds heaviest and clunkiest bikes. But possibly the most durable. The deal is that you deposit a coin into the handle bars and are free to ride the bike around the city. To get your deposit back you return the bike to one of the racks located around the city. We had passed them up earlier on the trip because we didn't want to try and ride them with Silas. But Orrin was pretty grouchy at this point so he hopped on while wearing Silas in the carrier. Because I was walking and because it's the world's heaviest and clunkiest bike, Orrin couldn't go too fast, so though it probably wasn't the safest thing in the world, it didn't seem too dangerous. And Silas seemed to really enjoy it, and I know he doesn't enjoy doing *anything* that is dangerous. ..

So we made it to the famed Little Mermaid. It was as promised, somewhat small and disappointing. Although if it were less famous, it would be much more charming. Something about the swarms of tourists crowding around it really detracts from the sweet saddness of the story and the statue in its pretty harbour setting. We also rode by the Danish Resistance Museum, which was closed. And we stopped by the stunning Gefion Fountain. Thanks to Mom, I actually knew the story behind the fountain- which is that this woman was granted as much land to make into Denmark from Sweden as she could plow in a day. So she turned her four sons into oxen to plow the land. I love fountains where the water is a part of the sculpture. In this case, the oxen breathe a mist out of their nostrils and the water sprays up from the wheel of the plow.


We stopped for lunch at a smorresbord restaurant, Ida Davidsen's. It was fantastic! I have no idea what I ordered, as the method is to go insde and point to the case with all the sandwiches on display. It was a tiny piece of rye bread covered in crab meat and potatoes and asparagus and caviar and some kind of mayonaise. Orrin has a beef sandwich with hardboiled eggs, tomatoes and crispy fried onions. I asked for a little one fore Silas with hardboiled eggs and bread and they brought out a little masterpiece with eggs and cucumbers and strawberries. The man taking out order was confused when I ordered in English, he said he was expecting Danish since Silas and I were "so blonde, and so beautiful, I think you must be Danish." Aww.. thanks.

Next we went to Rosenburg Castle, built as a private refuge for King Christian IV. Did you know that roses were symblic of privacy? I didn't, but I guess that is where the name of the castle came from. Anyway, here's my attempt at artistic photography of the castle with the drawbridge pilars and Orrin and Silas. The castle is in Danish Renaissance style and houses the crown jewels of the Danish monarchy. The treasures were very impressive, but the alarm system, not so much. We were trapped inside the castle grounds for about 30 min. because someone bumped into one of the glass cases of the museum. The guards then have to check every case to make sure nothing is missing before anyone can exit or enter. Thank goodness we were only trapped on the grounds not in teh actual museum itself. And thank goodness nothing was missing otherwise we might still be there!

We found a second clunky bike after the castle so both of us rode along through a large outdoor sculpture park. Back to Tivoli Gardens. It's supposed to be a must-see attraction in Copenhagen, but like the Little Mermaid, it wasn't so fantastic. They did have a really nice little play area for kids and we took these two absolutely adorable photos of Silas, so it seems worth it. And I suppose if Silas hadn't been there I would have ridden a roller coaster or two. There were supposed to be some marionette shows of HC Anderson fairy tales, but all we saw was the orchestra. As we were leaving Orrin had Silas on his shoulders and heard someone scurrying behind him, so he stopped and stepped aside so they could pass, but they person stopped as well. They were taking a picture of Silas! As explanation they just said, "So blonde!" It's seems to weird to me to think that thye went home with this picture saying- "Oh we saw the cutest little Scandanavian baby." Cutest? Possibly. Scandanvian? No.

We found that someone had scooped up our bikes so we walked back to the room, stopped at a kebap place (sadly, no, the bread was not panini'd) and had a picnic dinner by the lake/canal. We walked around Christianshavn a bit more in search of ice cream. We also saw this:
Kind of makes me want to be a pizza delivery person, if just for a day.

The next morning we spent the last of our Danish kroner in the bakery. And walked (yes, we probably logged 50 miles on this trip) to the bus. As we were walking across one of the canals we had to wait as a ship went past and the bridge opened. Did I mention there were A LOT of bikes in Copenhagen? We missed the bus at the first station and had to race across town to the next stop, but we managed to catch it and had an otherwise uneventful trip home.

Copenhagen: Part One

I's 9:30 and I finally have the pictures sorted out, cropped, ready to upload. Now, if I can just cobble together some text about them I'll have one heck of a post.
But I'm limiting myself to one hour- and I'm a slow typist. So you might have to stay tuned for the next installment. Here goes.

Friday night Orrin arrived home at 5:00. Quite a feat, considering work is supposed to be over at 3:30 on Friday's and we live about a three minute drive from work. My luck was not going to hold though, since we got a call from his colleagues in the U.S. around 7:00 and he was on the phone until 10. Oh well. I got everything all packed up into two tiny backpacks. Once change of clothes for each of us and two pairs of clothes a day for Silas. Lucky his clothes are so small. Of course he ended up wearing the same clothes for the entire trip. But you know if I had planned on that, there would have been poop explosions everyday.

We headed off to the Dublin airport Saturday morning at 6 am. Silas giggled and danced in the car seat before sweetly falling asleep. The trip somehow ended up only taking two hours, instead of the three and a half we had planned for, so we were left hanging out in the terminal for a while. We perused the pharmacy for some of the world's most expensive sunblock. And camped out in the seats reserved for "those with mobility impairments." Please don't think I am a giant jerk for doing so, but I think having a squirmy one year old strapped to you qualifies as a mobility impairment. And I certainly would have moved along if anyone with crutches, a walker, cane, or even a slight limp had happened along. OK, sorry.

The flight itself was to Malmo, Sweden and was uneventful. We landed, bought bus tickets across the bridge to Copenhagen and sat on a sweltering hot bus for 15 minutes while we changed Silas out of his red thermal long john pj's into his cute little rip-stop nylon jumper that would be his uniform for the next four days. The bus ride was a little less than an hour and Silas divided the time into trying to make friends with the man sitting behind us and trying to figure out the accordion movements in the middle of the bus when we turned a corner.

We arrived at the main station about 3:30 and headed out in search of the bike rental place. Unfortunately, they closed at 1:30 on Saturday. So we would have to walk to our lodging. We passed by the famous Tivoli Gardens, an old-fashioned amusement park place, and the first of many vast stashes of bicycles. Orrin spent the entire walk scanning the piles of bikes looking to see if one was unlocked. Not a single one was. (Although they do have these sneaky little locks that are just under the seat theat slide between the spokes of the rear wheel to keep it from turning. Very discrete and clever.) And really what would we have done if one hadn't been?

The weather was beautiful, if a bit hot. And the walk was nice, over a canal, and past many pretty buildings, statues, and fountains. We arrived at about 6:00. We set our bags down and headed out do get something to eat. After wandering around the little neighborhood of Christianhavn (Christian's Harbor) we finally settled on a place called The Spicy Indian Kitchen. I know not very Nordic, but it was close by, and cheap, and I was very hungry by this point. We bravely ordered from the Danish menu and only later found out that they had an English menu available when a family from America came in. Orrin ended up with a nice lamb curry with eggplant and I had a very tasty beef and spinach. Silas downed most of my mango lassi and some of Orrin's. We ended up having to tie him to a chair while he munched on tomatoes and rice. Certainly can't do that with a Baby Bjorn! Thanks to Mom for the lovely, and multi talented carrier. It was indispensable for the entire trip, as you'll see in the upcoming photos.

On our way home we stopped at a 7-11 -yes it's even called that in Denmark- and bought some tea and milk for breakfast. We stopped at a fruit market and bought a basket of blueberries because they looked so good, which ened up being the staple of Silas's diet for the entire trip. The rest of the evening we just hung out in our room, let Silas crawl around, and made plans for Sunday's adventures. Our room consisted of two rooms, one with a double bed and one with two singles, which also had a breakfast table. The house had a common bathroom and a kitchen upstairs. It worked out really nicely for us- and was very cheap.

Sunday morning Silas and I ventured across the street to the bakery. Where I milled around for a while until I realized you had to take a number in order to be waited on. So when it was finally my turn I pointed to a couple different items, a crispy sort of fried tasting roll covered in sort of white poppy seed, an almond crusted rhubarb filled turnover, a slightly squashed looking cinnamon roll, and an incredibly delicious custard filled danish. On our final visit to this bakery on Tuesday morning, I would be told, "They're all Danish." Which, I suppose, is true, being Denmark and all.

After breakfast, we headed down to the old town center for a walk up the Strogest, or "walking street." The first square we came to had a nice garden and statue in the center that is flooded in the winter for ice skating. Around the wide pavement of the square they had set up a photo exhibit of Steve Bloom's wildlife photos from the book Untamed. We spent at least a half an hour wandering through these amazing photos. If you ever get a chance to see them or the book, I highly recommend you check it out.

We walked up through Nyhavn (New Harbor) which was the area of Copenhagen where H.C. Anderson lived. Past more canals, fountains, and statues. We walked up through the palace complex where the Danish royalty live. Queen Marguerite in one mansion, and her son in the other. We stopped for green apple and raspberry sorbet packed into fresh waffle cones. So what if it was 10 in the morning. They were waffles, people. That's morning food.


Back on the main walking street, we pass by this lovely fountain of Charity. Yes, the water is spraying from her breasts, and also if you look carefully the boy on the left is spraying water also. According to certain guide books, this was originally at eye level but in the Victorian age it was deemed distasteful and raised up in order to be more discrete.
At the Carlsburg Glypotec Art Museum there was more bare breasted beauty (and you thought that breastfeeding picture would be the end of it). I really liked this sculpture and wish I could have gotten a better picture of it, but it was nearly closing time. If you could see the entire sculpture, the woman is covered in babies- maybe seven or so all climbing around. But I just love that she looks so strong and calm and nuturing.

Walking along we got to see many many bikes in all shapes and sizes. Tandem bikes, bikes with trailers, rick-shaw bikes, bikes that looked like flatbed pick-ups. My favorite were the kanga-roo bikes, like the one shown below.

We spent an couple hours in the National Musuem, which houses all the artifacts of the country. They do an excellent job with the exhibits and have great English language descriptions and histories. In the end our stomachs and Silas forced us to hustle through the last of the displays. But not before we took some lovely shots of Silas as a pillaging Viking, and me as an innocent milk maid.

Ok, I'm past the time limit I set for myself, that pretty much sums up Sunday anyway. We walked through a section of town called Christiania, which is a squatters colony on an abandoned military site. It's supposed to be a kind of counter culture, free- spirit place. It was interesting to see how some of the "hippies" had fixed up their houses, and certainly interesting people watching. But, because as we were leaving we saw some police going in with riot gear, it's also a place you aren't really suppose to take pictures. It's a pretty touristy place, and I actually wouldn't be surprised if the police were all part of the show. It certainly felt very low key and safe for the half an hour we were strolling around.

So, tomorrow will be the next installment, and I'll tell you all about Monday and our return trip. Whew!

Copenhagen: Part Zero

We're back home. We had a great time in Denmark. Excellent food, drink, lodging. Wonderful weather, architecture, museums, statues, and fountains.
We have loads of pictures to show you. But I'm tired. That stupid triathlon is Sunday. I spent all day today with out any power- except for the house alarm which was blaring for 2 hours before the alarm company got here to turn it off.
So today I was going to write all about out trip but I couldn't because the power was off.
So I ran 3 miles this morning, then biked for 8, then ran 4 miles this evening. Je suis pooped.

Tomorrow- I promise- post of the vacation.
Tonight all you get is Silas in the bike trailer with the helmet. Yes, he is that cute.

Scandinavia here we come.

Last night we ran a 5k. We. Orrin, Silas, me. Except Silas didn't actually run. But he traveled the 5k. It counts right? And he won us a couple of bottle of wine in the process.
Even in little tiny Clogheen there is a 5k race with prizes. Prizes for first and last in all the age groups. Prizes for they guy who competed in a wheelchair. Prizes for youngest racer. Oldest racer. And a prize for the crazy guy who pushed the buggy across the finish line.

After the race they served tea and cookies in the parish hall. Hot tea. I was skeptical. Nothing more refreshing after a jog on a summer night like a mug of hot tea. Oddly enough, it was pretty nice. Silas especially enjoyed the custard creams. He was a very good sport all evening, even though we kept him out until 10:00. Must have been all the sugar in the cookies.

The people we ran with also talked me into running a triathlon in a couple weeks. It's a short one, I think it's 750 meter swim, 20 km bike, and 5k run. I know I can do all those things individually. Can I do them in a row? Not so sure, but I guess there is only one way to find out. I just wish I didn't have to find out in a freezing cold lake. At least I'll be wearing a wetsuit.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Copenhagen. Actually we fly into Malmo, Sweden then take the bridge over to Copenhagen. We plan to rent bikes with a baby seat, and are staying in a private home. It's kind of like a B&B except the second B is bring your own, serve yourself. I don't know, it was much cheaper than a hotel and is supposed to be in a 'hip' neighborhood.

Among the sights we'll be seeing is the Gefion Fountain, as recommended by Mamsis. Supposed to be much better than the little mermaid statue.

This is also the trip the Schek family was *supposed* to take with us. So, we'll have to take extra good notes and pictures for them.

No posts until at least Tuesday then. I know, you'll be holding your breath.