July 25
This trip was taken with our DSH "family". This is a group of 11 adults most of whom went to college together. For the past 40 years we have vacationed together every summer, usually at a Minnesota lake resort. This was our "40th Anniversary Tour", so we did something special - a cruise tour of Northern Europe. Our group all made it to Copenhagen safely and so did our luggage. We had 2 minivans pick us up at the airport and take us to our hotel - Ibsens Hotel. Our room was the only one ready so we put our luggage in our room and then met with the group to find some lunch. We ate at an outdoor cafe down the block. It only rained on us a little. After a very quick nap, Bob and I met up with some of my Danish relatives. Michael drove us to see some of the "countryside" since he knew we'd see a lot of the city with our group in the next few days. We learned that thatch roofs are very expensive to make and got a close up look at an old Danish farming village. Then we went to his home and had a delicious home cooked Danish meal. Michael's wife, Mariann, made frikadeller (meatballs) and they tasted just like what I had grown up with. Had a great time chatting about life, families, and memories with Michael and his family. It was amazing how much we had in common.
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| Ibsen's Hotel- our room was up on the top floor, about 2 dormer windows down from the turret. |
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| Lunch at a cafe down the street from our hotel. |
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| Bob checking out the thatch roof on an old farm building. |
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| Dinner with the relatives. |
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Kim, Michael, Me, and Sven Jensen. Sven was good friends with my mom.
He spent four years laying cement with Grandpa in Omaha.
Kim and Michael are his sons. |
July 26
We walked to the center of Copenhagen and waited in the square while some of the group went to get their "Copenhagen cards". We took pictures by Hans Christian Andersen's statue across from Tivoli park. Once we all were back together again, we headed to find the canal cruise that the Copenhagen cards covered. The rest of us paid our fare and we were off on our canal tour. We saw many of the major sites, but very quickly and from the water.
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| The Copenhagen Opera House - a vey expensive building because they first had to build the island on which it is built |
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| Frikadeller, potato salad, cucumber |
Then we walked to another part of town where our Segway tour would begin from. We were there early so we had some lunch in another open air cafe across the street. More typical Danish food. Most had smorebrod - open faced sandwiches. I had frikadeller again.
We then went to the Segway place and had a short lesson and practice on using the Segways. Our guide was Anders. He was very good and planning on a career in diplomacy - he will be great. We went about 7 miles around Copenhagen on the Segways. Copenhagen is one of the most bicycle friendly towns in the world and has bike lanes everywhere. We were able to use the bike lanes with our Segways. We saw many of the sites we had seen from the canal, but at a much slower pace. We stopped at several places along the way for photo ops (and to rest our tired, cramping muscles).
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| The boys had found this grafitti on a walk last night. DSH is the name of our group, so of course we had to take a picture by it. |
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| From the canal tour, we had only seen the back of the Little Mermaid statue. On our tour we could see it better from the front. We also had an ice cream here to cool off. |
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| Bob and Anders having a chat. I think Bob looks like his "mi" in the Wii games with his helmet on! |
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| Amalienborg Palace- the royal residence in Copenhagen. My grandma worked as a maid here when she was young. |
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| Guard at Amalienborg Palace. |
After our Segway tour we had another drink at the cafe and then walked over towards Tivoli, thinking we'd go in there to find a place for supper. But for those of us without the Copenhagen card it would have cost us about $40 just to get in the park and then even more to eat. So we found an Irish pub just outside of Tivoli and had supper there. Bob ordered onion rings and got 4 pale, soggy rings. I ordered nachos and got plain chips and some sauce - no meat or cheese. Probably our worst meal of the whole trip. Walked back to our hotel without getting lost and had some drinks on their back patio. A very pleasant place to sit and talk.
July 27
After our breakfast (included) at the hotel, Bob and I decided to explore on our own today. We started out by walking towards the center of town again and then walking down the main shopping street, Stroget. We went in the Lego store, of course. Most of the sets were nothing special - you can find them all at Target. But the back corner was all "pick your own" bins of every color, shape, and size of Lego ever made. The store was also decorated with murals and constructions of Legos.
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| Pick your own Legos - buy by the cupful. |
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| Lego mural and figurines. |
More shopping for souvenirs. Bob found some magnets for his co-workers. I wanted to go to the Royal Copenhagen porcelain store and try to find something to add to my porcelain collection. I left Bob outside to enjoy some street musicians. I didn't realize it was a huge store with three floors. Of course, the cheap and on sale stuff was on the third floor. I found a teacup and some tea to buy. By the time I got done, Bob thought I had been eaten by the Danes or something, but was waiting patiently for me outside the store.
Our next stop was NyHavn (New Harbor). We took our picture by the famous big anchor there (with our hometown paper). Then we walked up and down both sides of the harbor. Lots of outdoor cafes. Went in one cute little Hans Christian Andersen store where they had characters dressed up and wandering the store. Didn't buy anything, but it was memorable.
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| NyHavn anchor |
Started the long walk back to our hotel. On our way in the morning, I had seen the Round Tower just down a few blocks from where we were walking. I wanted to go see that so we headed in that direction. Our feet were pretty tired by now, so we sat and rested a bit listening to a blind guy playing the piano. Then we paid our entrance fee and walked up the long ramp inside this tower. Towards the top, it changed to very narrow, steep, one-way steps. The view from the top was amazing, though- all of Copenhagen. We could even see cruise ships (ours wasn't there yet, though) and our hotel from the top.
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| The Round Tower |
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Can you find the turret of our hotel?
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Bob had to go to the bathroom and went in a restaurant near the Round Tower. He came out and said I should come in and look at their lunch buffet. It looked really good and wasn't too expensive We decided to see what it would cost for supper later with our group. Saturday night was not a buffet, but half price everything on the menu. We went back to the hotel and talked everyone in to going to that place for supper. The food was good and the service was super fast- almost like a fast food restaurant. Bob and I hadn't had any lunch so after our delicious burgers, we ordered a banana split. It was huge, but oh so good. All for half price! Back to the hotel for more chatting and cards in the courtyard. There are no flies or mosquitoes in Copenhagen. So nice!
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| The half price restaurant we found- notice all the bikes! |
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| Banana split! (Bob's hand and spoon for size reference.) |
