This weekends trip would take us to Copenhagen and Sweden. We got in late to Copenhagen, and it was wet and snowy. When morning came some of the snow was still there but the sky was a beautiful color of blue.
A good reason to visit Copenhagen is the danish pastries.
I got this from wikipedia:
The origin of the Danish pastry is often ascribed to a strike among-st bakery workers in Denmark in 1850. The strike forced bakery owners to hire workers from abroad, among them several Austrian bakers, who brought along new baking traditions and pastry recipes, the rest is history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_pastry
Yes, they were very good.
After our sweet breakfast, we moved on to our walk around the town and passed a bird subdivision.
Across from the train station is an park called Tivoli gardens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoli_Gardens
This is an amusement park that first opened in 1843, it was closed for the winter while we were there.
A ways past that was the city hall, opened in 1905.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_City_Hall
Standing in front of the city hall was a fountain with all kinds of mythical animals on it.
On another corner was a building that had the golden weather girls. There supposed to tell the weather for the day. If its rainy, one with an umbrella would come out. If it was going to be a nice day one on a bike would come out. Today its broke so we weren't sure how the weather was going to be. As you can tell by the blue sky's it was a nice day.
Another spot in the square is a statue of famous danish author Hans Christian Anderson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Christian_Andersen
Inside the city hall is the Jens Olsen world clock.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Olsen's_World_Clock
The fastest gear in the clock completes a revolution every ten seconds and the slowest every 25,753 years
This was an ornament on the stair railing, maybe a candle was supposed to go inside it.
We went to the information desk and the lady behind the counter had a lamp shade on her head. At first I thought it may have been some Danish head dress or something. Nope it was a lamp shade, i'm assuming she lost a bet.
A look inside City hall.
with an odd looking drinking fountain.
Outside in the courtyard was this fountain that was not running. It had a bear with his mouth open, this is where the water came out. I can see little kids wondering why the bear is sick.
and the tower of the city hall. Most of the towns we visit have tall towers that we can go up and see the city. If you want to walk up all those steps---no thanks we will pass on that.
Me, trying to get back in--these doors are locked.
A view of the couryard from those big doors
We walked by a set of heating radiators and they brought back a memory when i was young. If we misbehaved in church my mom would make us kneel by the radiator when we got home. It seems my brother Pat and I would always be kneeling at them after church. Being he was the older one he must have gotten me in trouble.
A nice view beautiful old building next to city hall
And next to that is McDonalds, KFC and Burger King---It takes the historical beauty of the area.
I'm not sure what this was for, there was about three of them in a row. I figured it may be for loading something or a high speed wheel chair ramp.
This is the Cathedral of our Lady, with no statues of a women in it.
This Cathedral has a long history, built first in 1185 it was destroyed seven times. The present church was built in 1829.
The first six must have been made out of straw or sticks, this one is made of stone.
Makes you think about the story of the three little pigs doesn't it?
Another pastry shop---this is a great town if you have a sweet tooth.
This is a main shopping area and is also a pedestrian only walk way.
The tower on the right is the Christiansborg Palace the birthplace of Copenhagen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiansborg_Palace
The statue of Biship Absalon, the founder of Copenhagen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_statue_of_Absalon
I think the horse is afraid the bird will land on his head next.
There was a lot of spires and towers in this town. This is the Curch of our Saviour, it has a corkscrew spire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Saviour,_Copenhagen
This is the Borsen, Danish for Exchange.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B8rsen
It's spire is in the shape of four dragons tails.
Another view of Christiansborg Palace.
Its tower has three crowns.
This is the Church of Holmen, it was across from the Borsen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Holmen
The building was originally an anchor forge. They must not have sold enough anchors so they converted it into a church.
The pews and carved angles date back to 1640
The pulpit was installed in 1662 and is the oldest in Copenhagen.
The bottom of the pulpit has Moses holding the tablet with the ten commandments.
One of the angle carvings, this is about the size of my hand.
The alter piece, carved in 1661
I call this, the hall of dead guys. This room had a lot of crypt's of famous Danish people, non that you and i would know.
After the church we walked along the Havnegade Promenade---we don't know how to say it either.
This area is along the harbor with benches and places to just enjoy the view. And they had trampolines for the kids or the young at heart.
Play time is over, time to move on. Yes, I tried it, and no it didn't break.
A harbor view, looking towards the opera house.
It was time to get something to eat, we stopped at pub but they did not serve food. We did have a pint and a half and this was the total. Good thing it was in Danish crowns.
The bartender gave us directions to a restaurant that he liked. It would be near the Nyhavn or new harbor.
It was a very picturesque area, but it also had a lot of people.
For some reason we must have been thirsty, one beer and two snaps (schnapps).
We did wonder why we got talked into the snaps.
The waiter did say that the snaps goes good with the local favorite, pickled herring. Leanne had hers prepared mild while mine was spicy. We did this in case one was bad we could share the other. they were both very good.
next course was fish that we shared.
It was a long first day time to head back to the hotel. We passed this building on the way as we walked along the harbor.
Next day we were up but not to early. We stopped at the rail station to get our tickets to Sweden, had a quick breakfast of a few danish and were off. We wanted to get back to the Nytorv and walk from there. We went on different streets than the ones yesterday, mainly to get away from the crowds.
Back at the New Harbor, looking at it from a different angle.
We were at the far end yesterday. Today we walked along all the shops, mostly restaurants selling herring and souvenirs stores.
At the harbor, looking at the other side you could see what once were warehouses were now apartments.
A better view of the opera house we saw yesterday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Opera_House
It is the most modern and also the most expensive ever built. It cost $500 million to build and was donated to the state by a shipping company. It opened in 2005
Did i mention the coins have holes in them?
Across the harbor from the opera house is the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalienborg
(I found this picture on line)
Looking at the picture above, the queen and her husband live in the house in the upper right. Her son and his wife live in the one on the upper left. The lower right is a guest house and the lower left is a museum.
As we got close to it we heard a fife and drum. It was the changing of the guards and we were able to see some of it. Well i was able to see some of it, Leanne couldn't see over all the people.
Farther down the street is Frederick's church or the Marble church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik's_Church
The view looking back from the church.
The inside of the church. It was started in 1749 but not completed until 1894. To say there were problems would be an understatement.
The man who finished it, received the property around it. I'm sure this is one of his building as it is next to the church.
We asked a clerk at a local wine shop where was a good place to eat. He suggested a burger joint down the street that made Bloomberg's top 27. I will say it looked like a real hole in the wall place. And I would have passed it by to go someplace else. Leanne suggested we give it a try, so we stood in line-----for what seemed for ever. And it was cold. In the end the only problem is we (actually it was me) suggested we get one and share it. We should have gotten at least two and maybe three. It was the best burger we've had in years.
The Rundetaarn or Round Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundetaarn
Built in 1642 as an astronomical observatory, it had an equestrian staircase to get to the top.
We then went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ny_Carlsberg_Glyptotek
This is the museum built around the collection of Carl Jacobson, son of the founder of the Carlsberg breweries.
It's amazing what selling a few beers can buy.
On the way to the train station we had time for more pictures.
Yes i felt silly.
This is Copenhagen main train station, we would take a train from here to Gothenburg, Sweden. From there my nephew Patrick and his dad would pick us up and take us to his home town for a visit with his family.
Patrick lives in the little town of Lilla Edet with his wife Lina and there three kids, Ossi, Lilly and Ziggy. His dad and mom, my brother Pat and my sister in-law Sue were also visiting them. Being there house was not big for all of us we stayed at the local hotel. The only problem is we got there late and this was on the door of the hotel. Patrick made a call and found out the key to our room was under a garbage can by the front door. After finding this out we went to the local watering hole (bar) and had a few drinks.
The hotel room was nice and had this what looked like a car radio in the night stand. We didn't try it, we were tired and quickly went to sleep.
The next day Patrick came and got us, we got to see his new house and play with the kids a bit. Then he took us for a walk in the woods near his house. This is my brother Pat and I outside the house waiting for everyone.
It was another great sunny day and it was a short walk to the trail in the woods. Green, everything was green.
Pats grand kids are leading the way.
The kids day care is also close and they make day trips up to this spot.
A view of Patrick's home town from the top of the hill.
His house is to the left.
Time to head back down, Lilly was getting tired.
I think Leanne could have stayed all day.
You could tell spring was coming by the small flowers in there yard
They were small but pretty.
Ossi playing on the steps while Lilly waits for her dad. We ended up walking to the store to get stuff for lunch.
After lunch but before dinner we had "Fika"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fika_(Sweden)
It means "to have coffee" and sweets. We had this for Fika, a cake with a layer of cake, raspberry, cake, custard, whipping cream, cake and covered in marzipan.
I may have bring this tradition back to the states.
After Fika Pat had some play time with his grandkids, Ossi is in the chair, Lilly is middle and Ziggy is on the right.
The Morning view from our thatched roof hotel room.
and last is this video of Pat and i teaching his grandson how to cry for something. Pat is putting water from the flower on his cheeks. He's asking to go to the airport.
