Copenhagen

Our third day in Sweden we drove over a very impressive bridge to to Copenhagen, or København if you are Danish, OR Köpenhamn if you are Swedish, as you can see in this Swedish sign. View from the car window. Here’s the bridge from above. Obviously I did not fly up in a helicopter and take this picture myself, but as you can see half of the bridge goes underwater, and the other half spans above. This is to allow ship to pass. When you are driving, it just looks like you come up to a big island of land, and then go into a tunnel. From the road, you can’t tell you will be driving underwater. Then you pop out right next to the airport in Copenhagen!

We drove around for a while looking for parking and went right by this store! Montana is EVERYWHERE! Mwa ha ha ha! We found parking in the Embassy section of town. We walked through an old army barracks which is still in use, although if it’s used by the military or just civilians I am not sure.We happened upon a lovely Danish wedding, and yet ANOTHER band prepping to play! This was actually the 3rd band we just came upon during our time in Scandinavia. Looks like being a band nerd is something that translates cultures too! I really heart this Groom’s sharp hat and fancy plume! Think he’ll let me keep it after he says his vows? In a clearing by the barracks we found this amazing old windmill. I have decided I want one. It’d be like living in a yurt, only windier and more awesome! I thought this column/art installation was really pretty next to these cherry blossom’s. They bloom about a month later in Copenhagen then they do here in Seattle! We walked to Amalienborg Palace, which consists of four symmetrical buildings. The Queen of Denmark lives in one of them and when she is home a flag flies above her roof. By luck, we were walking through as a changing of the guard was happening. This is the best picture I could get and only by standing precariously on suspended chains and holding Ryan’s VERY expensive camera above my head and taking rapid-fire pics! There was quite a crowd, as you can see! Here we are in front of the grand fountain that stands in the centre of the palace square. And now, what you’ve all been waiting for, the spectacular photos of the main drag in downtown Copenhagen known as Nyhavn. I would definitely consider living here too, if it didn’t cost $10 for a tiny pint of beer! Speaking of food, we did stop for lunch at a place about as nice as Applebee’s (no offense Applebee’s – you have deliciously cheap lunch specials!) and it cost over $80 for lunch for four people!!! Ryan and I had beers, they just had soda’s, and the serving sizes were what we give to children here in America! Again, cultural food differences that ultimately contribute to the growing American waistline…but I digress. Here is the pretty square we got to look at while we were eating! We walked off our “heavy” meal by exploring the rest of the city on foot, mostly walking along Trøget, which is 1.1 kilometres in length and the longest pedestrian only street in Europe. Also it’s the premier shopping area of Copenhagen. These Storm Troopers from Star Wars were walking around too (for those of you who think I may have jumped the shark by knowing this information, don’t worry. I had to ask what they were and which movie they were from)! Handing out flyer’s for the recent movie as publicity I suppose. He must have just come from battle too, cause man that suit is DIRTY! Ryan took this artsy photo in another main square. Then we saw our HOMEBOY from UW! Okay, we didn’t know him, but I stalked him for a while hoping to strike up a conversation before eventually giving up. But I mean LOOK AT HIM! Decked out in UW gear from head to toe! He was practically BEGGING me to stalk him! We ended our day with a boat tour through the canals. I would recommend this kind of tour to anyone visiting Copenhagen. You get to see a lot of neat places in a relatively short amount of time and you get to sit down the whole time. There is even an opportunity to take a nap, not that I would EVER do that (okay, FINE, I did nap, but only for like the last 5 minutes before the pro-marijuana protesters woke me up!).

Here we are on the open-air boat. Our tour guide said each item in three languages: English, Danish, and German. Of course we only understood the English, but Tobi and Carolina had a good laugh at his German, which he was allegedly struggling with, and at his Danish, because, according to the Swedes, it sounds a bit like speaking Swedish with marbles in your mouth. I, however, never make fun of ANYONE, and was simply impressed with his apparent mastery of the three languages.

Here is Nyhavn from the water. You can see how here that some of those sailboats are massive inside that very wide canal. The Opera House A very impressive sailboat. Just after this sailboat we floated past an old military war-ship, which had never been used in war, but at one point accidentally fired a torpedo at the city. No one was injured, but a huge new condo complex was leveled and the ship was retired – for good measure. The Amalienborg Palace Traditional Danish architecture This is The Little Mermaid of Copenhagen Harbor. She is quite famous although I have no idea why. And she’s not even a Mermaid – she totally has two legs! I think that’s false advertising! After all of this boat touring we decided we’d had our fill of Copenhagen and headed home. Well, after some over-priced Ice Cream of course! After eating another very lovely meal, our hosts took us on a tour of their neighborhood. Tobi and Carolina’s home is very close to on of the smallest national parks I’ve ever seen. However, it’s completely quaint and only a five minute walk from their house, so we went to check it out. Lovely. The countryside was breathtaking at sunset. Radiant Sunset Hopefully you can see why I would move to Sweden now! If anyone knows someone with EU citizenship who wants to get married – let me know!