Part two!
Denmark
Copenhagen has always been on my bucket list. It has never risen very far because it is a super expensive place to visit. This was the perfect opportunity to go! It's gorgeous and the people are friendly. Easy to get around. We got the Copenhagen Card, which gets you into almost every single museum, and attraction and let's you ride ALL the transit. Just flash the card and you can ride all the buses, trains, and metro.
I ended up taking a train back to the airport to pick up Matt and the girls- it was so convenient! Our hotel had breakfast included- a full breakfast that would last 3 hours...we literally would just sit and talk, talk to people around us, try whatever freshness was coming out of the oven next, sample all of the jams...best breakfast ever at the Scandic! It was a happy ending to a fraught beginning. The apt in Finland was perfect! The apt in Copenhagen was not. The building was the last one in the neighborhood to undergo renovation, one half of the street was a construction zone that began at 5am. The mixed use building had three bars on the bottom, the drinking and loudness began about 7pm and lasted till about 4am. The hallway was covered in bodily fluids, grafitti, and hard to navigate stairs. The inside of the apt was stunning! This building was from the 1500s or thereabouts and the folx who renovated the interior of the apt clearly understood preserving wood floors/beams/ and character while adding modernity for comfort. And it was HUGE by Copenhagen standards- 2 bedrooms, living room, dining, room, 2 bathrooms. We thought it would be perfect- great price point and lots of room with a kitchen. The stove didn't work...lol! It was not ideal :/ Jessi and I hung in there for 2 nights and when the fam showed up, Matt took one look at the surrounding and said "nope". That's how we ended up at the Scandic when Jess flew home. The apt was in a fantastic location for walking to everything, the hotel was close to trains and buses- so I'm glad it all worked out in the end!
We hit up several museums, castles, palaces, tours, parks, one amusement park, one aquarium, one botanical garden and the grocery store. We found an American restaurant called PIE, owned by an expat who had relocated because of her husband's job. Even bought her cookbook! Sweet and savory pies...yum!
Also, the national museum had an expansive, well curated, incredible moving and raw exhibit on Denmark's role in colonialism. Y'all. We learned more about the trans-atlantic slave trade in that museum across the globe then we ever did in our home country. They. Went. In. On their role in profiting off of humans in the Virgin Islands, Ghana, Greenland, and India. Lots of artifacts, video, audio- storytelling so rich and full and accessible! They haven't resolved anything by far, but they are way ahead of us in terms of acknowledging their past, how their actions contributed to generational poverty, and that there are continuing conversations on what it means to heal and move forward. Obviously a huge gap is that their society is wildly homogenous. So much to unpack!
The girls were in awe of the bikes. Bikes everywhere! Bike lanes, bike garages, people riding in baskets in bikes, thousands of bikes all over the place. Clearly the favored method of transportation, followed closely by walking.
Tivoli Gardens was our treat for the week. It's one of the oldest amusement parks, even Walt Disney gleaned inspiration from it. They were all decorated for Halloween and since we weren't going trick or treating, it was the perfect place to be! We ate all of the snacks, rode most of the rides, and met up with Anne Marie, a friend of Matt's who he went to grade school with. We found a game whose theme was the wild west and it was named after Nevada! There is a picture of it here somewhere. Speaking of....
Here is a mess of pictures :-)
Denmark
Copenhagen has always been on my bucket list. It has never risen very far because it is a super expensive place to visit. This was the perfect opportunity to go! It's gorgeous and the people are friendly. Easy to get around. We got the Copenhagen Card, which gets you into almost every single museum, and attraction and let's you ride ALL the transit. Just flash the card and you can ride all the buses, trains, and metro.
I ended up taking a train back to the airport to pick up Matt and the girls- it was so convenient! Our hotel had breakfast included- a full breakfast that would last 3 hours...we literally would just sit and talk, talk to people around us, try whatever freshness was coming out of the oven next, sample all of the jams...best breakfast ever at the Scandic! It was a happy ending to a fraught beginning. The apt in Finland was perfect! The apt in Copenhagen was not. The building was the last one in the neighborhood to undergo renovation, one half of the street was a construction zone that began at 5am. The mixed use building had three bars on the bottom, the drinking and loudness began about 7pm and lasted till about 4am. The hallway was covered in bodily fluids, grafitti, and hard to navigate stairs. The inside of the apt was stunning! This building was from the 1500s or thereabouts and the folx who renovated the interior of the apt clearly understood preserving wood floors/beams/ and character while adding modernity for comfort. And it was HUGE by Copenhagen standards- 2 bedrooms, living room, dining, room, 2 bathrooms. We thought it would be perfect- great price point and lots of room with a kitchen. The stove didn't work...lol! It was not ideal :/ Jessi and I hung in there for 2 nights and when the fam showed up, Matt took one look at the surrounding and said "nope". That's how we ended up at the Scandic when Jess flew home. The apt was in a fantastic location for walking to everything, the hotel was close to trains and buses- so I'm glad it all worked out in the end!
We hit up several museums, castles, palaces, tours, parks, one amusement park, one aquarium, one botanical garden and the grocery store. We found an American restaurant called PIE, owned by an expat who had relocated because of her husband's job. Even bought her cookbook! Sweet and savory pies...yum!
Also, the national museum had an expansive, well curated, incredible moving and raw exhibit on Denmark's role in colonialism. Y'all. We learned more about the trans-atlantic slave trade in that museum across the globe then we ever did in our home country. They. Went. In. On their role in profiting off of humans in the Virgin Islands, Ghana, Greenland, and India. Lots of artifacts, video, audio- storytelling so rich and full and accessible! They haven't resolved anything by far, but they are way ahead of us in terms of acknowledging their past, how their actions contributed to generational poverty, and that there are continuing conversations on what it means to heal and move forward. Obviously a huge gap is that their society is wildly homogenous. So much to unpack!
The girls were in awe of the bikes. Bikes everywhere! Bike lanes, bike garages, people riding in baskets in bikes, thousands of bikes all over the place. Clearly the favored method of transportation, followed closely by walking.
Tivoli Gardens was our treat for the week. It's one of the oldest amusement parks, even Walt Disney gleaned inspiration from it. They were all decorated for Halloween and since we weren't going trick or treating, it was the perfect place to be! We ate all of the snacks, rode most of the rides, and met up with Anne Marie, a friend of Matt's who he went to grade school with. We found a game whose theme was the wild west and it was named after Nevada! There is a picture of it here somewhere. Speaking of....
Here is a mess of pictures :-)
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