Copenhagen

Nate's birthday is on Wednesday so I decided taht we needed to go on a mini adventure.  But as we thought to do it kind of last minute, it was hard to find a place to go that we could make worth it. So we decided to take a quick little trip over to the other side of Denmark... To the big city of Copenhagen.

It is only about at 3 hour drive from our home in Aarhus, we left from work though so it was about a half hour more.  So we left work a bit early so we could get a head start and at least do most of the drive in the light (right now it gets dark at about 4:30), so we left at 2:30ish.  It was really foggy for most of the drive so we didn't get to see as much on the way there as we did on the way back.  The ~4 mile bridge between Fyn (the provence/island between Jutland(the mainland where we live) and Copenhagen (which is in Sjaelland)) is really impressive.  It is hard to capture how big and impressive it is in a picture but of course I tried  :-)

Into Copenhagen we went.  To find our wonderful little room that I found online. Everything is so expensive in Copenhagen, it was hard to think that just staying in a normal hotel would be special enough for the adventure. And well.. knowing me.. i am not exactly the "normal" kind of girl.  So I did some searching for alternative types of places to stay and found this highly recommended river hotel!  Was so awesome! Right on one of the rivers, all 12 of the rooms looked out over the river.  The little white boat on the side is our place!!  The owners were so awesome. They just had this vision to have a different kind of place to stay and it works wonderfully.  It is in a nicer neighborhood so it felt very safe at night, but was right across the river from downtown so was easy to walk everwhere (or would have been quick to walk to the metro if we had wanted to go very far anywhere). 

 

View from the road.  On the top is a sundeck which would have been awesome to hang out on.  Not so awesome this time of year, but still I walked out there to check out the view the second morning when it didn't look like there was ice all over it  :-) 

 Without the "privacy screen" over the window you could see right through to the river.

Who on earth doesn't love waking up to swans swimming outside of your window!  Great omen I would say.  Start the day with a great big smile  :-)

And how about a coule of kayackers paddling by.  Don't worry the room had blinds that you could pull up part way, or all the way depending on how much privacy you want.  We were on the second floor though so we had a bit more privacy because of that.  I had the blinds down 99% of the time just to see the view!

Breakfast in the rooftop cabin was wonderful both mornings.  We got to just relax and have a nice little special start to the day with just the two of us.

Our view from our rooms/our breakfast nook.  :-D

 

We went out and went exploring the town Saturday.  Just wandering around the little streets/rivers. Dad, I thought of you when I hit this particular isle.  All these sailboats which would have made you smile. 

There was one in particular which I thought had your name on it though... Think it was meant for you....

Next we wandered over to Christiana, the anarchy city within the city.  This little mini suburb of the city has broken off from the rest of the city so to speak.  It is an old army barracks I think. There is a fence around the perimeter, which is covered with grafati, and signifies the "city limits" of Christiana.  Within the walls the people are allowed to smoke marjauana.  We decided that we would go on a little exploration through the streets early in the day when it would not be so rowdy in there.  We were told that there are police raids every once in a while which are to do a sweep to make sure that there are no hard drugs in there, but other then that the city is pretty much left alone it seems.  Things were in much poorer shape then the rest of the city we had seen.  There were no cars allowed within the "city" limits, and the streets were like gravel/dirt/sand/hay/bark...It was very different.  I had a hard time seeing the children in there though. I am all for the bucking the system and living a different life, but that just seemed a bit too extreme a situation to have children being raised in.

One stretch of the perimeter.

Side of a building right inside the walls.  There was awesome grafetti all over the side, this was my favorite section. Loved those green guys  :-p

 Sunken boat in the river just ouside the perimeter.  There were a bunch of boats around which I think had been burried in the snow and then when the snow melted it just stayed in the boat and then froze and halfway sunk the boats. The reason that boats are flipped over and stored on land I would think... This one had been carneage for a while thought I think.  I can't imagine that this winter's snow storm is really what did it in.. but who knows...

When walking around the city there were really cool little dragon decoration things. I love these kind of decorations.. and door knockers which are faces/etc... I just like seeing all the personality throughout the city.

Then I saw this guy.  Oh my, he made me giggle for a while.  Think he was my favorite thing in the city.  I know I am a freak. But who doesn't just love smiling decorations above doors???  Well all I know is somehow they just make me smile back at them... like they are real and can see me?? hmm.. yea maybe that is a bit odd...

There was this peace demonstration set ouside one of the monuments.

You can barely see them, but there are 4 figures on long poles which were for the demonstration.. I really am not sure what they are meaning, but they were very interesting to look at. Very artistic.

View standing under the guys...

Then off to Carlsberg brewery for a tour and some tastings.

We got to see the largest collection of unopened beer in the world!!!!  Pretty fun to walk through and look at them all (behind glass protection of course).  What a job to dust those bottles it must be!  Not jealous of that person's job!

Rope playground!  Soooo awesome!  There were swings that people had made and were playing on!  Maybe if people get drunk at the brewery they can come out here and play?  I really have no idea what this area is really for. Cool picture though.

 The first secret statue... stunning....

 Beautiful sunrise on Sunday...

Sunday we drove up to Kronborg Castle, the setting of Shakespeare's Hamlet, was a beautiful castle to wander around and read about the history.  A lot of the castles in Denmark are still in use by the royals so you can just see from afar.  This one is purely a monument now.

Piew in the cathedral, the only place in the church untouched by a fire that raged through centuries ago... the fire which is part of the reason that the castle is a monument to this day and is not in use.  They did not have the funds to rebuild the castle to it's original splendor.

 View of the cannons guarding the sea fortress, one of the fiew outlets to the Baltic Sea, they made people pay to use the inlet up until a couple centuries ago when an American Ship refused to pay... Aarogant Americans.

Little replica... Nate wouldn't let me stand in it.. said it was disrespectful.. hmmm... it was metal, thought it was safe enough... it was his birthday weekend though, so I was on my best behaviour.  ;-p

Nate in prison!!!  They used to make people stand in this corner with their hands shackled... so he demonstrated... he was my captive.

Well maybe I wasn't totally behaved... Oh yea, look at those leggings!  (skirt was over it but you totally can't see here.... not that it took away from the leggings of course... oh yea. look like I belong in a circus probably with these on.  Every once in a while have to buck the Danish funeral attire) hehe.

And of course... Lion eating my hand...

  

All in all.... a fabulous weekend.  Full of laughs, adventures, and good food  :-)