Our BIG SUMMER VACATION OF 2019 was to northern Europe for our big Baltic cruise! We decided to go with MSC again, since we really enjoyed our trip last year and they have affordable northern European cruises (which many cruise lines do not!) This whole idea started LAST SUMMER with Natalie who wanted to convince her Dad that we needed to do this cruise, so she put together a Power Point presentation about how AWESOME the MSC Meraviglia is. It worked! He was convinced and couldn't say no to a little girl who learned a new skill.
Fast forward a year and here we are... ready to head to Copenhagen on the train. No one loves to drive 11 hours to their destination. Except for me. I love to drive. But I got out voted, and flights were too expensive, so we decided to take the train. Which, in theory, almost always sounds like a good idea at the time.
We were up bright and early for our commuter train to Nuremberg. Todd made sure we got on the right train on the right track (although I didn't document it, we had a problem with being at the wrong track at Neuhaus a few years ago when we took the train to Budapest so we always want to make sure!)
The sunrise was really pretty over the Veldensteiner brewery at Neuhaus.
Todd always takes a family selfie when the train approaches.
As soon as we got to Nuremberg, our adventure came to a screeching halt. There were NO trains coming up from Munich through Nuremberg to Hamburg. Like none. They kept saying they were delayed, and then they would cancel them. Todd kept getting us rebooked (because this train was an ICE train and you needed seats. You can't simply wait for the next one.) And then they would cancel. Or delay again. Finally about two and a half hours later, we boarded a train to Hamburg.
Family ICE train selfie! Grant's thumbs down, despite his smile, is because this means we needed rebooking on all of our future trains to Copenhagen. And that meant a severe delay in getting there. It was already an 11 hour journey, which was going to be made MUCH longer by this delay.
But... beer in the restaurant car on ICE trains. I love you Germany.
Hey, I have an idea. Let's go get some hamburgers in Hamburg. Because that's stupid, and we like to do stupid things. But we were short on time, so there wasn't a chance to sit at a sit-down restaurant and have a real burger. But harken! There was a McDonald's! So Todd ran to McDonald's, grabbed a couple of burgers and we ate them on the train to Flensburg, but still in the Hamburg train station.
Good news. If you can't make it to the restaurant car, they just come to YOU! Snacks, coffee, sodas and even beer! This is one of my favorite features of German trains. (Side note: That guy across the aisle had a Red Sox hat!)
It was a LONG day. Really long. At this point, at the train station in Tinglev, Denmark, I was doing ok, but only minutes before, I nearly had a breakdown. It honestly takes a lot for me to have that. But we took a train from Hamburg to Flensburg, which if it hadn't made a thousand stops along the way (and by this, I mean it made random stops on the tracks, not at any particular station), then we might have made it on time to Flensburg to catch our train to Fredericia, and then on to Copenhagen. But nope. We were so late that they provided a couple of buses for us. Flensburg is at the border, and they weren't super communicative, so we assumed the buses were going on to Fredericia, at a snails pace because buses can't drive fast on motorways. And we assumed it would make EVERY STOP ALONG THE WAY on it's way to Fredericia. As I made this realization, I got a threatening e-mail from our hotel saying, "If you don't call us RIGHT NOW, we are going to cancel your hotel room for tonight and tomorrow night." I just handed my phone to Todd and said, "I'm literally about to have a breakdown. Can you please handle this?" (This is where my husband shines!) I had just hit my tipping point. Don't worry. He saved the day!
But barely over the border into Denmark, after we hit passport control (yes, we had to show passports but they don't get stamped), they dropped us off at the Tinglov train station and said, "The train to Copenhagen will be here in 30 minutes!" WHAT. Travel day saved. There was even time to run over to the pizza shop... not for food, but at least for sodas and beers.
Ok we are all doing a little better now.
Watching Denmark going by, we played Natalie's new game, Werewords that she got from Auntie Brie and Uncle Coco. I even played, and I never play!
We were supposed to get to Copenhagen at about 6:45 pm. In the end, we didn't get to Copenhagen until after 11 pm. And everyone fell asleep at some point on the train.
We couldn't even wake Grant up when we arrived at Copenhagen Central station. I'm pretty sure he slept walk to the cab.
After a good night's sleep, we felt a bit more refreshed and tackled the free hotel breakfast. Thanks, Grant. I know no one else can see the Wienerbrod sign in the background, but it's on my scratch off food map, so thanks for helping Mommy verify this.
After breakfast, these two were ready to go explore Copenhagen! We went over to the nearest train station, just a few minute walk from our hotel, where the ticket machine wouldn't take our credit card. And we didn't have any Danish Kroner yet, so we just hopped on the train and hoped for the best. I don't recommend doing this because they do often check for tickets on the train.
But alas, we made it into Copenhagen! Our first and only stop before the festivities of the day was the Little Mermaid statue. I mean, you can't go to Copenhagen without seeing her. Nearby, there is a super cool fort called the Kastellet that you can wander around. It was built in the 17th century and is a perfect place for a stroll.
I'm all like... wow. Aren't we the cutest family at the Little Mermaid statue? Natalie is all proud. Todd and I are all smiles. AND... Grant. What a goof!
She is a delight though, and it's best to get there early before all of the tourists (ahem) get there to snap ridiculous selfies with her. And by that I mean, there are signs ALL OVER THE PLACE telling people NOT to climb on her. But you know. People don't think the rules apply to them.
CLIMBING ON THE MONUMENT IS NOT ALLOWED.
Better snap that photo before the tourists attack her. She is so pretty in her transformation.
For fans of the Little Mermaid, the original story was by Denmark's own Hans Christian Andersen. The brewer Carl Jacobsen gifted the statue to the city in 1913. It's "made of bronze and granite and was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a mermaid who gives up everything to be united with a young, handsome prince on land. Every morning and evening she swims to the surface from the bottom of the sea and, perched on her rock in the water, she stares longingly toward the shore hoping to catch a glimpse of her beloved prince. Carl Jacobsen fell in love with the character after watching a ballet performance based on the fairy tale at the Royal Danish Theater. The brewer was so captivated by both the fairy tale and the ballet that he commissioned the sculptor Edvard Eriksen to create a sculpture of the mermaid. Eriksen's wife, Eline Eriksen posed for the statue." (This happened after the ballet dancer Ellen Price- who's face is the model for the statue- would not pose nude for this.)
After our brief visit with the Little Mermaid, we walked back toward the train station to head back to Copenhagen Central and our ultimate destination of the day - Tivoli Gardens! But not before snapping some cool pics of the Kastellet.
There is a beautiful fountain near the Kastellet called the Gefion Fountain. The Norse goddess Gefjun plows the land with her four sons (which she turned into oxen) on the promise that the king of Sweden would give her as much land as she could plow in 24 hours. Her sons were so strong that they raised up the land, dumped it into the sea, and the island of Zealand was created. Copenhagen is located on the island of Zealand.
Adjacent to the Gefion Fountain is the St. Alban's Anglican church. I thought it was funny that there was an Anglican church here! It was built in the 1880s for the increasing number of English shipping workers who had moved there. Princess Alexandra of Denmark had married the future King Edward VII, and she took it upon herself to help build this church for the British workers in an increasingly tolerant Denmark.
We finally arrived at the famous Tivoli Gardens for a day of birthday fun for Natalie! Tivoli Gardens is the SECOND OLDEST amusement park in the world, after Bakken in northern Denmark. Straight ahead, near the entrance that is across the street from Copenhagen Central station is the Mountain Coaster (or Rutschebanen), one of the best known rides at Tivoli. It's the THIRD OLDEST wooden roller coaster in the WORLD, built in 1914! (Superlative!) There's an entrance fee plus a fee for each ride. Nowadays, you can purchase a combined entrance and unlimited ride ticket. If you purchase this, you also get an unlimited number of downloads for all of those coaster pictures you're gonna take. It's worth EVERY penny, especially on weekdays.
Eeeek, who knew there were manhole covers of Tivoli Gardens!
Tivoli Gardens opened in August 1843 when Georg Carstensen was granted 15 acres of land by King Christian VIII for the people's amusement. This included actual gardens, rides, food, music and a theater. Much of this was destroyed by the Nazi's in 1943, but as Carstensen said (long before Walt Disney ever said it), "Tivoli will never, so to speak, be finished."
But the rides! That's why Natalie wanted to come here for her 12th birthday! The rides! One of the first rides we rode was the Mine. It's kind of like Buzz Lightyear at Disneyland Paris. You get a little laser and have to shoot at certain targets - everyone is assigned a color and the target lights up with the color of whoever gets the point. I'm pretty sure I won this by 700 points.
We had watched videos of all of the rides at Tivoli Gardens before we left Germany and we knew that there was a waterfall we were going to ride through. Hence our VERY PREPARED faces (what, Todd?) We were, however, woefully unprepared for the camera. I'm declaring this OUR VERY BEST family coaster shot of all time!
The BEST coaster at Tivoli Gardens is the Daemon (or, in English - the Demon). "The gardens that surround the Demon, are inspired by the Far Eastern vegetation where bamboo is a dominant plant. The beautiful stems and lush foliage provide a special atmosphere." (I took that from the Tivoli Gardens website.) They have super cool manhole covers here, too!
Grant likes roller coasters, but only ones that don't go upside down. The Demon, at a short 1 minute and 46 seconds long goes upside down THREE times and is super awesome. You can see (if you click on the pic and zoom in) Todd and Natalie riding this one while I waited with Grant.
Nope. They don't love roller coasters at all.
Have no fear, Mommy got to ride too! This ride is a virtual reality ride also, which you can see the guy behind Natalie is wearing the headset (if you buy the unlimited ride package, you get this for free.) Nat, Todd and I also did the VR, but it totally wasn't worth it. Both Nat and I found that the VR headsets slid off of our heads too much. It made it hard to enjoy the ride, even though it was clipped on to the seat.
We went for burgers and beers and sodas beneath the Demon after we rode it a few times, and Natalie told the guy working at the burger place that it was her birthday. When she got her lunch, this was written on her burger! Honestly, the Danish are the nicest people we have ever come across in Europe, as a whole. They're like the Canadians of Europe!
You'd better believe we're not getting the pfand back on those cups.
Coasters and beer. This is literally my idea of a perfect day.
Our kids are super cute sometimes. They're in the crossroads of life right now - stuck somewhere between being little kids and being adults. Sometimes they want to ride ridiculously intense roller coasters, and sometimes they want to ride the carousel. This time we rode with them! (Wait: We both can ride the giraffe?)
We rode the dragon boats next... and Todd took this picture of my very intense, newly minted 12-year-old and I on one of the boats. Twelve years ago was a really long time ago, in the minds eye. I could never have imagined, twelve years after the day they handed her to us, that we would be in Copenhagen, celebrating her birthday. And that she would be driving me around in a dragon boat!
We are following you guys!
Natalie isn't afraid of many rides, and neither am I. Unless they spin. I don't do those. But I am pretty afraid of heights, as you guys all know. So Todd and I rode the 63 meter Golden Tower by ourselves (while the kids rode the Odin Express coaster.) This was infinitely more fun than any of the German ones I've been on. In Germany, they keep you at the top for an excessive amount of time. They spin you, they freak you out. Here, they took you to the top, let you sit there for seven seconds and then dropped you. It was easy, fun and not terrifying at all. And when Todd and I went up, we got the most amazing view of the Øresund Bridge, connecting Denmark to Sweden. I told Natalie this was the BEST ride at Tivoli and she finally, but nervously went with her dad. She LOVED it!
A sweet birthday girl. How will you be leaving me in 6 years?
The kids decided they wanted some free time to run around the Rasmus Klump's World playground so we went for adult happy hour. By far, this is the best perk of having older kids. The tradition continues!
See, we can be normal!
Grant wanted to ride the Mountain Coaster again so we cut across the park to do that... but I was completely sidetracked by these incredible hydrangea! Mine don't look anything like this right now!
Peace, bro. Let's ride this. We absolutely never waited more than one ride for this coaster.
"Mommy, let's pretend we are picking our noses!"
Oh my word, I just laughed so hard at all of these photos! Look at that silly girl!
Next up, Natalie and Daddy decided to ride the Sky Flyer. Todd took this picture before they got on it and we can't decide whether that's a bug in the upper left corner or a drone!
While they rode the Sky Flyer, we decided to ride the Ferris Wheel again! I rode something like the Sky Flyer at the Nuremberg Volksfest and almost passed out while we were riding it. Never again!
Todd can ride the Sky Flyer, but felt sick after riding this ride (the Monsoon) one time. This ride didn't bother me at ALL and even Grant loved it enough to ride it THREE times. Here we go!
It just spun around (forward spin... not a side to side spin) and was hilariously fun! Todd took a burst and these pictures are just so classic. I love the look of pure joy on our faces. When you're on rides like this, you literally forget anything bad ever happened in your life. So much fun!
Natalie and I went one more time to ride the Demon roller coaster (this time with VR for me... not a fan) so Daddy and Grant went to ride the bumper cars.
My best artistic photo of the day. Sometimes I see one of my photos and wish I could put that feeling into a bubble. And set it to music.
We had a little pizza and pasta (!!!!) before we headed to the kids pick for their last rides of the day. I feel like this accurately captures the mood of both of my kids at any given moment of any given day.
Also: The waitress said, "Would you like a Danish flag because it's your birthday?" Natalie said yes, but it was just a flag for the table. Not one for her to take home. How random is that!?
Natalie and Todd decided to go back to the Demon for their last ride of the day. Grant, naturally picked the wooden roller coaster for his. Grant and I were practicing our sour lemon face before we got on the Rutschebanen!
Did we nail it? (Also: Is the girl behind me putting a spell on me? Or maybe she's trying to save my soul?)
"Mommy, let's pretend like we are asleep!"
"Mommy, let's act super surprised!" (Maybe the best part of this picture is that the same kids got behind us for the second time!)
After we rode the coaster several times, Todd and Natalie rejoined us so we could make the MOST ridiculous faces of all time on a roller coaster! This one is probably my all time favorite.
ALL of this one. I can't even. Plus the brake man (yes, this roller coaster has a driver!) was getting ALL into it. That or he knows he's about to get necked cause he's staring right at Todd's hand!
"Mommy, let's pretend like we are crying" (ANNNND there's a lotta love going on right behind us!)
And because it was a little girl's 12th birthday, we had to end the day with some ice cream! The perfect end to a perfect day!
We planned to go to Sweden (!!) the next day, but not before seeing a little more of Copenhagen. We jumped on the Hop on Hop Off bus at Copenhagen Central, which included a boat tour of the city. Although it was not (BY ANY MEANS) a warm day, there were still people swimming at the only public swimming spot in the city (on the left.)
The bus drives you around the city for a few stops, and you realize Copenhagen really looks like Amsterdam at times. Or perhaps those from here would say that Amsterdam looks like Copenhagen!
Finally, the bus dropped us off and we got on the boat for the quick hour long boat ride of the city. No trip to Copenhagen is complete without a boat ride! But it was freezing!
The dragon spire at the top of the Old Stock Exchange has three crowns on top, symbolizing the Scandinavian empire - Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Did you know that being a part of Scandinavia is different than being a part of the Nordic countries? Scandinavia is the three above mentioned countries, while the Nordic countries include Finland and Iceland!
There are many bridges along the boat route, but you really need to mind your head on this tour because they are VERY low hanging bridges. They even warn you to sit down.
The Standard was built in 1937 and was a customs house until 1965, when it became the docks for the ferries going over to Sweden. I went to Sweden on a hydrofoil back in 1993, but I have no idea if this was the dock we left from. I'm guessing it was out of the Ferry port, and not this one. I wish we had the internet back then so I could have documented it.
This pedestrian only bridge opened in 2016. The Inderhavnsbroen is also known as the Kiss Bridge because it expands and contracts horizontally to let taller ships through (making it look like the bridge is kissing itself.)
Todd: "Next time, we should totally do something like this! But without the kids!" (See that boat on the right? Just having some cocktails and snacks while motoring around Copenhagen!)
The Copenhagen Opera House is literally just across the water from the Amalienborg Castle, where the royal family lives when they are in Copenhagen. Construction was completed in 2004.
We then took a sharp right into the Christianshavn area, where the the Freetown of Christiania is located. The nearby Holmen area used to be military barracks for the Danish Navy. Now it's home to places of residence and business.
This is kind of my dream life. Here she is, on her little house boat with her pretty plants and her iPad, taking pictures of a family of swans that have come to greet her.
I cannot wrap my floodplain manager brain around this one. Like, another 6" of water rise and this place is going to flood. These appear to all be businesses, but still... aren't they worried that they will flood? What protective measures have they put in place here to mitigate a giant mess? One of these companies (off screen) was a kayak and canoe rental company so I'll let that one slide because by design, they have to be located here. But the others were mostly architecture or website design firms! If you look up this place on Google maps, the first picture is of this structure with about 3 feet of water in it. Sheesh.
Tehuset (or the Tea House) was a former factory. They made it into condos and it would be super awesome to live in, minus the floodplain management issues.
I hate the guy on the far left. He looks like he's interested in going through Christiania, the somewhat autonomous hippy commune, but really, he's taking a series of hundreds of selfies of himself (or a long photo shoot of his millennial girlfriend.)
Party pirate ship!
Whoa. You may not get a sense of scale with this picture of Le Grand Bleu (the 33rd largest yacht in the world!), but check out the full sized sailboat on the back of the boat. It's owned by Eugene Shvidler, a Russian-American oil guy.
The Peder Skram is a frigate warship, built for speed for the HDMS and first launched in 1965. It was decommissioned in 1990 and became a museum. It was named after the famous naval admiral Peder Skram, who lived in the 1500s.
I don't know why, but I think it's funny that the Danish royal yacht Dannebrog just sits out in the harbor, rather than being tied up at a dock. It was built in the early 1930s and is the official residence of Queen Margarethe and her family when they are abroad. With the Danish royals, it's traveled more than 400,000 nautical miles around the world!
The Amalienborg is the residence of the Queen of Denmark (the building on the left) and the Crown Prince (her son, Frederik.) You can see that the Queen is not in residence, but Frederik IS at home because his standard is flying above the building. So exciting!
Nearby, we got to see the Little Mermaid and what it's like to see the tourists from her perspective.
We passed by a naval ship where the boys were drinking beer in uniform! What???
Parked near the Le Grand Bleu is a sea plane company. I bet it would be cool to see Copenhagen by seaplane, and even cooler to take off and land from the water!
At this point in the tour, the guides said that they were no longer allowed to speak through the microphone because the locals complained that it was too loud. This part of Christianshavn Canal is one of the more wealthy parts of Copenhagen.
I'm sorry, I've gotta go. I'm double parked!
The 17th century Church of Our Savior has a cool corkscrew spire. Not sure I could handle that hike up (the last 150 of the 400 total steps are outside!)
I mean, yeah... if you want to put grass on the front of your boat, go right ahead!
This is the Danish version of a little old lady hanging out the laundry. Only it's a guy, and he's shaking out a table cloth.
Modern Danish architecture along the southern end of the Christianshavn Canal.
To exit to the Christianshavn Canal, you need to go under the Cirkelbroen Bridge, or Circle Bridge. Built in 2015, this pedestrian walkway reminds visitors of several sailboats parked very near to each other - much like we saw (double parked) on the canal.
This building just houses various companies and workplaces. But isn't it beautiful?
The Knippel Bridge is only one of two in the city that allows vehicle traffic. This particular bridge was built in 1937, but there has been a bridge here since about 1620. That bridge had been built when Christianshavn was built - to connect it to the mainland. It was named after Hans Knip, the bridge operator back in the 1640s.
We laughed because we kept seeing these flags everywhere - so we checked with our resident flag expert, Grant, who told us it was the flag of Greenland. The tour guide verified that it was the National Day of Greenland! Many people don't know that Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. This day was chosen because it's the longest and brightest day of the year.
Don't you hate it when creepy statues stick their tongue out at you?
That creepy face was on the Storm Broen, or Storm Bridge. Sadly, that's not a meteorological reference. It's actually named after the Storm on Copenhagen, which happened in 1659 when Swedish troops attacked, but were unsuccessful against the Danes. It happened right here, because this is where the city ramparts were at the time.
Todd and I love these ridiculous stacked container offices. They're meant to be temporary, and hopefully will be short term as they're working on construction at the metro station here.
Wait... really? Apparently this is true- there is a statue of Agnete and the Mermen beneath the waterline. It was installed in the early 1990s and apparently shows a man with his seven sons who are awaiting the return of their mother and wife (Agnete), who left them to return to her life on dry land. That's so sad!
After our boat tour ended, we all disembarked and this ridiculous couple continued to snap photos of themselves. I could not STAND this couple. Honestly. How many self absorbed photos can one couple take? About a quarter of the way through the tour, he asked her elderly parents to move, because he needed to take at least 100 photos of her on a boat. Then about halfway through the tour, she literally GOT UP to ask the tour guide "how much longer?" It's an hour long tour, give or take. Buy a watch. And grow up. You're not four years old. My kids weren't even asking these questions! But of course, her parents supplied her with SNACKS because God forbid she get bored on an hour long trip in a beautiful and historic city like Copenhagen. Meanwhile, while she snacked, he took a series of selfies while not paying attention to the informative tour. For the record, there is nothing wrong with selfies. We obviously take them. But we don't take hundreds of them over the course of one hour. The level of disrespect they showed the tour guide and her elderly parents was appalling.
We weren't off the boat 2 minutes and they were still taking a hundred pictures of themselves. What will they ever do with all of those pictures? Even the girl on the bike on the right is annoyed.
Starting our walk to go get some lunch, I spotted this cute sign! I couldn't really find anything about this, but I knew my internet detective friend Gil Grodzinsky could! He sent me a link about it that read, "The Marguerite Route is a country-wide scenic route that takes you past more than 200 of Denmark's top attractions and through some of the country's most picturesque scenery." It's 3,000 km long! Phew! It was named after Queen Margrethe's favorite flower, the Marguerite Daisy.
We were on our way to the Union Kitchen and got to pass by the famous Nyhavn area with it's colorful, Instagrammable buildings.
Sailboats and cafes a plenty in Nyhavn.
Selfies: Proof that Todd and I were ever actually in a city.
The kiddos on our way to the Union Kitchen, enjoying the colorful Nyhavn area.
The colorful buildings extend to both sides of the canal.
The Danes are my people. I mean, not really, although I am 1% Scandinavian (HA! But they did this... something no other European country seems to understand. They put my Makers and Coke Zero TOGETHER IN ONE GLASS. (Also... can we get a round of applause for the fact that they had Makers?? I've seen it everywhere in Denmark!) So fantastic. Never mind that this cost $11.70 for this. They're my people.
We had a really nice lunch at the Union Kitchen - unlike other parts of Europe, they a) actually take credit card and b) they bring you the device and leave it, so you can add a tip on to the total. That's nice because you can leave it privately, rather than having to tell them how much you want to add on!
We went around the city once on the Hop on Hop Off bus before we went back to the hotel to grab our bags to head across the SUPER COOL Øresund Bridge to Malmo, Sweden!
Until next time, Copenhagen! We'll be back in a week or so!
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