We had to disembark from the Meraviglia pretty early on Sunday morning, but not early enough to have enough time to catch the early train back home. So we decided to spend another night in Copenhagen and see some of the things we didn't get to a week before.
We were supposed to wait in the casino for our "color" to be called to disembark, but that wasn't very much fun (especially since they turned all of the games off.) So we went into the Cirque du Soleil room next door. Natalie, forever wanting to be a star on Broadway, worked the stage.
Meanwhile, my little man stared out the back of the boat as they were tying us up. Look at those little chicken arms!
We took a taxi to our hotel (the same one we stayed at when we were here a week or so ago, the Scandic Syndhavnen) and took off to see some more of the city. Our first stop was Amalienborg. You may know that I'm weirdly in love with the royal families of the world. Amalienborg is made up of four identical structures, and is the home of both the Queen and, in a separate building, her son, the Crown Prince Frederik. This particular building, Christian IX's Palace (or Schack's Palace) is where Queen Margrethe II lives. Her husband Prince Consort Henrik passed away in 2018, having always been a little salty that he didn't get the title of "King." Prince Henrik was the first male consort in the history of Denmark (with the monarch having always been a male) and wasn't even given the title of Prince Consort until 2005. He was so salty about it all that before he died, he chose not to be buried next to his wife in Roskilde Cathedral (and all Danish royals have been buried there since the 1550s.)
In the center of the palace square is a statue to King Frederik V that was built in 1771. The building on the left is where Crown Prince Frederik and his wife Crown Princess Mary live with their four kids.
Turning around, you can see the other two buildings in the Amalienborg - Christian VII's palace (Moltke's Palace which is used for guests) and Christian VII's palace, which is where the younger brother of the Crown Prince sometimes stays. It's also a museum.
No time for museum's today though, since it's time to go find some lunch! We were headed to Cafe Oscar and on the way, we saw this pretty church. You're never going to believe this, but this is St. Alexander Nevsky church in Copenhagen! There must be a million churches named for him!
I love the pretty little gold bulbs at the top of this church! There's an interesting history to this church: The Danish Princess Dagmara married the Tsar Alexander III of Russia. She came back to visit every once in a while, staying in the Amalienborg. She had converted to the Orthodox church (even changing her name to Maria Feodorovna) and requested that an Orthodox church be built near the palace. It was completed in 1883.
Oh, so THAT'S how they're so fit and beautiful here!
Or maybe this is how they're fit and beautiful. Check her out! She's gotta be 80+ years old and she's just owning that bike. Two wheels in the front, one in the back. She's an inspiration!
We found a GREAT little place for lunch called Cafe Oscar. And my husband grew a beer for a head.
Mmmmm! And I don't just mean that tall drink of water! We had smørrebrød for lunch, which was on my scratch off food map! It's an open faced rye bread sandwich with meats and cheeses and pretty much whatever they want to put on it. It was awesome!
With lunch over, we headed off to see more of Copenhagen. Frederik's Church has the largest dome in all of Scandinavia! Superlative, check! It's a Lutheran church who's plans were drawn up in 1740, but due to high costs, it wasn't consecrated until 1894. It's really known as the Marble Church, because it's built mostly of Norwegian marble.
Since we decided to do more kid friendly things on our second go-round of Copenhagen (wait, what? Didn't we go to Tivoli Gardens?), we chose the Guinness World Records Museum to visit after lunch. We passed by the King's New Square on our way there, which was beautiful except for the random assortment of cans that littered the grass. Although the square dates back to 1908, this has been a cobble-stoned road since 1670 and the statue of Christian V goes back to 1688.
Ok, so sometimes I complain that kissing him bothers my neck. But at least he isn't as tall as Robert Wadlow who stood at 8'11"! A full 2.5 feet (plus) taller than Todd!
The kids were under half his size!
Giant rulers are cool. So are superlatives. What's not cool is that Robert Wadlow died at the very young age of 22 due to an infection in his left ankle. Even large feet aren't meant to support that large of a body and he wore braces to support his leg. He had a wound on his ankle due to those braces, got an infection and died in 1940.
Nah, forget it. I'm not even close.
Thankfully not close to this record, either. Robert Earl Hughes held the record for largest chest measurement of 124" which puts my roughly 32" chest to shame. He was one of the heaviest men in the world at 1,071 pounds. He actually died at 32 after he got the measles!
Dang, bro. Impressive. It takes me at least 3 minutes to get my own off!
Life goals. This guy at 403 pair of Converse. I have 5.
The kids posing at the Guinness World Records Museum. Natalie was very excited to finally be in first place!
You can't have a Guinness World Records Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark without mentioning one of their greatest superlatives... the world's oldest flag!
Kind of a funny story about this one. Ignore my super intense and ridiculous face. I was very busy playing the cup stacking game and wasn't paying any bit of attention to anything else in the room. When I finished playing, I glanced around and noticed Grant standing in this cage, trying (not so successfully) to spin a basketball on his finger. He finally gave up and exited the cage, so I decided to give it a try. I tried to get in this little cage - looking everywhere for a door, but there wasn't one. I'm kind of small, so I squeezed myself through the bars and had fun spinning the ball on my hand. That's when Todd spotted me and started hysterically laughing, asking me why I was in the basketball cage. It turns out, you're supposed to stand outside of the cage and just put your arm in there and try to spin it. Not your whole body. Thanks Grant.
My best time doing the 3-6-3 cup stacking (you have to set them up and then take it down) was 7.048 seconds. The world record holder Chan Keng from Malaysia did it in 1.713 seconds!
Siddharth Nagarajan from India holds the world record for most drum beats in a minute using drumsticks. He did 2,109 in one minute. I did ummm... 548. But I was the Bailey Book of Household Records holder for this one!
Bailey family champion. I need a medal or something. Also, why do I have Grant's sunglasses on my head?
Settle down, there....
I just want to thank my mom and my dad, and of course my little brother for supporting my dreams of being an actress. And I want to thank this random storm trooper behind me, too.
Harry Potter has (of course) set numerous world records, hence his little nook in this museum.
We also wanted to hit up the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, so we headed in that direction when we left the Guinness museum. On the way, we saw Stork Fountain, which was finished in 1894. Nowadays, when a midwife graduates, she dances around the fountain!
Amagertorv Plaza (where Stork Fountain is located) is in a big shopping/bar/restaurant section of Copenhagen. You can see the Contemporary Art Museum in the old church in the background.
Since we agreed to two silly museums today, we told the kids that we would have to stop for happy hour in between. We found an Irish pub in Amagertorv Plaza and sat down to do some people watching. Grant was looking all cute, drawing his maps of the world and showing me his dimple while drinking a Fanta.
And Natalie and Daddy were looking cute enjoying their beer and Sprite!
The clouds over Amagertorv Plaza were looking super cool, too!
Whoa you sexy manhole covers of Copenhagen!
The Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum is located in City Hall Plaza. That's City Hall right there... and I wonder if they have any openings for a floodplain manager?
You really seem the most ridiculous stuff at these museums sometimes. This is a rhinoceros. Made of wine corks.
And don't forget this awesome likeness of the Queen of Denmark made out of... lint? Slater Barron of Long Beach, CA makes these portraits from lint from her dryer!
Oh my goodness, I could have sat in this spot all day. This was a trick mirror and a display that asked you if YOU could do crazy things with your face - like sticking out your tongue or pulling on your neck skin. So of course, everyone who walks by does it (yes, we did it too) not knowing that people behind the mirror could see us. Actually, I assume all mirrors are like this so I naturally do dumb things in the mirror all the time! I have about 8 funny pictures of this unsuspecting couple!
I remember when I was in 5th grade and we went to Washington D.C. with the Safety Patrols. We visited the treasury building and I bought a small bag of shredded up bills because I thought it was so funny that they would do that to U.S. currency. I probably secretly hoped it was like a puzzle and I could put it back together. Meanwhile, the kids saw this and were like, "Why would they do that?"
File this one under "most disturbing display" at Ripley's. This section had to do with unbelievable weather. I get the need for visuals, but maybe the dead baby in the tree was a bit much.
The dead baby in the tree was followed up with a lifelike mannequin of a guy who had been bit by a shark in the ribs. There was an accompanying video. Uh huh.
Just as we were leaving, Ripley's took it from a 11 to a 15, real quick. It was an illusion because when you walked on the other side of this wall, she disappeared! I guess you just had to be there...
We had a bit of time between our visit to the Ripley's Museum and our super American reservations for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe so we headed a few blocks north to Ørsteds Park. This park was an old fortification and the lakes were the former moats.
Ørsteds Park had some really pretty flowers. And that lighting in the late day sun!
Just me and my mate hanging by an old moat.
We walked around the park a bit and we saw this couple having their wedding pictures taken. So pretty!
The Grinder statue from 1886 was strategically placed for me. I wanted a picture of the flowers but there was a woman sitting near them. So I maneuvered myself to put her behind the statue and voila! A cool photo!
Natalie chose to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Cuz American style dining and all of that. For the record, there's no air conditioning at the Hard Rock in Copenhagen. But the beer was cold!
We knew that we had to head back because we had an early trip back the next morning. But we had to see the famous statue of Hans Christian Andersen on our way back to the hotel. The kids took these pictures. The pics Grant took cut off poor Hans's head!
Goodbye Tivoli Gardens! We had so much fun!
We had an early bus down to Rødbyhavn the next morning. This guy was sitting in front of us and I really liked his tattoo. Like... really liked it. I've got your back.
When we got down to Rødbyhavn, we got off the bus and got onto a train. A train that traveled about 500 feet to a boat, where they loaded the entire train onto a boat. We had to get off the train, and then were able to go out and about on the boat! And then we departed for Germany!
Seriously, Denmark. You need to get a little self esteem boost. The boat's beer is just probably the best beer in the world.
And the boat's on board shop is probably better than tax free. But not necessarily.
This little girl enjoyed dodging raindrops to see the views between Denmark and Germany. When we approached Germany, they told us to get back on the train. Which we did, and then they rolled us off the boat and onto the tracks!
Our trip home was VERY uneventful. We were home on time. No late trains, no late boats, no late buses. But plenty of laundry when I got home.
What a crazy trip! So much fun! Until next time Copenhagen!
