Copenhagen and the Crazy Danes

Copenhagen started out as a Viking fishing village in the 10th century. Our time in Copenhagen started early in the morning. We took a shuttle bus into town and then set out on foot. (Because we used the shuttle, we missed getting to see the iconic Little Mermaid statue, but that is fine.)

 

I fell in love with one of the first buildings we saw.  This was the old stock exchange building, built in 1640.  The steeple has dragons with intertwined tails and it is like something out of an awesome Viking movie and not reality.

 

On our walk we passed by the Danish Parliament building.  The sky was gorgeous this day.

 

And also these cute Danish houses.

 

And then we arrived at the King's Garden. These are the gardens and park established at Rosenborg Castle in 1606 by King Christian IV.

 

Walking through the park was lovely, but then our crazy kids saw this stone ball and all wanted to stand on it.  Rob managed to get them all balanced on it at once and hold them there while I took a picture. 

 

After that bit of silliness, we made our way to Rosenborg Castle. Also built by Christian IV in the early 1600s. this was his country Summer home.  Pretty posh.

 

It isn't actually that big, as European palaces go, but it is super cute.

 

I love the green copper roof.

 

Rob went to buy tickets and leave our bags in a locker while I watched the little ones by a willow tree.

 

Inside was very ornately decorated, though it did feel a bit vacation home like. But there were also super weird things like this.  I don't even know what this is.  It is like a shadow box with a model of a person inside, instead of a portrait.  Odd. 

 

I call this very fancy Danish country palace decor.

 

The royal thrones.

 

Back outside for a moment, we posed for a Princess selfie.

 

And then we went to the locked room in the basement level to see the crown jewels.  We have seen other countries' crown jewels, but never do they allow you to take photos.  But the Danes do!  Jake liked the "treasure room."

 

After touring the castle it was time to party like it's 1843!  We stopped by Hans Christian Andersen and then crossed the street to the second oldest amusement park in the world, Tivoli Gardens.

 

Tivoli is no Disney.  It is distinctly Danish and proud of it.  You pay an admission fee (kids under eight are free) and then you buy tickets or a wristband to pay for rides which are 1-3 tickets each.  We bought a few tickets and went on some rides.  We also had fish and chips and pork BBQ for lunch, and an ice cream cone before we left the park.

 

Charlotte and Toby rode their first loop-de-loop, floorless roller coaster with me, The Dæmonen. It was great!  Toby closed his eyes the whole time, and Charlotte screamed the whole time and started crying when it was over.

 

At the other end of the ride spectrum, we have Jake loving this old timey car ride. He is so big, sometimes we forget that he is still a little bear.

 

Rob let Amelie chauffeur him around, although it was a tight squeeze.  She loved it.

 

Pretty fountains. We also went to the fun house, the big kids rode another roller coaster, and Amelie and Jake rode a couple of rides that go up and down that they enjoyed.

 

And we used our last ticket to put Amelie on the carousel.  (The giraffe in the background is awesome but Amelie insisted on the fox.)

 

On our walk back to meet the shuttle we took a break in front of this building.  I am not even sure what it is, we were very tired by this point.

 

Then Rob sat with the sleeping Amelie and watched the boats go by, while I took the big kids to pick out souvenirs.

 

We picked one out for Amelie too, and she loved it!  Our very own crazy Dane.