"Køben-hagen"

This week, Ed and I went to Copenhagen together for the first time.  We did actually have some 'official' things to do but we mainly toured the famous sights.  It's a beautiful city that appeared to have a lot of construction going on at present.  A couple months ago there was a huge rainfall that flooded a lot of basements and buildings around the city.  The clean-up is still happening.  We stayed in a hotel that was near Tivoli, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.  We didn't go this time, but we will....we better....Ed?  Anyway, we took the train to Copenhagen on Wednesday morning and arrived by 11am.  We went through the walking streets in the downtown area as we made our way to Nyhavn...one of the most famous areas of the city. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

there were so many flower stands on the walking streets with beautiful & interesting flowers..the cabbage flower?

at nyhavn

Surely you've seen this picture somewhere???

 After Nyhavn, we continued down the harbor towards "den lille havfrue", i.e., the little mermaid and said 'hej' to her but not before seeing the soldiers that guard the Amalienborg Palace, where the queen lives.  I was most intrigued with their shadows on the wall....very toy-soldier like.

Up close mermaid with harbor in the background (including navy ship-danish navy)

 'natural habitat' little mermaid

Industrial little mermaid--and here you can get a better idea of her size

 We had a little time left before our meeting so we went to the Danish Resistance Museum.   It is about the Danish resistance to the Nazis during WWII. Denmark is a small country so they had no chance of defending their boarders from the advancing Germans.  Not everyone just sat back though...hence the name--resistance.  It is a nice little museum...not so much stuff that it becomes overwhelming.

With edge (the angular walls are the edges I speak of) & entrance of Kastellet in background. It is one of the best-preserved fortifications in Northern Europe and is both a park and part of the Danish military to this day. I would have loved to have gone for a jog along the top of the walls.

 After our meeting, we returned to our hotel and decided to go into the IceBar.  While in DC, Ed and I talked about places that we wanted to visit in Europe and staying at the IceHotel in Sweden was one of things we discussed..it is ridiculously expensive to stay in a 'cold' room (is cold really the word you use for sleeping a room with ice walls???) so we wanted to at least experience one of their other sites before making any big decisions 

Ed thinks that it looks like we are in an office building..All surfaces behind us were ice though (excluding floor and ceiling)

It was so cold.  Freezing. It was much colder-feeling than the Ice! sculpture show at the Gaylord (if you've ever been?)...though I will say their jackets were much warmer than these ponchos.  So, we only lasted about 20 minutes and as we stepped into the street, it felt warm :)

A glass made out of ice..my lips melted a wavy line in the edge

After another morning of meetings, we made our way back to the train station and came home to pick up the furrbaby from camp.  It's good to be home...