…and boy am I tired (but in a good way). So tired in fact, that it’s taken me all of October to recover (and to unpack, and to run errands, and to get organized), and to write this post.

Several months ago, before we had even planned our Summer of Jazz II  Tour in July (I know, I’ll cover that in another post), we decided to plan a Scandinavian (+Helsinki) Tour. Actually, we were going to try to hitch a ride with a tour company in the area, but we couldn’t make their days work with our schedule, and we wanted more time on the ground than on the water. So, Mike decided to plan the trip…alone. That’s not so unusual. He plans all our trips. But this trip had a lot of moving parts…7 different flights, 4 different countries and cities (4 Hard Rock Cafes), 2 tour guides, and an itinerary (yes, he even printed out an itinerary).

Day One: Copenhagen

Our trip began on September 7^th.  We drove from Stuttgart to Frankfurt to catch our 1^st flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. Knowing you have 7 flights ahead of you can be a bit unnerving, but the way Mike scheduled the flights was genius: we were on each plane for about an hour, and we sat in the same block of seats on each flight. It was like having a standing reservation at your favorite restaurant.

After we arrived and checked into our hotel, we still had a bit of daylight left to check out the town.  We took the train into the main part of the city, and walked around a bit.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated (we were a bit concerned, because September can be chilly).  We saw the Hard Rock Café (#1) and the Tivoli Gardens.

The Tivoli Gardens is a big attraction area that houses an amusement park (the second oldest in the world), restaurants (part of the Hard Rock is inside Tivoli grounds), a theater, bandstands, and flower gardens. Even though it was too dark to see the flower gardens, the bandstands and theater were hopping with activity. There were people everywhere.

One of the reasons Mike and I wanted to go to the Tivoli was because of their fireworks show.  It was scheduled to start @10:45pm. But we couldn’t make it. We went back to our hotel and crashed; noting that the fireworks show hadn’t even started and we were in bed. Yeah, sleep!

Day Two:

We had a little help navigating the city on this day. Marianne was our walking tour guide. (Mike nicknamed her “Mari-angry” because she was just so fired-up…about everything! She was, however, a great guide.) We love going on walking tours. We get to hear about the history of the city from someone who lives there (and I get to take a few pictures because my husband has someone to talk to.)

It’s not easy trying to fit 800 years of history into 3-hours, but Marianne certainly tried. We started our walk looking at the Parliament building, the first shopping mall, and one of the oldest churches in town.  We walked down the longest pedestrian walkway: The Stroget. There are lots of shops and restaurants in this area.

We walked in the “newer” parts of Copenhagen (built after the 17^th Century) and saw the Summer House of King Christian IV.  We also saw the current residence of the present-day Queen, and the changing of the guard.

We walked over by the St. Alban’s Anglican church (services are in English), and we walked near the Copenhagen Harbor. On a clear day, you can see Sweden.  We also visited the Citadel (The Kastellet). It’s an area that hosts various military activites, but is mainly used as a public park and historic site. This is also the site for the Monument for Denmark’s International Effort. It was erected in 2011 and it lists the names of the people who have died in foreign conflicts and wars.

We visited the Nyboder (new houses): a district of row houses designed by King Christian IV to house the navy and their families. We also visited the Lille Apotek restaurant. It dates back to 1720. And even though we didn’t eat there, supposedly Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen did.

Our tour guide left us in the area with the Round Tower (Rundetårn).  The observation deck is about 114 feet from the ground, so of course Mike wanted to go to the top. Instead of stairs, it has a series of spiral ramps that keep going up and up and the incline gets a little bit steeper until you finally reach the top. (We were told the King used to invite guests to this tower (it was built as an astronomical observatory) and they would ride their carriages inside with horses.) When we finally made it up to the top…we had to navigate some steep steps, to get outside.

This is the sign that greets you when you’re about to ascend the stairs:

Mike said that if a pickpocket climbs all the way to the top of the Round Tower, and pays the fee to get in, he would give the pickpocket his wallet. He’s funny!

Day Three:

We were on our own for our last full day in Copenhagen.  We started the day by visiting a bakery recommended by Rick Steves (the PBS travel guide guy). The Lagkagehuset is a nice place and the pastries are even nicer. 🙂

Just around the corner from the bakery is the Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church of Our Savior). This church has a golden spire at the top. And you can reach that spire by walking up 400 steps (150 of those steps were outside). But the views were pretty nice when we reached the top. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of that time squinting, because I lost my sunglasses (probably somewhere between steps 99 and 250).

 

Oh yeah, this church is also famous for it’s carillon (a musical instrument of bells, housed in the belfry). It’s the largest carillon in Northern Europe and I’m guessing the loudest. There were several signs warning us about the bells. Thankfully, we made it up and out before they chimed. We were about a block away when they chimed…and they were really loud at that distance. The bells play a new melody every hour between 8am to 12 Midnight.

The sun didn’t stick around too long (good news for me…no sunglasses), and it was raining off and on (bad news for me…it was raining off and on). But we were still able to see the University of Copenhagen, the Little Mermaid (it was raining a lot at this point), and to do a little shopping. I bought some cheapo sunglasses, hoping they would last the rest of the trip, but that didn’t happen. The glass part popped out right away.

We had dinner at the hotel and then we went back out (in the rain) for dessert.  We found these chocolate covered marzipan balls. They were way too decadent for me, but Mike loved them.

Day Four:

This was a travel day for us. So, we packed and leisurely made our way to the airport, which was right next door.

Next stop…Oslo, Norway.