July 9 Day 26 Copenhagen

Today we went to the Rosenborg Castle and Gardens to see the Crown Jewels of Denmark. It was a beautiful day and the gardens were lovely.  We watched the Guard form up and march off to the palace where the Queen lives.  There they would go through the changing of the guard ceremony.

Inside, we had the chance to view artifacts from the entire history of Denmark. There was clothing, furniture, money, weapons, with lots of information and sometimes quirky things that we learned. Lots of see and it was quite interesting.

The Crown Jewels were quite stunning. The jewels are always on loan to the Queen and then passed along to the next Royal woman. We also got the chance to learn more about Denmark’s current royal family. For example, they sponsor a royal run every year where many members of the Royal Family run with the people. How cool is that?

We had lunch at a delicious falafel place. As it turns out, people in Denmark eat a lot of different types of food, not just what we think of as “traditional Danish food”. The falafel Middle Eastern food hit the spot.

We then went to another iconic site: The Round Tower. This was built hundreds of year ago by a king who wanted to be able to ride horses up inside the tower. This would be impressive, but is much easier walk up than the last Church spire. From the top, we could see the whole city including many places we had visited. WOW!

Once we were down from The Tower, we had time to walk through the botanical gardens. In a country like Denmark which has such cold weather in the winter, gardens are especially appreciated. We enjoyed strolling through paths and some of the flowers were in glorious bloom. They also had some stunning greenhouses, all filled with green, green, green plants. What a lovely day to be strolling in the gardens.

By late afternoon, it was time to part ways. Dick and Patti would take the train to meet Patti’s cousin Annette and her partner, Karsten, for dinner. We met Annette across the street from the federal tax building where she has worked as an attorney for the past 25 years. She had a quick errand to do and so we had a chance to have a bit of a tour. It’s a lovely building, but it is getting ready to be replaced when they will move the department the end of summer. It’s always fun to see where people work.

Then we walked about 10 minutes to Karsten’s home. He lives in a fantastic old building that was originally created for workers in the area. He had been busy cooking and we have the opportunity to eat a traditional dish of roast pork (called stegt flæsk med persillesovs. It was served with a cream and parsley sauce and new potatoes. It was super delicious and we ate a huge amount. We enjoyed exchanging stories about travels, and especially appreciated Karsten’s map in the wall of his living room of his travels. We have some similar maps up at our home. What fun!

Then, it was time to head off on the next part of our adventure. Our cousin Lars‘ band, Bosa Nova Club, was performing as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. This was really a big deal in the first time they got to play in this very prestigious festival. Their venue was in a crowded bar with the band playing down in the basement with graffiti on the wall. It was hot and there were a lot of people there.

The band was hopping and the audience loved it. There was a group of Brazilians living in Copenhagen who stood in the front and dance and sang a lot. The lead singer is also from Brazil. They all did a wonderful job. Of course, we were especially partial to Lars’ saxophone playing. We had heard him play a number of times with his traditional Danish band, Manne, but have not heard the Bosa Nova-style band. They played great music. The band was hot and sweat was dripping through their shirts. We enjoyed them so much. It was a great, fun time.

Afterwards, the band and their family and friends decided to have a little after-concert party. We wandered the streets stopping at several places which were closed or closing in five minutes and finally settled in a charming place where we could settle in and just relish the triumph that the band had had. Sharing this with our cousin and being invited along and included with the many friends that we now know in Denmark was wonderful. This was such an amazing authentic experience. Thrilled to be here.

July 8 Day 25 Copenhagen

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We woke up to a pretty sunshiny day. We all agreed that this was the time to go on a boat canal tour. We took the train a few stops in and walked around the very touristy area near the harbor.

We went to a very old church, Church of Our Savior, where we explored the interior.  We were especially amazed at the two large stone elephants at the rear of the sanctuary.  And then tried to climb the spire, but it was closed. Walking around the area, there were chances for photos on every block.

We picked out the place for our canal tour and were off. It took us around one hour to view many of the really Lovely parts of the city of Copenhagen. It is a city that was founded on the water and there were many really interesting buildings , stories , and new and old sites to see.

Patti was struck by the fact that it was in a couple of buildings one of these canals that Hans Christian Andersen write many of his famous fairytales. After the boat cruise, we found a HC Andersen shop which Patti, of course, needed to go into and get her photo taken. Very, very cool!

We had lunch at an area where they focused on “street food”: burgers

and fish and chips and pizza, as well as beer, or course. We are in Denmark after all.

We walked back so the church and Dick,Lars and Julie climbed nearly to the top. It was a steep and crowded climb. Patti opted out and fell asleep in the grass below. She was just plain tired.

Back to the apartment for a light dinner. A lovely day in sunny Copenhagen The four of us have been working our way through a long list of touristic sites in the city and doing quite well at it. At one point Patti found a list of places in Copenhagen you should see before you die. Pretty good so far.

July 7 Day 24 Copenhagen, Kjeld and family at the living history museum

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Today we had a wonderful family gathering at a small living history site (Ballerup Museum at Pederstrup, Denmark) that is a favorite place of my father‘s cousin Kjeld.   http://www.ballerupmuseum.dk/pederstrup.html

Two of Patti’s dad’s cousins, and several other second and third cousins, and once removed, and whatever else you term those people in the family line. They all gathered to be with us.

We started the time with a private tour by Kjeld. He had lived in this area for many years, is a volunteer there and this is one of his favorite places to do his painting. He gave us several of the prints that he had done of buildings at the site.

We had such a living amazing lunch of smorbrod (literally bread and butter, but in real life amazing open face sandwiches of all types. Traditional, fancy and so delicious!)

We appreciated that there were several family members that we had not met before, as well as some who lived in Denmark and had not met each other. So much fun and lots of spirited exploration on who was related to whom.

Patti loved hearing from her dad’s cousin, Kurt, about meeting her grandma Hilda when she visited Denmark in 1952. He said that she talked about how worried she was about Patti’s dad being in the Korean War. It made a big impression on him to meet an aunt from America.

We were so touched when they gave us a Danish 25th anniversary song with presents. So much fun to get several more of the Danish Royal Copenhagen blue plates, as well as other thoughtful gifts. In Denmark the 25 and 50 wedding anniversaries are very big deals, so it was so much fun to get a taste of this for our celebration.

After lunch, some of us toured the gardens and peeked in on some of the buildings. We had stayed so late that much of the site was closed. What a wonderful time! The gardens were in full bloom. And there were some really interesting things that Kjeld could point out to us.

We so love our Danish family ... and this was not even all who would have loved to join us but were unable to.

Family can be so wonderful.

We ended the day back at Lars and Julie's where we watched the finals of the Women's World Cup.  Way to go American women winning the Gold.