More Than Just a Danish

Now that we have answered our burning question, we must move on to the other amazing sights of Denmark...

Day 3: Klampenborg

After the rain passed we headed on a hike into the woods. Henrik and Astrid are living very close to Jægersborg Dyrehave, the Deer Garden. The walk was beautiful as we were surrounded by oak trees. The forest is kept natural so the trees that die and fall are not removed unless they are somehow endangering people or animals. We saw tons of deer, including some albino. Eventually we arrived at Eremitageslottet a palace built during the rein of Christian VI.

On the route back we saw some beautiful swan. As we neared the entrance, we arrived at Dyrehavsbakken the world's oldest amusement park . It was great with all its old time feel, some rickety rides, and many places to stop for a beer, ice cream, churros (the Spanish solution to funnel cakes), cotton candy and popcorn. Dean and Morgan went on a  tropical forest ride where they got to shoot at bugs. Maia, Henrik, Astrid and I went for the famous roller coaster, the Rutschebanen (Danish for "The Roller Coaster"), which is a wooden roller coaster that opened in 1932. It is a really tall rickety old coaster with great speed, twists and turns. Quite impressive, especially for its age. We ended with very tall ice cream as that seems to be the only way to order ice cream in Denmark. It was a great way to finish our visit to that area.

We packed up our belongings and headed to Middelfart which is about 2 hours northwest of Copenhagen. We stayed at the Quality Hotel. I highly recommend it. It might have been a series of carriage houses with a stable or something similar. While it is now a conference center we lucked out on a very quiet night at the hotel in a very quaint town. We found dinner at the Asia Restaurant only a couple of blocks away. The restaurant had only been open for seven months, it was huge and almost empty. However, the decorations and the fish tanks were like eating in a small aquarium. It was beautiful and the food was really good too.


Day 4: Legoland

Our day started with a very nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. Our goal was to make it to the park around 10 when it opened.

The lego structures at the park were nothing short of amazing. I'll let the pictures tell most the story of our day.

These were our favorite rides, or at least our favorites of the ones in which we could carry a camera.


Throughout the park we saw many Lego animals and people. The attention to detail was astonishing.


By train and by jeep, goin' on a safari...


They also had a really nice aquarium, with of course Lego decoration for the fish, sharks and stingrays to swim around.


And there were just some fun lego people we got to know throughout the day...


We enjoyed our Legoland adventure.

That evening we returned to Henrik and Astrid's place as the next morning we caught a flight back to Spain. We had a fabulous trip and apparently got out just in time. Later that day the Denmark airport closed due to the volcanic ash from Iceland that floated south.

In Search of the Danish Danish...

Day 2: In search of the Danish.

We took the train into Copenhagen followed by an automatic metro. Automatic as there was no driver so it was similar to the terminal transport systems found in many large US airports. For a driverless metro it appeared to have a pretty extensive track system. It must be run with the same iRobot engine used for the Roomba.

Once there, we crossed a large town square, Kongens Nytorv, where we saw the guards marching. At noon everyday there is a changing of the guards at the Queen and Prince's residence, Amaliehaven. We happened to catch the guards marching to their barracks as their shift had ended. We were quite lucky with timing throughout the day as we were often in the right place at the right time for sights that most tourists don't actually catch.

The architecture intermixed with the canals and boats was stunning. We enjoyed a walk along the canal as we waited for our turn on a boat tour of the area.

Astrid and Henrik were our guides once we hit the water. Our cruise took us by many important locations near the water including the Operaen, the little Mermaid statue (although our backside view didn't look like much), the Trekroner Søfort which guards the entrance to Copenhagen, and the cruise ship harbor. Along the way we happened to see a person bungee jump over the water. In addition, we saw the royal ship out in the harbor with the Prince on board. It is very unusual to catch that. We decided to disembark at Amaliehaven, (Amalie Garden) where there was a beautiful fountain. The sight line connecting the Operaen across the water, through the fountain, and leading to the center square of the Royal Residence, Amalienborg Palace was very purposefully articulated for its beauty.


We continued our journey walking towards the Royal Residence, Amalienborg Palace. We got the typical pictures of the guards at the doors but we also happened to catch a wedding procession on bike taxi.

Moving further down the street past the residence we headed towards a beautiful church and then back to the center of town. The mix of old architecture along with modernly furnished interiors is quite interesting to catch.

 

We continued on towards Christianshavns. Along the way Henrik pointed out the  Danish Parliament, also known as the Christiansborg Palace which is attached to his office building, the oldest office building in Europe still in use. The Danish Parliament building does have quite an interesting history.

After grabbing some lunch to picnic along the canal, we continued our walk through Christianshavn to Vor Frelsers Kirke known for its spiral staircase on the outside of the building. We arrived as they were closing but they let us in as long as we didn't take too much time. Maia, Henrik, Astrid and I decided to go to the top first and take other pictures on the way down. Morgan and Dean waited below. The first part of the journey was on the inside and my understanding is that there are some 400 stairs total to the top. As we approached the top, the climb continued on the outer staircase which eventually narrows down to nothing. Maia squeezed herself in at the very end of the staircase. The views of the city from there were outstanding.  Once we finished taking pictures we headed down. The old clock mechanism was in an enclosed room and is currently not working but they plan to restore it. I was lucky enough to be taking a picture through the glass on my way down (the others were ahead of me), when the man who takes care of things opened the door allowing me and a couple of others to take some inside shots. He also gave us a bit of history on the church.

Day two was coming to an end and still no danishes. The sites were beautiful but it was time to go in search specifically for those flaky pastries. On our walk to the metro that would take us back to Klampenborg, we discovered the Lagkagehuset, or layer cake house. The bakery was named after the looks of the outside of the building. We thought that sounded promising and sure enough, there they were. 

It was a really cool place as the windows opened up completely for an open air feel on the corner of the canal. We were able to see a floating bar/cafe across the water.

So, yes we can find danish in Denmark, but did they originate here? I decided it was time to consult wikipedia... Check out the history section on the Danish.

We finished off our day at Henrik's place for a very tasty grilled meal. We do miss grilled food.

Is the Danish Really from Denmark?

We had a burning question and decided the only way to find out was to see for ourselves. So we packed up the kids and took a few days off to visit Denmark. Our flight through Brussels confirmed the fact that Belgium is known for beer and chocolate as at least 50% of items for sale at the airport were one or the other. (I suspect those two words just got the close attention of at least 50% of our readers as well.)

We flew to Copenhagen where we met up with Henrik and Astrid. Some of you may remember Henrik as he lived with us in Madison in 2007 while getting started on his masters program at UW. He also joined us for Thanksgiving in Missouri that year. And as you know, if you take someone home for the holidays, they become part of the family. Astrid, his fiance, we met last summer when they visited and we are excited to welcome her into the family as well.

Our first day we visited the Experimentarium. We were lucky enough to catch the Body Worlds exhibit which was incredible as always. I'm glad the girls got to see it and we talked about about the science of our bodies and what incredible machines they are. I especially like the posed athletic position forms. There were some interactive stations which asked questions and then you had to stamp your hand to find out the answer. Morgan seemed to enjoy the hand stamping. Maia was a bit more curious about how the body works and remembered some of her science from Thoreau where she learned about the number of bones in your hands. I had seen the exhibit in Milwaukee but there were some parts that were different here than there.


In addition to Body Worlds there were many other really amazing hands-on activities with water flow, bubbles, energy, senses... There were several biking power demonstrations. In the one pictured it was measuring your power output and based on that filling a small cup with some green Gatorade-like drink. It was a really nice museum. From there we found a place for lunch. It was a quirky little Italian place that served everything from pizza (Maia) to bagels with cream cheese (Morgan) and the two guys that worked there were more likely Turkish than Italian. Most importantly the food was great and nothing beats a good bagel, a food not found in Spain. Well, perhaps Belgium beer and chocolate. Feel free to place your vote in the comments area.

As if that wasn't enough food, the girls and Dean got big-as-your-head ice cream cones which they ate standing by the ocean. It was quite breezy so we didn't last long in the cool wind. We did see some Danes with very thick skin jump in the water, come out shivering and then jump back in again. I guess it is their version of the almost Polar Plunge. We hit a park briefly before heading to Henrik's parents house for dinner. They have a beautiful private home with a lovely garden. It has been a long time since we have seen that much privately owned grass. The company was outstanding, the food was excellent, and it appears Danish beer will give Belgian beer a run for its money.

DAY 1: Still no sign of Danishes...