On the first day we took a train across the bridge to Malmo, Sweden, and did a lot of shopping...
We went to the Rosenborg Castle which had thousands of artifacts from the last several centuries of royalty in Denmark, as well as the crown jewels which were absolutely beautiful!
You should know, these guys with the machine guns had one of the most boring jobs ever, and I almost got ran over by some guards in training. We used our stealthiness to sneak a picture of them, though.
We assume these were something of a royal version of action figures for the prince. Even if that is totally false, it sounded good to us and they were gorgeous!
This was obviously for dad.
Our thrones.
The Queen's crown...which Amy called dibs on.
And I got the King's (two) crowns, which were absolutely gorgeous.
The Queen's ring collection was gorgeous, and luckily we called those at the same time...
These, however, are all mine.
We walked over to the Amalienborg Castle afterwards, which is the current Queen's palace. It was basically four elaborate buildings in a circle, guarded by even fancier dressed men with machine guns. We got a little bit lost trying to find our way from the Rosenborg Castle, but through the use of our handy maps of the city (which saved our butts on several occasions), following other citizens with that 'tourist' look, and temporary concern over being 'kifed' by the ticket salesman at the first castle, we eventually found our way to the palace and the Queen Ingrid exhibit.
Copenhagen is famous for it's colored buildings along the coast where the author, Hans Christian Anderson, grew up and wrote many of his famous stories. This was one of the things I knew for certain I had to see while I was in Denmark, and Nyhavn is definitely as bright and vivid in person as it is in the pictures. I absolutely love it!
Another popular attraction in Denmark is the Little Mermaid statue along the coast. Lucky for us, she had just gotten back to Denmark from being on loan to an exhibit in China. The famous story of the Little Mermaid was written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837 in Denmark, and this small statue was a must-see on the trip.
We had to document one of our many pit-stops along the way. These were a regular occurrence for us as we underestimated the distance to different sites, got lost along the way, and are just plain tuckered out when we get out and do things...luckily we found a train station closer to here so we didn't have to venture all the way back to Norreport.
We did decide to go into the city on Saturday night with the intention of going to a hot club and dancing the night away. For those of you who know Amy and I, this is a big deal in itself. Once we got to the train station, however, we decided to just go walk around and observe the nightlife a little bit. After walking around (and might I mention I was wearing Erin's heels which made my feet feel like death), and being hit on multiple times by the same not-so-attractive men, and disturbingly being asked by some danish teens if we'd like to see more 'meat', we decided we'd had enough of the night-life and headed home. We looked pretty hot while doing it though!
Our last day walking around Stroget (the walking streets with every type of shopping and restaurants you could ask for), I convinced Amy to get her ear pierced at a little tattoo shop by a woman with so many piercings and tattoos (including the word 'Horror' across her forehead), and visited one of the many Lego stores of Denmark, which was actually a lot more exciting than I'd thought it would be. These people were amazing!
Christian also told us we had to stop and see the Church of Our Lady which held the original Christus statue that the church has replicated in all of our Visiting Centers around the world. The church was located down a tiny alley near Stroget, and had we not been looking for it, we never would have even known it was there. It was a beautiful, massive building with domed ceilings and giant statues of the Twelve Apostles along each side. I felt almost irreverent being there and taking pictures while people sat in the pews with their rosaries and saying prayers, but I am so glad that we went.
This was a trip of a lifetime that I enjoyed every second of, and will never forget. I am so glad I got to experience all of this, and especially with Ames. I already knew that I loved Europe, but this trip just reinforced my passion for it, and my desire to live there at some point. I spent way too much money, walked everywhere, ate a lot of bread and butter, drank a lot of delicious saft, and felt so much closer to history (thank you Amy for putting up with my inner history nerd). It was a blast and I can't wait to go back!
