Denmark - Copenhagen - Part 2

Don't tell the kids there is a 7-11 just past the decorative fountain!

Our second day of Copenhagen was spent doing more kid-unapproved tourist activities.  

Still on Scooters to reduce walking fatigue

We went to Rundetaarn which is a round tower.  It is the oldest functioning observatory in Europe, built in the 17th century.  

Definitely Round and a Tower

The church next to it had a big pipe organ as you can see here.

Large Organs are Everywhere

Rather than care about an organ, the kids were more interested in the spiral walk that led to the top of the tower.

Around and Around we go

As you can tell by observing Will sitting in the window seat, the kids took breaks often as they walked up.  Alex was a little dramatic about it.  

Oh!  The drama!

In the center of the tower is a glass floor about 25 meters above the ground level.  Will pointed toward it.  Alex, being a little more daring, stood on it and looked way down.

Danger!

Not impressed at the level of danger

After checking out the tower, we figured it was time to balance out the activities with a visit to a cool Copenhagen park.  It also contained the tower, but on a smaller scale.

More Satisfactory Level of Danger

Next to the Fælledparken, as the park of towers was called, was a skate park.  Fortunately, the kids had their scooters!  

Helmet for Safety, Shorts for Danger

Helmet for Safety!  What?! I should have worn pants?

Not that lack of scooters stops Alex!

For dinner, we took the boys out for "American" food at Hard Rock Cafe.  They absolutely loved it.  Alex engaged in the dangerous activity of headbanging to the song, "Another one bites the Dust" and knocked his head on the table.

Should have kept the helmet on for dinner

Denmark - Copenhagen Part 1

Going to Copenhagen

The last part of our Denmark Trip was spent in Copenhagen.  To get there, we traveled across the beautiful countryside via multiple methods.  We walked from our Air B&B to the Bus Stop.  We took a bus from Billund to Vejile.  We took a train from Vejle to Copenhagen.  

Denmark is pretty...

...and somewhat rural.

The boys kept themselves busy on the bus and the train.

Spinning Tops on the Bus

Video Games on the Train

Once we arrived in Copenhagen, we took another bus from the train station to our Air BnB.  We were having a little bit of trouble finding a place in Copenhagen.  One of the options was to stay on a boat!  But the boys voted that down.  Until... we arrived at our super cute garden house... that did not have wifi!  The boys found something to do, but notified us that above all Air BnB preferences, they would like wifi the most.  Even if it is on a boat.  Now we know.

This game is called: Play Outside Until You Wack Your Brother in the Face

Boat Tour
Copenhagen is a fascinating place.  It's on the water, so we spent some time taking a boat tour.  You can tell how much the kids love boats in these pics.

Alex on a Boat

Will is even more bored on board

The boat tour was pretty cool. We got to see the cool buildings by way of the sea.  

Dan enjoying the view

It even rained while we were on the boat.  Will and Alex became much less bored as they tried to put on the crazy rain ponchos while also ducking under low bridges.

Alex, still unhappy.  Will, prudently donning his helmet in case of low bridges.

In typical tour fashion, the boat went over to Copenhagen's most famous sight, The Little Mermaid Sculpture.  Of course, the boys had no reason to understand why this was interesting.  It's not like they had grown up playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" like me.  

The Statue has been returned after a woman-hunt across Europe!

You may notice that the mermaid picture was taken, not from the boat tour perspective, but from the land perspective.  This is due to the fact that after the boat tour, we made the children walk all over Copenhagen.  Ok, not really, they got to take their scooters, we walked.  We saw the mermaid and some other sculptures.  The Gefjun Scupture is of a norse goddess who turned her sons into oxen so that she could obtain land promised to her by the Swedish king.  As much as she plowed, she could have.  

Gefjun Sculpture

The other sculpture of note is this one...

Exhausted Mother and Son

I believe this one represents a mother who was on a tour of Copenhagen with her son.  They did a lot of walking, the son did a lot of whining, and they sat down for a moment to rest.  Don't get me wrong, my kids were scootering, so they weren't whining about walking, but then, they weren't also willing to pose with me by the sculpture.  

We did let them take a break.  There was a park that had some resting places.

We want rest!

And it also had some climbing places.

Climbing!

After more walking around, we went to dinner, back near the water.  We had promised the boys salmon, one of their five acceptable foods fit for consumption.  I had this beautifully prepared steak and Dan had five kinds of herring.

Steak

5 Herrings

We returned to our wifi-free lodging where the kids played some electronic games that didn't involve an internet connection (oh the suffering)!  But, we still had one more day in Copenhagen to enjoy.