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

Visiting Albi Part 2 - Albi Activities

On to part 2!  What did we do after driving and cycling to Albi?  

Of course, the first order of business was lunch.  Dan desired some calories.  We also try to keep the kids fed so that they are less grumpy during historic-type activities.  We looked for one of the closest places that was also tasty.  We found a French restaurant called, Le Papillion.  Why choose this one?  One of the reviews on google said that the proprietors were friendly and tolerated customers speaking terrible French.  WE speak terrible French!  In the world of restaurant preferences, we prefer when people let us try to speak French instead of immediately handing us a touristy menu written in English.  We also prefer friendly restaurateurs to those that treat tourists as an irritation and only give good service to locals.

The restaurant was great!  We got French menus, the waiter was super nice and patient.  The food was delicious.  However, the boys decided not to appreciate the food.  We ordered Alex some steak hache, or hamburger without a bun.  He tried it, but that was about it.  We didn't bother ordering Will food.  We told them that when we were finished with lunch, we would get bagels at the place we passed by on the walk in.  However, as meals move slowly in France, the kids continued to get more and more anxious and hungry.  So, we stayed and ate our food.  We gave the kids some euros and sent them on their own to find bagels.  

It wasn't far.  We explained that it was basically a loop.  They just had to keep turning to the right to get to the bagel store and back to us.  It was a win-win!  We got to peacefully eat our food.  The kids got to do something interesting on their own.  We did get slightly concerned, of course.  After a bit of time passed and we were getting worried and about to send out a search, the kids returned with their bagels.  Will got a bagel with cream cheese.  Alex got a bagel with Nutella.  The restaurant let them eat their bagels acquired elsewhere at the table with us while we ordered coffee and desert.

Yummy Cream Cheese

Nutella, it's for lunch as well as breakfast

Post lunch, we headed over to the Sainte Cecile Cathedral.  

It's Gothic

The inside was ornate and well-decorated.

Tessellations

The kids weren't super impressed by the inside of the cathedral.  I'm not quite sure what to tell them to encourage them to take an interest in things that were built in the 12th and 13th centuries. Perhaps prior to our next cathedral visit, I will invest some time in creating an art scavenger hunt.  

Next, we headed over to the Toulouse-Lautruc museum.  However, we opted out of the museum visit itself as most of Toulous-Lautruc's art tends towards being a bit gritty.  He painted a lot of art with brothel themes.  Sure, we take the kids to museums that have traditional art of unclothed subjects.  We explained that creating art that depicts the realistic human body is difficult and therefore a challenge to artists.  Will's solution to the problem of realistic sculptures is that instead of cutting a figure out of marble, we scan a person and use a 3d printer to produce a completely accurate, realistic form.  

Toulouse-Lautrec Museum

Painting on the side of the museum showing people in a museum

Fortunately, the museum used to be a palace and also has some lovely gardens to experience. 

The gardens you can look at from above, but not go into

Looking down at the gardens

Proof that we were all there together!

As you can tell, there were also great views of the city from the gardens.

The tower you see behind us

The nifty bridge

The palace itself

Bridge and City

Overall, the trip to Albi was both interesting and painfully full of children's whining.  We hope that we can find better ways for them to enjoy historical things.  And, we hope to find a babysitter and head back to Albi to visit the museum without the kids.

Visiting Albi Part 1 - Getting to Albi

We visited the town of Albi, France.  It is primarily known for being the location of the Toulouse-Lautrec museum and the Saint Cecile Cathedral.  Albi is located about 80 kilometers northeast of Toulouse.  The kids and I drove.  Dan bicycled.  Here is his journey as well as I can reconstruct it from Facebook and his humorously titled Strava trip, "Le Trek Toulouse - Toulouse-Lautrec."  Get it?  Because he started his journey in Toulouse and went to the city known for Toulouse-Lautrec.  Yup.

In a normal occurrence, Dan departed our place before I woke up.  This was probably before 7am.  I'm not sure.  Like I said, I was peacefully enjoying sleep.  Ultimately, it took him 5 hours to make it to Albi.  However, this wasn't 5 hours to go 80 kilometers.  No, this was 5 hours to go 80 miles.  Because bicycles are not allowed on expressways, he took a more "fun" route.  

Fun Times

After bicycling for a while, Dan took a break around 9:30am at Foret de Gresigne to take this picture of the beautiful countryside.  All of the countryside near us is beautiful.  

Break time. Lost in France.

Then he biked a bunch of elevation to take this hilltop view at the not-ironically titled, Le Panoramique, around 10am.  It is at Cordes Sur Ciel.  Ciel is french for Sky.

Hill top city view

On the way out of town, he captured another view of the city, which was tricky to get with the camera.  But still cool.  

Lord of the Rings come to life

Fortunately he was able to get a good shot of the sky city from a more distant perspective.

Cordes Sur Ciel

After some more riding, Dan arrived in Albi around noon where we met up.  

Albi

It took us a little over an hour to drive to Albi.  For Dan, we brought the bike rack so that he could hang out with us and get a lift home.  But 80 kilometers instead of 80 miles this time!

Alex's Transformation - California Boy to French Garcon

Alex has always been particular about his clothing.  In California, he only wore shorts and t-shirts.  Even when he was at school, he took advantage of the allowance for navy or tan colored shorts as an acceptable uniform.

We now reside in a land of weather.  Every day, the kids talk about the existence of variations in temperature and precipitation.  I try to explain that they lived in the magical land of Southern California where the weather is always nice.  It was a unique situation.  They just don't understand. In a few months, they will finally be able to experience the joy that is the first day of spring where you can exit your front door without a coat on.  New experiences! Broadening horizons!  Appreciating things you used to take for granted!

The kids' new school does not require uniforms.  This means that the kids have to own actual outfits that they can wear.  I don't get to be lazy and order from a set menu of items.  When we arrived, we started out with a small selection of polo shirts.  We made the boys wear polos and fleeces to the first day of school on January 4th.

Too much pressure to take an actual first day of school photo, this one has to do.

Also in our clothing collection are a ton of t-shirts.  Now that they have settled in, that's basically what they wear.  Occasionally we have them switch back to the polo shirts for church.  I have also expanded their wardrobe to include some long-sleeved turtleneck shirts, but they are not fans... yet.  I'm trying to convince them that if it is nice out, they don't have to wear a coat if they wear a long-sleeved shirt.

Back to Alex.  Typically you might see him in this type of outfit in Southern California.  Well, without the coat.

Bright Orange Shorts

And now?  Now he has bright orange, fitted French pants.  Oh yeah!

LA t-shirt... transformation still occurring

So where did all of the shorts go?  Well, now that we have seasons, we also have storage of summer clothes.  

Shorts are hidden in here

Ready for Summer Water Fun!

Summer is here and with it many plans for fun and learning!  Fortunately for me, the boys enjoy learning and discovering even the most academic things.  Of course, they also enjoy playing, especially if it involves water. 

This summer, the boys get to return to Beach Camp for a couple of weeks, perhaps Alex may even go in the ocean this year.  During school summer camp weeks, Will gets to swim in the pool every day while Alex can't wait until Friday, his class' day in the pool.  Earlier this week, Alex requested shark swim goggles since he is fascinated by sharks.



Alex in Shark Coat watching Sharks



His great idea was that we should buy some goggles that come in a box (referencing delivery of Amazon packages to our porch in brown boxes).  So, we went on-line to try to find shark goggles.  None seemed satisfactory until he saw these.

Wearing Swim Goggles from Amazon

They are supposed to be manta ray goggles, but Alex has dubbed them, "Red-Eyed Tree Frog Goggles!"  I think it makes them look like mad scientists.

We also plan on putting our small pool up this weekend.  It's about 3 feet deep and the boys are very excited to get it up.  Will is especially interested as one of our summer goals is to learn more about movie filming, editing, and posting.  Given that I have two boys who are usually in or near water most of the summer, we opted to get a waterproof camera.  We have talked about the unusual aspect of this particular "electronic' that it, and only it, can go in water.  Will wants to have friends over for playdates so he can take pictures underwater with them. 

We plan to post our water pictures and videos on Will's blog and also on mine and Will's youtube channels.

Have a great, wet summer!