Denmark – 2013

Dear Friends –

We managed to see quite a lot of Copenhagen’s city but have been told by several Danes that the rest of the country has quite a lot more to offer.  They’d love us to stay, but we must go and as such this is the final installment of the 2013 Brandt travel journal.

After arriving in Copenhagen via the world’s rockiest-bumpiest-wobbliest train from Stockholm we walked with heads a-spinning to dinner.  Much has lately been written about the foodie scene in Copenhagen and so we were looking forward to dinner at a modern Italian restaurant; EraOra.  The food was excellent and the service from Simone, our friendly Sicilian waiter was terrific but for nearly four hours we all sat, talked, laughed and chatted together – which made it what we considered our favorite dinner of the trip.

The streets in Copenhagen are twisty, angular and don’t always appear on the maps but after dinner Hannah lead us in the rain back to the hotel.  She’s becoming quite a confident navigator.  I asked her how she did it, she simply used the naked lady billboards as helpful landmarks instead of asking for help from the drunken pedestrians stumbling around.  Nice, Hannah!

We focused our first full day of sightseeing on the northern part of the city.  At Rosenburg Slot we toured a royal palace that also holds the Danish crown jewels and an amazing collection of carved ivory.  The Danes like to point out that unlike most of the rest of Europe Denmark’s palaces are furnished largely with original artifacts…and it shows – the rooms are really densely packed with art and other royal knick-knacks representative of the times in which they were collected.

We also saw the Danish National Gallery, the old Fortress (Kastellet), the Royal Apartments at Amalienborg Slot and nearby unofficial

Danish national mascot, “The Little Mermaid”.  There was also the National Geological Museum along the way which placed its leading attraction in the courtyard approaching the museum…the fifth largest recovered meteorite.  Not interested in going deep into Denmark’s Geological history, we took a photo of the meteorite and moved on to the Marble Cathedral.  The plan called for some shopping (since most shops close at 6pm) but rain forced a change in plans into the nearby Danish Design Museum

where Anne and I learned about the “art” behind many daily objects like furniture, kitchenware and appliances.  The textile exhibit showcased to Anne and me several of those groovy patters that Terry and Rita dressed us in during the 70’s.

I promised Maddie and Hannah on our second day in Copenhagen that we would leave time after lunch to hit some shops.  With the morning open for sightseeing we climbed the Radhus tower, walked the National History Museum…which was EXCELLENT with many Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking artifacts recovered from countryside peat bogs.  The museum also had a 35 meter long (partial) Viking Ship as part of its Viking exhibit.  The quality of the museum was punctuated by Maddie and Hannah spending about an hour in the exhibits before retreating to their cafe wi-fi hotspot.  Not too shabby.

As we shopped and worked our way back to the hotel all the travel finally caught up with one of our intrepid tourists – this despite a “shopping break” at the Hotel Chocolate.  With Hannah not feeling very well she and Anne rested in the room while Maddie and I took the Metro to the TOTO concert and learned something unusual about Denmark.  The “good” seats are actually standing.  Yep – stood with 1500 Danish friends watching and listening as Toto belted out their repertoire of 70’s and 80’s rock.  Not knowing a lot of their music I have to say that it was a pretty good concert … but the high point for us was

hearing their 80’s hits: “Africa”, “Rosanna” and “Hold the Line.”  Between three hours of standing and the physical height of the Danes – Maddie and Iit out for the exits before the encores.

With Hannah fully recovered, we had our breakfast in the hotel where across from our table Anne recognized Toto’s guitarist…Steve Lukather.  Hannah was all too happy to sneak a Paparazzi Picture.  Casually eavesdropping on Steve’s conversation, Anne and I actually heard him say, “The 80’s were a brutal decade.”  Now, we admittedly don’t know to what

he was referring but if it was his music he’s obviously forgotten from which decade he achieved radio fame and seven Grammy Awards including “Record of the Year” and “Album of the Year”.  Nonetheless, as I passed him on the way to the herring bar I told him, “I enjoyed the show.”  He kicked me in the groin then threw his coffee on me as I was dragged down the escalator and tossed to the curb by his bodyguard.

With that auspicious beginning to the day we walked to the Christiansborg Slot (Palace) and nearby Thorvaldsens Museum where Denmark’s favorite artist has on display hundreds of his works.  It was really cool seeing his clay models for what would become much larger marble sculptures.  Anne and I checked out a few nearby shops and galleries while the girls found a fountain seat and

took in the sights of Hojbro Plads – one of Copenhagen’s larger squares.  It was here that we started hearing the first of the honking trucks, airhorns and thumping music.

It turns out that the graduates of Copenhagen University go completely nuts in the city upon completing their degrees.  They wear small caps embroidered with their majors while jumping in fountains and generally partying for two weeks.  The locals just seem to tolerate the annual ruckus and go about their business.

We ended our afternoon of sightseeing generally walking and winding about while stopping at the Nyhavn – a harbor lined with beautiful old buildings, the Jewish Museum and the Danish Armory Museum.  We had dinner at an old landmark fish restaurant that’s unchanged since 1870’s ‘s then walked to the Tivoli Gardens – one of the world’s first

amusement parks – where Maddie won a prize playing Whack-A-Mole and the girls together rode the 80 meter tall “Himmelskibet”, the tallest carousel in Europe.

Overall – it was again a great family vacation where seeing Scandinavia and Russia we had the chance to see and do a lot of fun and unique things while spending time together.  Even so, we’re happy to be headed home and get back into our “regular” lives.

Thanks for reading –

Love,
Jeff, Anne, Maddie and Hannah