Danish for a Day

We are back from our Transatlantic travels and I am ready to share! I have a lot of photos and stories and travel tips, so I hope you are prepared for a dump of information over several blog posts. Let's start off with how great Paul was flying to Los Angeles.

We learned the secret to other people liking your kids: dress them nicely. We put Paul in a baby fedora, so everyone at the airport thought he was the cutest. Furthermore, he really was listening to our directions and being generally charming. He loved sitting by the window and was so excited when the plane took off, but I didn't really know how to help him with the pressure changes hurting his ears. I tried getting him to yawn and gave him chewy snacks, nothing seemed to help except just landing the plane. Good thing he wasn't going on the long flight with us!

Aunt Megan picked him up at the airport and Lee and I rushed off to catch our connection. Next stop: Copenhagen!

You don't want to know about the sights or smells of our 11ish hour flight. No, we didn't get any sleep, we actually weren't even sitting by each other. We arrived at our chilly destination around 11 AM and tried to clean ourselves up and bit and figure out money and transportation and food. Being that hungry and that tired makes everything very hard. Not speaking Danish was barely a hiccup. We got cash (bad exchange rate), got on the train (easy peasy) and a few minutes later found ourselves in the center of a new city!

 

We first visited Vor Frue Kirke: The Church of Our Lady. You can see it's short, rectangular spire behind Lee. This church is the home to Bertel Thorvaldsen's original Christus and the 12 Apostles.

 

I have seen so many replicas of this particular statue that I thought seeing the Christus in the space it was planned for would be a neat way to spend our layover. As an added bonus we also got to see all 12 Apostles as well! It was the original 12 plus Paul and, I believe, minus Judas. Peter is the statue holding keys, most of the rest of the Apostles are recognizable because, gruesomely enough, they are holding the implements of their deaths. Hey, we had to tell them apart somehow!

 

 If you do a little study of history and architecture (you really should before you visit Europe) Then you can get a good feel for the contrast between Protestant churches, like this one, and the Catholic Churches (we'll visit more of those in a few days). The minimal décor, the simple lines, the size of the space are all so well suited to the white marble centerpiece: the resurrected Lord with his arms outstretched.

 

 I was so tired and hungry that I was dizzy. Does it show in the photo? We made our way from the church straight to the buffet down the street and we ate. And ate. On days like this one I really love that overstuffed feeling. After many hungry hours it felt good to be full. That at least got us a little bit of energy so we could make our way through town...

Pictured here: "Town."

 

...To Vor Frelsers Kirke! (Church of Our Savior). We did a fair bit of wandering as our phone's GPS got confused, but the skyline of Copenhagen is dotted with Church spires, this one is very distinctive and easy to find. I found the sight in-SPIRE-ing. (Don't worry, I am slapping myself for you for that pun.)

 

Unfortunately the stairs around the spire (Oh yes, those are stairs on the OUTSIDE of the spire) didn't open until February 27th, and we were in Copenhagen on the 25th. That just gives us a reason to come back I guess! We went inside the church...

Lee and the Altar Piece behind him.

I wish I could have heard this organ play! I love visiting these big churches, they are all unique and the art in them is fantastic!

We liked strolling around the picturesque canals and harbors:

 

And checking out the unique architecture...

We also popped into the National Museum of Denmark for little while. We saw some medieval stuff, some Viking stuff...honestly I think I was practically delirious with exhaustion so I was barely able to take it in.

These are the best trumpets I've ever seen.

 

I love when museums use creepy mannequins in their displays. I don't know why, it just gives cracks me up.

And then it was time to head back to the train station, gather our bags, and go to the airport for the last leg of our flight. Even though we got a little lost and were completely pooped, I'd say our day in Copenhagen was successful. All the places we visited were free admission, we got a good, big meal and saw just enough of the city to know what we would might want to come back for. This was Lee's first time in Europe and my first time in Denmark, I think we managed quite well. We spent our wait in the airport on the phone with Paul, snoozing, and wishing we were snoozing. It was a clear night, so I could see all of Europe lit up beneath us as we flew. I couldn't get decent photo, but it really looked like the view from the ISS or something. It was wild! And, as we descended to Orly Airport, I could see the Eiffel Tower welcoming us to Paris with her lights. Mercifully we had a shuttle van to take us to our hotel on a quiet street in the Latin Quarter where we could take a hot shower and curl up in a warm bed. I seem to sleep my very best after jetting around the world.

 More on our visit in Paris on my next post, and I will be sharing some valuable travel lessons and tips from my experience soon as well. If anyone is planning or trip or would like to plan a trip, let me know and I will share some of the great resources I found that helped me plan this one!