Birds Eye View

Waking up when your body is absolutely convinced that it is midnight is difficult. However, once awake this morning I felt significantly less glassy and confused. Thanks to our 2-for-1 ticket yesterday we already knew what we were going to start the day off with -- Amalienborg Slot.

Since we got a late start we were there in time for a changing of the guard. This in the end was an unimpressive show that involved a lot of men in fuzzy hats trying to stare each other down.




After about five minutes, at which point we decided that they were not going to start shooting one another, we gave up.

Far more impressive was the courtyard itself.







The castle too was not as interesting as Rosenberg, which was far older. This castle had a smaller, far more modern museum that mainly consisted of the outfits of Queen Margrethe and the rooms set up as they had been in the 40's. Still, I enjoyed the juxtaposition between that and the castle we'd seen yesterday.

We then wandered around more of Northern Copenhagen, up to a park like area with a pretty church.



And the little mermaid.



Now, for the bird watchers in my family, a brief show of the birds I've seen which I (may) not have seen before:

Magpie (figured that one out)



Black headed Gull (I think, gulls are confusing)



This guy was very shy, I think he's a Jackdaw



This guy was even more shy - a grey heron I think?



Not Pictured: Common Wood Pigeon, which I have seen a bunch of but taken No Good Pictures of. We've also seen Swans, Coots, and Greylag geese, but those are common enough in the states.

Ahem. Anyway.

We then wandered around Kastellet, a fort that is still in use by the military, but also kind of a park like area. It had a pretty moat.



And a windmill.



After that we were hungry so we wandered through the shopping area again for a long, long time.



We passed a familiar friend (another one for the Boy):



Finally we wound up at this place that had Danish Meatballs, which was what Theo had. Getting into the spirit of things, I had herring.



A very, very bad idea that I will never, ever repeat. After choking down three pieces I couldn't eat any more, but since I didn't want to appear rude I made Theo eat them. He wasn't too fond of them either, but they didn't make him want to throw up.

Just the next block over we found the Radhus. The outside was impressive.



The inside was intimidating, but beautiful. All city halls should look that imperious.



Next door was Tivoli, but we are saving that for another day.



Instead we wandered around a lot more, looking for a Power Converter. On Day 1 our combined brain power managed to fry the one Theo had (oops) and so we needed another. One major difference I've found between Denmark and Japan -- the Danes do not share the same fetishistic love of electronics that the Japanese have. In fact, finding an electronics store was rather difficult.



But we did find one with some help, and got a new power convertor.

Exhausted and done, it was back to our B&B for more Pasta, beer with 10.6% alcohol, and much needed rest.