Better Than Herring

It was bound to happen. Sure, I tried not to give in to those dark urges, but I'm afraid once they had a hold of me there was no stopping them. They even bled into Theo until he too felt the need. And today, we gave in.



MMmmmm. Thank you KB, for the generous funds. Of course it was nothing compared to Japan, or some of the better Sushi places in LA, but the charm of a young Danish man mumbling a thickly accented "Irrashimase" would be impossible to find anywhere else.

Before the sushi though, we went to the museum. This entailed our usual trip on the Metro and wandering past enigmatic buildings that had to be of some import which we were unaware of.



Luckily, the museum looked important too.



This is the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which is somewhat similar to the J. Paul Getty Villa only with better art and less forgeries. Like the Getty Villa though, the museum is almost more beautiful than some of the art.





Poor Theo was so exhausted from staying up Far Too Late reading his Jim Butcher book that he spent most of the time wandering from bench to bench. Though my hips and legs were killing me, I was enthralled.





Here I look so awkward because I am restraining myself from embracing the statue. One of the museum people was totally watching me, ready to jump in and drag me away if needed.



There was also a small but intense collection of french impressionists and post impressionists that included beautiful bronze statues by Degas, some early Picasso, Guagin and all those important people with important names.

We spent so much time there, and were so tired, that we decided to save the other museum for tomorrow. Instead we hiked down the street to the aforementioned sushi place. Afterwards I was too stuffed but Theo still had some room.



I saw no new birds today, but did see this.



To cap the day we wandered through a department store. There were all kinds of neat housewares that I didn't buy (but may yet wander back for a few of them) and Theo was sweet enough to get me a little stuffed toy. Her name, according to the label, is "Mew". She and Sleepy Time Kirby have already hit it off.



So tired. Tonight we go to bed at reasonable hour, and tomorrow we go to Nationalmuset and Tivoli.

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.

Rosenberg Slot Machine

The B&B is a little funky, but there was nothing wrong with the bed. I slept like the dead until 5am.

And then I was awake.

I puttered around for a few hours. Theo slept through a few of my coughing fits. I think I heard some of the other boarders move around. I chatted online. I watched my computer clock (still set to CA time) move toward late night. And when it was 10:30pm in LA, I fell asleep again.

I woke up around 9:45am and this time managed to get up, though I was feeling distinctly groggy. Theo seemed to have some kind of plan so I followed him and we successfully navigated the Metro without any further coinage or translation issues. We went out to the park we'd been to yesterday.

I dunno what this tree is about, but I like it.



Just past the enigmatic tree is Rosenberg Slot. Slot means Castle in Danish. And as odd as that sounds to me, I wonder what Slot Machine sounds like to the Danes. Does it speak towards great wealth? Or musty smelling old buildings?



Anyway, we laid down our Kroners and went inside. The place was a mix of opulence, darkness, and that musty smell. The inlaid tables were beautiful, the huge tapestries intense, and the ceramic busts creepy.

The real fun part though, was the Treasury. The two young men holding the Big Guns right outside were disconcerting, but we passed them and went down. Along with swords and guns with gorgeous details and mythical figures depicted on their handles were the most intense crowns I've ever seen. One of them was called the Crown of Absolutism and I wouldn't argue. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures.



The Statens Museum for Kunst was just a hop and a skip away so we went there next. Entry was free and the place was beautiful. One room depicted the different genres of painting and the walls were covered to the ceiling with examples. Lots of different examples of Dutch art. I only wish I'd been a little less sleepy.

We ate at the Museum Cafe for sheer convenience and enjoyed Tea in the oddest cups. My salad came with a new experience: Pickled Tomatoes. Now one can enjoy the sensation of vinegar without any other flavors to get in the way. I could only eat one. The rest of the meal was tasty though.



Another pretty bird. The picture doesn't do the dark blue feathers on the back justice.



We were both pretty wiped after that so we made our way across town, picked up some food stuff for dinner, and braved the Metro once more.

A picture for The Boy:



We laid around and recovered, and then Theo made me some Pasta for dinner. He also had some sushi. We were just sadly lamenting our lack of Soy Sauce when he opened the thing up and...



out popped some soy sauce!

After dinner we went out to Amager Strand (strand = beach).





Since we're Quite North it was about 8pm and we were still enjoying beautiful sunshine. We capped the day with some ice cream and went back to our B&B.

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen

Dear Copenhagen,

First, just to get it out of the way, some requests for clarification:

1) Why does your Metro system demand only coins that we do not have yet and Credit Card Pin #s that we do not know? What's so bad about bills? We're trying to be lawful about this whole thing, but really, you make it difficult.

2) What exactly happened when we were stuck 1 stop away from our stop for 10 minutes, then went backwards to the last stop, then forward again? Someone kept trying to tell us what was going on, but as it was all in Danish, I'm still confused.

3) While the explanation on the pay phone was really simple and easy to understand, it had no basis in reality that I could discover. Why would you do that?

But meanwhile, thank you for the good food and good company.



Love, Sara




The flights were relatively easy. I find the amount I worry about these kind of things is inversely proportional to how easily they turn out. My seat companion for the Long Flight from Seattle to Copenhagen was a 70 year old German woman who lived in Tacoma. We talked pleasantly of travel, marriage, raw fish, and I had a feeling she had a really interesting life story underneath it all.

Finding Theo in the airport was shockingly easy. Having grown up with LAX I am always prepared for Airports to be miniature cities - and usually surprised when they aren't. Getting from the airport to our place via metro was surprisingly difficult (see above). Also, Theo was unable to get to his wallet because the zipper of his pants was jammed. Once at our B&B there was a heroic effort to fix that:



Eventually the Swiss Army Knife was brought into play.

After that we decided to go into Copenhagen itself, since our B&B is in this bucolic suburb. We still did not have correct change, and didn't know where it get it. So we walked.



And walked.



And walked. (Did I mention we didn't have a map? That's how I roll.)



A bird for dad.



Luckily, long walks in Foreign countries are always cool.

We found a cute little Italian place where I had some Spaghetti Marinara (pictured above) that made me very, very happy. Then we wandered around a little more before heading back to our little Bed and Breakfast.

At 7:45pm the street looked like this.



Which reminds me:

Dear Copenhagen,

Do you realize how hard it is to acclimate to a time change when it is Bright Out at 9pm? Yeah. Hard.

Having a great time,

Sara