I know it’s been a long time since I wrote but we have been very busy recently. We had some family in town visiting for 2 ½ weeks and really enjoyed having them. It was a nice break for mommy and daddy, too. We were able to go on a date which hasn’t happened in many many months.
When our family got here, we decided to go on a fun weekend trip so we rented a car on Easter weekend and drove to Germany. In Europe, you get a 5 day weekend (Thursday, Friday and Monday off) so many people travel that weekend. We had to go to the airport to get the rental car and we decided to just take everything with us and leave from the airport. What normally is a 45 minute trip took about an hour and a half to get there. Public transportation is wonderful....when it is working. When we got to the airport, we had a quick lunch (the baby had to eat...so demanding lol) and went to get the car. Once we were all packed into the car, we took off. My husband, baby and I hadn’t been in a car since we moved here in December, and it’s now April, so it was a really nice feeling to be able to go driving again. About an hour out of Copenhagen, the baby got carsick and threw up all over everything. She used to be a trooper about being in a carseat but I guess after not being in a carseat for that long she just wasn’t used to it anymore. So we had to stop on the side of the road and change the poor kid into clean clothes. She fell asleep just as we were getting on the ferry boat to go to Germany. Of course we had to get out of the vehicle during the ferry crossing (safety reasons I guess) so we had to wake the sleeping baby and go on top. After the crossing we continued on to Lübeck, Germany just as it was getting dark. We drove around for awhile trying to find a hotel for the night and as we were doing so the baby started puking again. We had a GPS in the car but it was all in Danish. We couldn’t figure out how to change it to English so it did help a bit, but not as much as it could have been. Finally we found a hotel for the night and we were able to get out and stretch. Our goal had been to get to Hamburg, Germany, which was maybe 20 miles further, but with a kid puking in the back, you stop when you can. We had a really nice dinner and went to bed. Of course, mommy and daddy had to spend some time washing out the carseat that we borrowed from a friend. The next morning after a good breakfast, we turned the carseat facing forward (which really took up a lot of room in the back of a Honda CRV) and went on to Hamburg. I hesitated to turn the carseat forward but I really didn't want to have a sick kid again. We stopped and had lunch (I had a hamburger in Hamburg, insert sarcastic comment here, lol). We saw one nice church but not too much else so we continued to drive around to find something neat to do. We didn't do any planning for this trip, so we didn't know what there was to do in Hamburg. Our phones didn’t work in Germany, so we had no clue what to do. Finally we gave up and went back to Lübeck for the night because we knew there was a decent hotel there. We found a much nicer place to stay and was able to get adjoining rooms. The guys were kind enough to get us pizza and pasta for dinner and we had a good time that night just hanging out. The baby was happy to get out and crawl around, too. The next day we looked around Lübeck and found that they had lots of amazing churches and buildings to look at. We were able to tour some of them and got some great pictures. One church had been built in the 1200s….it’s amazing how it was still standing! We really enjoyed getting out and looking around there. We left that afternoon to come back to Copenhagen. Our original plan was to head up through Germany into Denmark on the west side but the baby wasn’t cooperating, so we just went home. And boy were we glad to be home.
This is the only picture we got in Hamburg. The rest (below) are all from Lübeck.
While our family was here we went and toured downtown Copenhagen. We saw the mermaid statue, Amelienborg Palace (where Queen Margarethe lives), and we also took a canal tour of the city. If you’re ever in Copenhagen, the canal tour is worth every penny! It’s a heated boat, so even when it’s cool out it’s comfortable. The tour showed us that we still have lots of exploring to do in Copenhagen!
The Mermaid statue
Amalienborg Palace, Queen Margarethe's current residence
One day my mom, the baby and I decided to go north on the train to Hillerød, Denmark and see the Fredericksborg Palace. My mom had mentioned that she wanted to see a castle, so that’s what we did. Before we started looking around, we went to a local café and had smørrebrød (open faced sandwiches). They were delicious! I had a sandwich that was the really dark rye bread (a Danish specialty) topped with a piece of deep-fried fish and on top of that was shrimp and caviar. On the side was some of the best tartar sauce I’ve ever eaten. Delish. Afterwards we toured the castle. This castle is stroller friendly, which was really nice. We did have to use their strollers, but as long as I didn’t have to carry the baby, I was OK with that. The castle was amazing. It was set up by centuries (1500-1600, 1600-1700, etc.) and the decorations were different for each room. It had a church attached that had gold everything. Definitely fit for a king. It was a really fun trip.
Yes, it has a moat :)
The King's Chapel/Church (and the next 2 photos as well)
The King's bedroom
The Great Hall (the next several photos are from the same room, sorry some are blurry)
View from the King's bedroom (the king's gardens....which will be awesome come summer)
Hope all is well with you. I am writing from London where we are visiting for the week. My hubby has a class for 3 days here and then we'll do some sightseeing. I'm in love with this city! More about that later, though....
Trivia for the day: the Danish monarchy is the oldest in Europe.
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