The Danish Girls

We left Stockholm, Sweden and boarded a surprisingly comfortable train headed to Copenhagen, Denmark. On the way we met a very nice young backpacker who taught us a Swedish card game called Plump (pronounced ploomp), which helped pass the time on the train.  

Upon arrival, we found our way to our beautiful, large apartment and settled in with some beverages and planned the next few days' activities.  We found Copenhagen to be extremely clean and friendly (unless you accidentally stand in one of the MANY bike paths throughout the city), and had some amazing places for views of the entire city.  

One of the first things we did was climb to the top of this very tall church! 

We were treated to beautiful views of the city from the top.

The last part of the climb was on the spire, which spiraled all the way to the very top of the tower.  The last step was so small and narrow that we didn't really fit on it, but it was close enough to the top for us.  

Walking around city center, the juxtaposition of Danish buildings and American fast food was very clear.

The Round Tower was another place for super views of the city!  Instead of steps, though, to reach the top you had to walk up a spiraled ramp that was very reminiscent of the walk to the upper deck of Tiger Stadium.  It was built for astronomical observations in the 17th century.

View from the Round Tower: 

One of the things I was most excited about was visiting Kronborg Castle, which was a short train ride just outside the city.  Kronborg Castle was the setting of one of William Shakespeare's most famous (and arguably his best) plays--Hamlet.  Because Shakespeare died in 1616, this year was the 400th anniversary of his death, and they planned a special celebration called Hamlet Live at the castle.

Kronborg Castle!  In the play it is called Elsinore.

Signs for Hamlet Live!  Leah thought I was equal parts nerdy and ridiculous when I exclaimed the day before we went (after maybe a drink or two), "I just feel so lucky to be able to visit during this celebration!"  

Hamlet Live had a cast of actors to play the main characters.  They performed select scenes (in common English) from the play in various rooms of the castle.  It was awesome to see both the historical features of the castle as a backdrop to the literary and theatrical action.  This was Ophelia!

Here's Claudius (Hamlet's uncle/king of Denmark) and Gertrude (Hamlet's mom) in the final scene...right before everyone dies.

Here's Polonius (Ophelia's dad and the king's adviser) talking with Gertrude and Claudius:

And here's the final sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes (Ophelia's brother/Polonius' son):

One evening, we visited Tivoli Gardens, the second-oldest operating amusement park in the world.  Because we didn't have time to visit the one in Sweden, we made some time to walk around, eat some food, and ride the swings.

Between rain showers Megan and I took a ride on the swings.

Twins!

Swing Selfie

One evening we took a boat tour around the canals of Copenhagen, which was quite fun!  Some of the bridges were so low, you could reach up and touch the bottom of it!  And along the canals, we saw the trademark colorful houses in that Scandinavian style that's so cute.

Megan and Leah enjoying the canal tour!

View of Nyhavn's adorable homes on the waterfront.  The homes are mostly bars and cafes, but once upon a time it was very fashionable and expensive to live here.  It's most famous resident was Hans Christian Anderson!

Speaking of Hans Christian Anderson, on my last day in Copenhagen I went to visit the statue of the Little Mermaid, a surprisingly small statue based on Anderson's famous fairy tale.  As I was walking through the park, following the signs to see her, I passed a dozen tourist buses all lined up along the road.  She's very famous!!!

I guess I arrived at just the right time, because when I got there, there was literally no one else there.

I got my requisite selfie as I was joined by a few Indian tourists, who were being screamed at by their guide that they were going to get left.  He was crazy.  I was glad I wasn't on that bus.

As I left, the hoards of tourists arrived, all clamoring to take their picture with the famous Little Mermaid.

As per usual, Megan, Leah, and I blocked out an afternoon for a food tour of the city.  We ate SO much food, and got such great recommendations that we ate well for the rest of our trip.

Danish hot dogs!

Porridge has become such a trendy thing in Denmark, and for good reason!  It was delicious!  This one had mushrooms and was made with barley.  

No food tour is complete without a stop at a dessert shop!

Open faced sandwiches at one of the oldest delis in town.  This one was made with meatballs; there was another with pickled fish (not my favorite).

But what was my favorite???  This salted caramel ice cream made with liquid nitrogen.  So so good.

The food tour ended with a ride on a rickshaw back to the starting point.  This poor guy... he was struggling to cart us back after we had been eating for four hours!

Copenhagen was lovely and getting to explore it with my friends was really fun!  It was a great way to end the summer.  School started in mid-August and I have worked every single day until this week... I leave today for a Eurotrip!  We are road tripping through the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria to celebrate my 31st birthday!  Back soon with tales of drinking beer at Oktoberfest, Czech-ing out tiny wine towns in Moravia, and twirling on the hills of Salzburg like Fraulein Maria.