Sunday July 2nd, we took the bus again from Gothenburg to Copenhagen, this time due to rail work being done in southern Sweden, so many trains have stopped. The bus was 4 1/2 hours long, but it flew by and was fairly pleasant. We had a stop in Helsingborg and Malmo Sweden, so it was nice to see those cities from the bus windows. We also traveled on the famous Oresund Bridge, a 16KM long connector from Sweden to Denmark. It starts off as a tall bridge where we could feel the wind shaking our bus, and then the bridge disappears under the water into a tunnel.


Our Airbnb is located on a nice tree lined residential street in the city with a few embassies on it, one of which is the Russian Embassy! There are cops stationed on the corner, I'm assuming to prevent protests and whatnot. The apartment is on the 3rd floor and only a tiny slow elevator-which I refuse to use, those old elevators scare me. Anyway, we walked in and the owner and her children were here to greet us. This is their regular home and they are staying at their summer residence while we are here, so once again, no place to put our clothes or groceries! Ugh, it's getting a little old not having a place to put our stuff. At least there are 3 bedrooms so the boys each have a place of their own, and a tiny balcony overlooking the street and one in the back overlooking a shared courtyard. Easy access to restaurants and public transportation. When we first arrived we were trying to figure out what type of metro ticket to get and a very helpful employee walked me up to the kiosk and explained the best course of action for us. He was extremely nice, as we found most Danish people to be. We ended up buying a 5 day unlimited pass, it may be more expensive if we don't use it a ton, but it's way easier! I definitely prefer to have a pass and just be able to jump on any bus or train whenever we need to instead of trying to get tickets each time.


Monday July 3rd, we decided to take a segway tour of the city. It was a great way to get our bearings and see the major sights of the city. We learned a lot and our guide was very entertaining. We did a segway tour last year in Prague and the boys really liked it, so we knew we wanted to do another one at some point this summer. I like the segways, but don't feel 100% comfortable on them. I certainly go slower than the boys and Paul. And for some reason going over the cobblestone streets the segway didn't love it and was leaning backwards, where I felt like I was going to fall off. There's definitely a learning curve for those things.

You can walk the streets with your beer or wine here!

Tuesday 4th of July! We weren't really planning on celebrating Independence Day since we are in Copenhagen, but we learned that the amusement park here, called Tivoli Gardens was recognizing America's birthday. We went in the evening and got ride passes for the boys and just entrance tickets for Paul and I. Tivoli has so much more character than the basic amusement parks that are near us. I guess it's closest to Disney, without being Disney. There are numerous gardens and different little areas, but it's really not that big in size. Easily walkable. At dusk the whole place lit up in dazzling lights. They had music and little pantomime shows throughout the evening. Paul and I enjoyed walking around, then found ourselves at the biergarden (yes, this is becoming a theme to our travels!!) It was raining on and off, like it does in Copenhagen, with strong wind gusts, so we wanted to go to a covered area, this biergarden had push button heat lamps at each table, that you can turn on for a designated amount of time, plus they had blankets you could borrow as well. We were in hog heaven! We sat next to an older Australian couple who made fun of us from the get go when we turned on our heater and wrapped up in blankets-instant friends. We chatted with them for hours on end. The boys would occasionally drop by between rides to warm up, grab a drink or food and tell us about their adventures. The Australian's, named Rod (84) and Jennifer (73) were very interested to learn more about the rides. We thoroughly enjoyed talking with and meeting them and exchanged emails address's. They invited us to stay with them in Brisbane when we make it down under. At 10:45 there was a fireworks show, with the first song being the U.S. National Anthem and the fireworks all being red, white and blue. So, we got to celebrate the 4th afterall. Sitting watching the fireworks!

Wednesday July 5th. We had a lazy morning since it was a late night and it was a rainy, cool day, but we wanted to do something, so I dragged everyone out in the rain and wind to explore Christiania, a freetown here in the middle of Copenhagen. It's a little hard to explain this "hippy village", but it started as an act of rebellion to the government back in 1971, where a group of people cut a hole in the fence to some military barracks and squatted there, selling and smoking marijuana. This became known as Pusher Street, and is still referred as that today. There are about 1,000 residents who live in this town. You can find little restaurants and stalls selling handmade items, and they have their own recycling center and trading post, where everything costs a smile. Hash and pot are still sold here, even though it is illegal throughout Denmark. Most people built their own homes, or live in the old military barracks, so the architecture is very unique. You definitely feel like you've gone back in time and/or are walking through a ghetto. Copenhagen does advertise Christiania as a must-see tourist attraction, so obviously there is some sort of a cohesive relationship going on here. There is no photography allowed within Christiania, so I only have a pic of one of the entrances.

That evening, Paul and Kyle went to the Coldplay concert that was taking place here. Paul bought the tickets for he and Kyle back as a Christmas gift, so they've been looking forward to this for a long time. It was Kyle's first concert. They both had a blast saying it was an incredible show!Thursday July 6th. It was another lazy morning after a late night again. I had read about The Forgotten Giants, huge trolls made by artist, Thomas Dambo out of recycled wood and materials. They are located in some very remote areas around Copenhagen to encourage locals and visitors alike to get out of the main town and explore something new. Well one of them, Kaptain Nalle is located only 4 KM from where we are staying, so I thought it would be fun to go find it. The giant trolls are somewhat hidden and out of the way. We took a bus for a little bit of the way to cut down on the walking, but this thing was hidden amongst a very industrial area. We had to walk down a small dirt path next to a graffitti filled metal wall/fence, leading us to an open field, where garbage was strewn and this giant troll. We could see a cruise ship in that background, since we weren't far from the cruise terminal, but it seemed like a totally different world. Well we found the troll and then looked at each other and said, now what?? I'm not saying the troll wasn't cool, he was indeed, I just wish there was something else around there that we could've done afterwards. Anyway, we had a bit of a walk ahead of us, grabbed a 4 minute bus, then walked to a train station where we decided it would just be easiest to rest on the train and take it all the way to the center city of Copenhagen-back to reality! Kaptain Nalle

Friday July 7th we took a train out to Frederiksberg Park, where we had a picnic and a stroll through the gardens. Copenhagen Zoo is located in the park and there is an area in the park where you can see the elephants enclosure, I loved this and could've stayed there all day watching these elephants! We grabbed some ice cream and then split ways. Paul found a barber to get his hair cut, and Kyle stayed with him, Braydon headed back to the apartment by himself and I decided to check out military barracks nearby and walked around before hitting the grocery store for dinner supplies.

Saturday July 8th we rented some city bikes and rode down through a wooded area and over to the beach, We stopped at a little cafe to grab a drink and some snacks. Paul got talking to the owner and her daughter and learned that the mom had spent a study abroad program in Salisbury, NC and her daughter is heading over this fall to a high school/host family just south of Raleigh. We really enjoyed talking with them and sharing stories of our travels. It was really funny hearing their interpretation of Spencer's Train Museum, which we North Carolinians love, but for people who travel on trains all the time, thought the museum was a bit silly. The daughter said she just didn't get it. :) The mom told us she had gone to Myrtle Beach and couldn't believe it and how much stuff was there. My picture below will show you the drastic difference between their beaches and something like Myrtle Beach.
After our bike ride we took the train back to our neck of the woods and the boys headed home as Paul and I continued down the street where we knew a Jazz concert was happening, we sat on the curb and listened to some good music with the locals.

A couple notes. We all loved Copenhagen, it's a really cool city with lots of different areas. The Danish people are all very nice. We also learned that they are very law-abiding citizens, respecting pedestrians in the cross walks and all the cyclists in the bike lanes that line the entire city. Biking is huge in Denmark and is a main form of transportation. It seemed like every street was lined with parked bikes up against the buildings. Many of the bikes have front carts on them for kids, pets, groceries, etc. We managed just fine throughout all of Copenhagen not having a physical credit card or cash on us at all, Mobile Apple Pay was taken everywhere. It is a very expensive city, but the Danes make very good salaries and have free healthcare so having summer houses is normal. Paul read that McDonald employees start off making $20/hour and 6 weeks paid vacation! There is very little homelessness here, because the country takes care of their citizens and requires everyone to have some semblance of a job. One oddity we noticed was some places have co-ed bathrooms, where there's a line of stalls and sinks for everyone. The first couple of times, I did a double take, am I in the right bathroom?!
Off to another location tomorrow.