Nato & Robin: August 2013

To get to Copenhagen from our house is a simple drive, but very unique in that you have to cross two considerably long bridges that are connected

by this small island. There wasn't even an exit that I could see to get off the bridge onto the island, but someone must maintain these buildings.

Our first day there we walked around the city of Copenhagen itself. Our first stop,

The Little Mermaid. Hans Christian Andersen lived in Copenhagen. It is with this statue that his work is celebrated by all.

Philip and Benjamin.

They didn't realize when Nato was taking this that it was a snake they were posing with. Philip's reaction when he turned around was quite amusing.

This fountain is place right before the palace square.

Here is the square.

In the square they change the guards in a ceremony daily.

It was not as elaborate as the ceremony in London, but fun to see and compare.

This little park next to the Palace Square is where we decided to take a break for lunch.

Next we walked to the Church of Our Lady. This church has a couple significant things for LDS members.

There is a story often told by church leaders of Pres. Kimble coming to this church with some of the apostles on a tour. Pres. Kimble pointed to this statue of Peter and said, "See the keys he is holding? I hold those keys today."

This is also where the original Christus is. It is not nearly as large as the replica in Salt Lake City, but it is still a fairly large statue.

It also had statues of all of the twelve apostles. We tried to get pictures of the boys with there name sakes.

The neat thing about this church is that in all of our European adventures we have seen statues and depictions of Saint This and Saint That who really mean nothing to us except where we fit them into history and mythology. It was really neat to show the kids these statues and talk about the real men who really walked with Christ and really were called to his work.

The whole building was light and quiet. Not gothic. It was really nice.

Philip sporting fabulous shades

On we walked to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. It had some good displays and narrations of his life and his most famous works.

We walked so much the first day that it wipe us all out. Our saving grace was that we lucked out and happened upon a Disney Store in the middle of the city right about midday. We all went inside and found some really cool Denmark things that we were able to motivate the kids with to keep on walking.

On Sunday we went to church and then went over to the Temple to take some pictures.

I love how all the Temples seem to blend in with the architecture of the buildings around them.

Everything in Denmark is built pretty tall and the Temple was no exception. On Wednesday evening Nato and Robin had a chance to attend a session here and we had to walk down stairs a few flights to get to the locker rooms and then found the temple inside to be small rooms almost stacked one on top of another. So we spent a lot of time climbing up to the next level for each part.

Monday we spent at this castle in Fredricksburg. It is there national museum now.

Inside we found the original works of Carl Bloc. This room was small and dark to preserve these works, but we spent a good twenty minutes talking with the kids about the stories that each one represents. As other tourists came through the room and look at the fancy alter piece encased in glass and then move quickly on, we savored all the time we could enjoying all of his works.

Then we had some fun looking around the museum.

(Philip)

Maybe a little too much fun

(Benjamin)

They had a wonderful exhibit for children where they could try on armor and costumes from earlier times.

If there is one thing ALL of our kids love it is dressing up.

The second thing is probably medieval armor

and dresses.

We would have loved to take some of these home.

It was a pretty castle with very beautiful grounds.

Climbing the Rundetaarrrn:

This curiously looking tower was built by Denmark's King Christian IV in the seventeenth century as an astronomical observatory. Jacob has a model of this in one of his many Lego creation books and so he really wanted to see it in person.

Here are the boys taking a rest. JK

Here is the view from the Top.

Even Robin went to the top, but we new the gates at the top were pretty high and safe.

Tuesday found us fullfilling a 4 year long dream. Now I know what you are thinking. "Four years is not that long." But this dream was Jacob's and to an eleven year old four years is forever. This place is a Viking Ship Museum and Jacob had learned about this particular one long before we even dreamed of living in Europe.

The pieces they had were amazing. From big,

To little.

They had great areas dedicated to the ways and life at the time of the Vikings. This man is making rope.

They made ropes from many things. This one is labeled "Rope of Seal." It was very stiff and had an oily feel to it.

This is the "Viking Ship Graveyard" as they call it.

These are the actual remains of four viking ships that were excavated out of the harbor. Years ago they were sunk on purpose one on top of the other to act as a wall to keep out invaders. They sunk these in the deepest part of the harbor. Around them the water was too shallow to pass a ship through except in one place. At this spot they built a gate and controlled the passage of merchants and friends.

They have recently made a replica of the largest one and they sailed it from here up to Ireland where the original boat was built. They then gave it to Ireland as a gift and it is in a museum there.

Nato took the oldest kids on a viking ship ride and they got to help row and even set the sail for the ride back into the harbor.

Nato and Philip.

Then to top it all off they had costumes for the kids to try. We don't think we need to remind you about our kids and dressing up.

(Jacob)

Benjamin

Jane

On Wednesday we went to the Castle that they consider to be the "Hamlet's Castle." Every summer they perform this play here and they take all references to the castle and the "Prince of Denmark" personally.

It was a pretty big and glorious castle.

With many large rooms.

This is the ballroom. It was so fun to imagine it full of people and dancers.

Here is the inside of the court yard.

The second door from the left on the bottom here leads you to. . .

The casements. This series of underground tunnels was a bunker for all castle dwellers in case of a siege. There is room for people and supplies, but it was very dark and dreary. The kids were anxious to get out. Once out though they begged to go back in.

Control over Denmark/Sweden/Norway has shifted a lot throughout history. This castle is situated right on the water were the North and Baltic Seas meet. The King Fredrick liked having control over this waterway.

This is a guard station over looking the water.

Here is the stretch of water. Can you see Sweden? King Fredrick made all ships pay tolls to sail through here, but they also had to lower there top sails as a sort of courtesy bow to Denmark and it's king. If they didn't lower a sail one warning shot was given. The next shot would sink their ship.

Thursday: On we went to Legoland!

Everyone was excited to get to this spot.

After all the history lessons it was fun to let loose.

But we still found some great history. Here is a recreation of the first castle we visited in Europe. Neuschwanstein Castle.

In the "miniland" area we found many miniatures of things we saw and did on our trip. Here is the park were we ate lunch on our first day walking through Copenhagen. How fun to say, "Hey we ate on that bench!"