WORLD GEOGRAPHY 101: Denmark

I am a bit of a travel nerd. When I found the super cheap tickets to Amsterdam, I immediately started pulling together my plan for a WWII "field trip" for the kids.  We would read certain books together and visit certain sites in The Netherlands and Belgium and it would be awesome.   BUT, there was only one minor problem....I've already been to both Netherlands and Belgium, which would mean that we would be on this cool European trip and I wouldn't visit any new countries. What's the problem with that, you ask?   Well, I'm a Crain.  That means I've got travel in my blood and I'm competitive.   So, in order to ensure that I at least got to add one new country to my list,  I added Denmark to the itinerary.   Denmark also has lots of WWII history too and tickets from Brussels to Copenhagen were super cheap, so it worked out well.

And even more serendipitously, our good friends, the Tanners, just happen to move to Copenhagen the week before we got there.   We had no idea that them moving there was even a possibility when we bought the tickets, so their timing and their presence there at all  really was just a happy accident!   I hesitated asking them for anything, since they had just barely arrived into town too, but they were excited and eager to host their first guests, and I'll be honest, we were pretty excited too.  We'd been living life as the "new kids" in Pennsylvania and it was great to see "old friends". Glen hadn't been able to come on the trip with us, so I was navigating and decision making all on my own, and by the time we got to Copenhagen, we were tired and desperately craved a little "taste of home." 

Ellie couldn't get enough of their dogs or their sweet little girl, Naomi, who was happy to have another girl to play with!

The view from their temporary housing was amazing!

Since they had just arrived into town themselves, they didn't mind joining us on almost all of our adventures, which meant we all had friends to hang out with!

We hopped on a tourist bus and just let it take us around town.  Nyhavn was charming and picturesque.

And so were Adam and Ellie! 

 

 The Little Mermaid statue was cool to see in real life, even if it was a tad anticlimactic!  

WE went to the National Museum of Denmark. 

It was nice to get in out of the cold and spend some time learning about the beautiful country of Denmark!

We even got to dress in some traditional Viking clothing.

Don't we look cute?

We did more exploring around town.

This was Rosenborg Castle.

We climbed to the top of the Church of Our Savior...

which has a super windy, somewhat nervewracking outdoor staircase...

But it is an amazing way to see Copenhagen from above...

and so cool to see how the old blended with the new.

We wandered into the slightly scandalous Christiania, also known as Free Town.

People in Christiania consider consider themselves outside the jurisdiction of the government.  There's even a sign that says, "Leaving the European Union" as you walk in.  Additionally, they don't really like pictures being taken of them, especially in the marijuana part of town. 

It was an interesting place to visit, although I don't think I'd need to go back if we visit Copenhagen again.   Speaking of visiting Copenhagen, I would highly recommend a visit there if you ever get the chance.  It's  a beautiful city with a lot of history.  

And it has a temple!   It is one of the few temples built from pre-existing buildings (because the cost of land there is so darn expensive).

Also....

We visited the "Church of Our Lady" to see the original Christus statue...

It was late and they had the lights dimmed when we were there, but it was still so neat to see it in person.  (These pictures are from the internet)

We also enjoyed seeing the statues of the 12 apostles and Peter holding the keys to the priesthood. 

 

And to wrap up coverage of our Fall 2019 trip,  here are a few more random pictures.