Sept 16-19, 2009 – Kobenhavn and Helsingor, Denmark

The other sights we took in in Denmark included Kobenhavn and the castle at Helsingor Castle.  This picture is of the Kobenhavn Town Hall.  It forms one side of a huge square that is home to lots of locals and tourists and seemed a popular meeting spot.  Off to one side of this square we found and enjoyed a 2 hour Kobenhavn city bus tour.

Tivoli Gardens is a popular amusement park in downtown Kobenhavn.  Despite Charlotte and Allister’s strong interest (!), due to our time in Kobenhavn, this was as close as we got to enjoying its attractions.

I’d guess everyone recognizes this site.  Our bus tour stopped and let everyone take pictures.  That’s the Queen of Denmark’s yacht in the top left corner and she actually uses it – Charlotte’s CISV friends in Nakskov told us that the Queen had visited Nakskov using this boat earlier in the summer.

Charlotte and Allister and the Little Mermaid.

After the bus tour we took our own walking tour to take a closer look at some of the sights we’d seen while on the tour.  We spend some time touring a very interesting museum, full of original artifacts that memorialized the Danish Resistance role in WWII.

Nearby, and close to an Anglican Church (St. Alban’s – I have a picture but didn’t post it), was a memorial to Churchill.  This bust was shaded by a fairly large tree that had been planted at the same time as the memorial was dedicated.

We had seen plenty of architecture (and would see plenty more!) but I liked the look of Kobenhavn’s new Opera House.

Finally, this was the view from our dinner table in a totally touristy Kobenhavn outdoor cafe.  I think I had seen this view in postcards so I wanted to make sure I captured one for us.  During our dinner, a musical group set up their instruments and performed a very nice set — and then came and asked for a contribution to their respective university funds.

The next day we visited Helsingor Castle, a remarkably well preserved castle that a Danish king had established to collect tariff’s for commercial traffic heading through the narrows between this point in Denmark and Sweden.  Apparently if the right amount of money was not paid, the King ordered his soldiers to fire their cannons on the insolent captain and their ship.

This is a view from an observation point in the castle.  The land across the water at the top of the photo is Sweden.

Part of the castle also doubles as the Danish National Maritime Museum.  Laura-Lyn took this picture of an umiak, an Inuit boat used for hunting.  Those are hides stretched over the hull.  We felt right at home, this boat could also have been part of a Canadian National Maritime Museum, wherever it might exist.

Sept 16-19, 2009 – Nakskov and Slangerup, Denmark

As many may know, both Charlotte and Allister attended international youth camps this year in separate cities in Pennsylvania and attended by youth delegations from all over the world consisting of two boys, two girls, and a leader.

One of the delegations at Charlotte’s camp was from Denmark and we had contact them through e-mail and arranged to meet them.  They had also offered the use of their summer cottage in a place called Slangerup, Denmark for a few days.  Since their cottage was within 30 kms of Copenhagen (Kobenhavn to the natives) they suggested it would be a great place to use as a base to visit both Kobenhavn and a city Helsingor, a city on the Danish coast, right across a narrow strait from Sweden.

Hanna-Marie is the family member that Charlotte met this summer and she is the one leaning next leaning on Charlotte in this picture.  Klaus is pictured to Allister’s right and Millie is preparing to fire the cannon.

 

Both the picture above and the one below were taken on a walk we took with Hanna-Marie’s family around the city of Nakskov.

 

The picture below is of their summer cottage and property (still under construction) where we spent three very restful evenings.

By this point it was apparent to us that Denmark was a high cost country (even more expensive than Germany) so we were grateful for Jens and Tanja’s generosity and hospitality.

Sept 16-19, 2009 – LEGOLAND (Billund, Denmark) and Odense, Denmark

We left Meldorf today for Billund, Denmark, home of LEGOLAND, one of Allister’s ‘must-see’ sights on the trip.  The Louvre, Mont-St-Michel, Berlin Holocaust Memorial and other sites were interesting but only LEGOLAND has generated the expectation in Allister that can only come to the true fanatic.

The site consists of a number of scenes (famous sites, animals public facilities like airports, etc) constructed from, in some cases, > 1 million pieces of Lego.  There is also a number of rides, most of which are aimed at kids aged 4-8.

Here is an example of a lock in Germany, created completely from Lego, right down to components that control the flow of water into and out of the lock and the movement of the ship into and out of the lock.

  

Here are Allister and Charlotte on their favourite ride, the roller coaster.

 

Finally, on our way out of the park I saw this display of a middle-aged gent, in tourist attire, catching a few winks on a bench (complete with sleep sound effects).

A Danish CISV delegation had attended Charlotte’s camp and we had been in contact with them via e-mail but their home, in Nakskov, Denmark was too far for us to drive after visiting LEGOLAND all day so we set our sights and stayed the night at a city named Odense.