Easter weekend in Copenhagen

We treated ourselves to another rented Mercedes and hit the road on Friday morning. Here is a snap shot of us cross the ocean From Germany to Denmark:

We had to take the Ferry to make the jump from the island to the mainland. It reminded me of taking the Ferry in Seattle when we would visit my Dad's side of the family. So to keep even more of the Rylander tradition alive I made Matt play a card game with me while we sailed. I let him win until we were about to dock, then I killed him in less than 60 seconds in a game of speed. He felt hustled but decided he loved me anyways.

The Ferry ride to Denmark

Fun on the Ferry

When we arrived in Copenhagen we checked into the brand new 4 star Crown Plaza Hotel (thank you Hotwire for the deal!). We ditched our bags and got on the tram (which has no drivers in Denmark, it is all automated) and decided we would get off at the stop that the most people got off at and deem it the center of downtown. Following the crowd payed off this time and by just walking around the city we immediately fell in love with it! Even while we were on the tram on the way in we could tell this was our kind of town just by the way everyone was dressed. The buildings were remarkable. There was creativity and originalitz oozing from every street corner. There were more statues, sculptures and works of art out on the streets than I could count. We felt happy and productive just walking around becuase it was just one of those places that needed to be experienced rather than to hit the major tourist attractions (we tried to do both).

Wall Art/good advice!

This was my favorite statue in town! As some of you know, I have a real gift for balancing on my hands. They say art imitates life, but in this case it is the other way around (can you see me??)

For dinner we walked into a random hotel and asked for suggestions. We were led to Jensen's Beef House for a traditional Danish meal. That is where rachael had steak number 1 and where we discoverd The Queens Delight! If you have never met her, let me do the introductions...

Meet The Queen. A waffle pilled mess with ice cream, chocolate sauce, strawberry gooiness and hazelnuts.

She was indeed a delight.

After dinner we wandered around some more and and decided to go to a little jazz club that I had found in my online research. It turned out to be so fun! It was this small, classy and jam packed club/bar. The band was squished under the staircase but they rocked their bluesy hearts out. Matt got chummy with the Drummer and he assured us that getting involved in the music scene was the right thing to do in Copenhagen becuase it was a town filled with culture. We had a great time listening and talking with the exception of the singer screaming "He** Yeeeah!" the entire night. Haha, we loved the Mojo Movers.

The band: The Mojo Movers

Saturday morning we awoke and set off for Kronburg Castle. This is the very castle that the Denmark royalty of old lived in. And even more exciting to me, it is the castle that Shakespeare set his play Hamlet to. During our tour, the tour guide was ever so apologetic to be the one to tell us that Hamlet was fictional... but he did tell us of another prince of Denmark who's father was killed, who's mother remarried his uncle, and who killed his uncles spy on accident and was sent to another country. The story starts to stray from Shakespeare's version when he comes back, throws a party, and when everyone falls asleep he wraps them in tapestries and lit them all on fire. No wonder Shakespeare version was the hit.

Here it is.

I want a door just like this some day. Preferably without the Dungeon or Barn attached..

Before the tour of where the king and queen lived started we walked through the erie and dark casemates. We were told that in Denmark casemate means house in darkness. When we walked through we learned that underneath the castle the burrowed tunnels and rooms in the stone to house the soldiers the would recruit in times of war. Under the castle the casemates could hold up to 1,000 Soldiers with their guns and food storage.

Also in this underground labryinth was a statue of Holger the Dane. Legend has it that he laid sleeping in a cave and would wake up whenever Denmark was threatened and protect them.

Holger the Dane.

In this courtyard every summer Hamlet is performed by different groups. We came to early to see a play but we saw pictures of the chinese version, the breakdance version, and a childrens version.

This castle has the biggest Ballroom in all of Europe.

On the ceilings were pictures depicting their favorite stories and myths. Such a fun idea, I might steal it one day.

During the tour I sensed a little disdain for the Swedish because of all the precious things they looted when they took over and occupied the castle for a time. So I LOVED it when we saw the cannons pointing their way!

It was so fun to get to see a REAL castle!

After our journey north, we made our way back down to Copenhagen and stopped at Bakken, the worlds oldest amusement park! It boasts 400 years of activity. Although there was nothing old about it, except the outdated and kinda freaky characters.

Here is Matt with our first Kroner Bill.

How disgusting is this Beef Bar?? And the faces painted on the windows were just disturbing.

I copied the gross girls face on the beef bar because

I ate 4 steaks while we were in Copenhagen. 4 STEAKS.

After the Castle and the Amusement park we finished the day with The Shout Out Louds. They are a band from Sweden who just put out a new album after a couple years hiatus. They were sooo fun!

Sunday, or Easter, was so pleasant. We woke up and had a 3 course brunch, listened to some General Conference and hit the pavement to explore some more.

Isn't Copenhagen charming??

This is me spooning the ice cream scoops. Matt made me take this picture because I have had ice cream practically everyday since we've been married :)

This is where we had our perfect Easter dinner. To show our loyalty to America we ate Barock (Obama)'s. I got my 3rd steak, and matt got a nice salmon fillet. It is funny to watch the waiter bring out our meals and get a little confused when the lad insists that the steak is hers and the salmon is Matt's.

We actually didn't eat there becuase of the name, it was

becuase we were obsessed with this outdoor nook.

Monday, our last day in Scandanavia, we thought we would hit some of the major sights. While we were making our way to the Palace we saw this pretty church (pictured below). The spire was so amazing with all that black and gold we couldn't stop starring! All that staring payed off when we noticed that it was an outdoor staircase! We always love to get a nice panoramic view of the city so we drove over to make the 170 step climb to the top even though it was pouring rain.

Here is the Church.

The stairway got so narrow at the top.

The view from the top; Copenhagen.

We got to the Palace just in time to see the Changing of the Guards. It was so cool! I don't know how they do all that marching while keeping their feet so flat. We got a little too close a few times and were quickly shewed away:

The Palace really was pretty. When we walked by the night before you could see some chandeliers glittering through the windows. It was great to see all the action in the light. The statue behind us is of Christian the 5th. All of Denmark's kings were alternately named Christian and Frederick.

While you stand in the Royal courtyard looking out, this is your view:

Matt thought this Church was so incredible

and it was!

Here are the 12 apostels starring down at us from the ceiling.

We walked back to the hotel going through different malls to avoid the rain and we found this T-shirt:

Since we actually met on a blind date, we couldn't agree more! We refrained from buying this piece of junk and settled for a picture. But the truth of it remains- blind dates ARE more fun! (shout out to steph and anth for setting us up).

And that was Copenhagen, our new favorite european city.