Another week, over. School is winding down here and both kids have been super busy with end of year projects and studying for end of the year exams. It has been taking up all of our free time in the evenings to help them keep up with the work. We cannot wait til school is over!
Friday, we headed to the airport for our Memorial Day Weekend trip: Copenhagen!
After we landed, we got checked into our Airbnb, which was in a really cool, old building, on Copenhagen’s oldest residential street. Our walking tour the following day, would actually walk us down our street and point out the old section of buildings. Copenhagen has had two great fires and this is one of the only streets to survive both.
After we got checked in, we headed out for a walk. The weather was calling for storms but it looked nice at the moment, so we headed to Nyhavn for some pictures and a late lunch.
We picked a restaurant along the harbor and put our order in. So far, it was a beautiful afternoon. It wasn’t five minutes before a torrential downpour with high winds came through. Matt and Ryan were sitting under the restaurant’s umbrella but Brooklyn and I got soaked. Luckily, it was over in about five minutes, right before the food came, so we made the most of it.
After our lunch, we took a walk down Stroget, which is Europe’s longest pedestrian shopping street. We made several stops but the most important was the Flagship Lego store, where both kids picked out new Lego kits.
We had an extra special weekend because Matt’s cousins, Candra and Kellan flew into Copenhagen to hang out with us for the weekend. We met and had dinner at a Danish restaurant and then finished the evening at a pub with some beers.
Saturday morning, we headed out on a two and half hour walking tour. We walked all the way from Main City Square to Amalienborg Palace, with tons of stops in between. It was one of the better walking tours we’ve been on and covered so much Danish history, as well as modern Copenhagen life. The day started out cold and windy, but drastically improved as the morning went on.
After our tour, we met up with Candra, Kellan, and Baby Kai, who brought some refreshing beers along. We headed across the canal to an outdoor food market, Broens Gadekøkken, for a long lunch with drinks. By the time we got to the food market, it was a beautiful day and I think I may have annoyed my companions with how many times I was commenting on it.
After our lunch, we walked back through Copenhagen, this time through Christianshavn, the neighborhood across the river from the Old Town. Ryan had fun pushing the stroller and it was so cute to see him trying to push it gently over the cobblestones.
We grabbed some burgers and beers at a craft beer pub in Christianshavn and then headed back across the river to Candra and Kellan’s hotel. When we got there, we found a party outside on the dock and had a few more drinks there.
Sunday looked like another beautiful day. We started with breakfast at 7-11, which is a big chain in Denmark and has a huge, delicious bakery. Ryan got his two hotdogs from one of the many hot dogs stands. He ate this for breakfast every day.
Since it was so nice out, we headed out on a one hour boat cruise. As we were sitting on the dock, we were all commenting on how hot is was and how intense the sun was. About ten minutes into the cruise, we started feeling raindrops and then within another minute, it was another torrential downpour. This went on for another fifteen minutes and got so bad, the boat made an emergency stop to let some passengers off. We persevered though and survived the cruise, which ended really sunny.
After the cruise, Brooklyn & Ryan got some baby snuggles in at our apartment and then we headed out to lunch.
The adults ordered Smørrebrød, which is the traditional Danish, open-faced sandwich. Brooklyn had a burger and Ryan waited until we could head back out to get two more hot dogs from his favorite hot dog stand. At this point the hot dog man knew us on sight and knew Ryan’s order.
After lunch, we headed to Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. It is right in downtown Copenhagen. It was the first park to have separate “theme worlds” throughout like China, Japan, and Germany and the rides, decor, and food stalls match the theme. Today, most amusement parks follow the same method. Walt Disney even visited in the 1950s and drew his inspiration for the Disney parks.
We snacked on lots of the themed foods and drinks throughout the park. For dinner, we ate in the Tivoli Foodhall, which has food from all over the world and made every person in the family happy. Matt had Thai, Ryan had Ramen, I had sushi, and Brooklyn got her usual burger.
We closed down the park, but not before stopping at the Tivoli Lego store for more Legos for the kids, who had already finished assembling the ones from Friday.
You can’t tell from the two photos above but it’s about 10pm and overcast, yet still light out. Because it is so far north and we are approaching the summer solstice, it did not get full dark until around midnight and it was full bright again by 4am. This made sleeping pretty difficult while we were there.
Monday morning we packed up and checked out of our Airbnb. We made one more stop at 7-11 for pastries and then headed to a cafe for breakfast with Candra, Kellan, and Kai.
It was such an awesome weekend, and a much needed catch up with family. We cannot wait to do it again!
Gilcrests Abroad 