Segways, Hippies and Hawaiian Music - What a day!

After today I think we have covered every corner of Copenhagen.  We even saw two segways , one licensed in Colorado and the other licensed in Alaska.  I bet they had a long drive on those suckers.

We spotted these segways out near the statue of the mermaid today.  We didn’t see any of the drivers but I think you can rent them some place in the city and use them for sightseeing.

The second part of our tour this morning took us over to the big hippie settlement called Christiania.  Forty years ago it was an abandoned Army base.  Some mothers wanted to make it a park for their children, so they knocked down the fences and started using the area.  Well lo and behold guess who else moved into the old barracks and other abandoned buildings, the Woodstock generation.  The hippies took over the old base and have been there ever since.  We strolled through the settlement and looked at all the run down places and all the items they had for sale (such as marijuana in any form you wanted along with any type of marijuana paraphernalia) along with hippie clothes and jewelry.  Cindy picked up a great water pipe (just kidding).   We do have some bad news.  We also took the Flat Ones with us this morning and we haven’t seen them since we were in the hippie camp!

Our next stop was at the famous Tivoli Gardens an amusement park built in 1843.  This is located in the heart of Copenhagen.  Below is a photo of the main entrance.  Everyone who has been to Copenhagen says you have to go to Tivoli and now I can say that we did but as they say once is enough.

Oh yes I bet you are wondering what I meant with the title of this blog entry, Hawaiian? I thought they were in Denmark?  Well where else can you go and visit an amusement park and hear Hawaiian songs sung in German at a Chinese pavilion?  Well Denmark of course!  Made me feel homesick for Kauai.  So we went to the Hawaiian Luau for dinner.  Not really but we did have Japanese food for dinner at the park.  Isn’t that why we came to Denmark?

Above you can see the group (if you close one eye and hold your hand over the other they do look a little like Hawaiians).  I think I spent too much time at Christiania breathing in all that smoky air.

Besides the entertainment, Tivoli also had beautiful gardens, many with fountains

            

as well as plenty of amusement park rides. This one is a freefall-type ride and costs the equivalent of $16 for one ride that lasts all of 1 minute and 15 seconds!

     

I couldn’t resist taking this photo of the Nautilus: a kids’ ride that Maile, Mason, Nikos & Kira would love (and Olive when she’s older) because it reminded us of the Dumbo ride at Disney!

         

That brings us to the end of another great day in Copenhagen!

Change of Plans

While Bill was updating the blog this morning, I noticed that the weather was beginning to change from sunny skies to cloudy. Rather quickly the wind picked up and storm clouds appeared. We decided against doing another tour with Hans today (he does 4 separate tours to various parts of the city) instead opting for the Hop On Hop Off bus which would take us to some indoor attractions. This proved to be a good choice. There are 3 different loops around the city that are included. They all intersect at City Hall plaza, where you switch busses. We did one complete loop around on the first bus just to see where we wanted to get off.There’s commentary in several languages (via earphones) to describe the places of interest as the bus passes by. We decided to make our first stop the Carlsberg Brewery. They have a nice Visitors Center that includes the world’s largest unopened beer bottle collection (as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records.) As of this month, there are 14,778 bottles displayed there!

When we finished the tour it was time for lunch, so we decided to order a sandwich to eat along with the 2 beers that we each had coming with the price of admission. I’m not much of a beer drinker and thought I wouldn’t like it, but didn’t want to forego the free beer. I asked for the mildest one they had. The server asked “mildest in alcohol content, or mildest in taste?” Taste, I told her, and was given Tuborg. It was actually very good, and went well with the sandwich.

                        

Our timing was perfect, as the rain had stopped when we walked from the brewery back to the bus stop. The covering had been removed from the top of the double-decker busses so we could enjoy the sights from there for the rest of the day.

Two other stops of note are the Little Mermaid statue

                     

and the Danish Resistance Museum, which catalogues life in Denmark during World War II. That museum is filled with memorabilia from the turmoil that the Danes lived through from 1940-1945.

Here’s Bill in the museum’s courtyard with an armored car that was built by the Danish resistance to defend against the Germans.

              

When we got off the bus we stopped for dinner at a hot dog cart for the traditional Danish treat. YUM!

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat both of these; one was for Bill!

                   

A day with Hans

Wow did we have a busy day yesterday.  As you can see from the photo above we met with Hans Christian Anderson in the morning and he took us on a walking tour of part of the old town Copenhagen. We are standing in front of the Royal Library with our new best friend Hans. 

Cindy and I left the hotel under cloudy skies so we borrowed two umbrellas from the hotel.  We were lucky and didn’t need them at any time during the day.  We found a small coffee shop to have breakfast before our tour.  We each had a cappuccinos and a bowl of fruit, granola and yogurt for a mere $26.00.  Well Toto I don’t think we are in Starbucks land anymore!

After our tour with Hans we headed for the Natural History museum.  The museum is really large and we only got to see a small part of it.  I thought the most interesting part was what I read about the occupation by the Germans during WW II.

The tour ended right near Holmen’s Church, one of the main Lutheran churches in downtown Copenhagen.  Denmark is over 90% Lutheran. This one was built in the 1600’s in honor of all the sailors.  We stepped inside to take a look and the inside was fantastic. The following photos give you some idea of all the beautiful wood carvings in the church. The altar is the oldest in Denmark.

Our next stop was a the Christianborg Palace.  This is where the Queen has all the state dinners and where she receives dignitaries and us commoners on News Year day. The palace is also the home of the Danish Parliament and the Supreme Court.

 

This is one of the pillars leading into the reception hall to the palace.  We could only take photos in this room.  The palace was rebuilt for the 5th time in 1928.  It had been destroyed each time by fire.

Our buddy Hans told us about a great local cafe (Canal Cafe) for a good traditional Danish open face sandwich.  We stopped in and he was right.  The place was filled with locals and us.  We had some great sandwiches beer and wine (beer is more expensive than wine) and headed out for more sightseeing.

 

After lunch we took a canal tour and then walked halfway across the city to climb the spire of this unique Lutheran Church. (did I mention that this place is overrun by Lutherans?)  After 400 steps you reach the top of the spire you have a fantastic view of the city.

Tight fit for a thin guy like me (got to cut the beer out at lunch)

 

Reminded us of Venice   

Well I would love to add more but we have to run and meet our buddy Hans for another tour of the City.

San Francisco to Copenhagen

Whew! We’re exhausted! We left Antioch on Sunday at 3:00 pm when Melanie picked us up to take us to the BART station, with plans to spend the night at the Residence Inn near the airport. After dinner and a good night’s sleep we left the hotel at 9:00 Monday morning for our flight. We flew from San Francisco to New York to London to Copenhagen.

At JFK, Bill, Flat John & Flat Mary Ann check on our flight.

As you can see in the photo, our great traveling buddies, Flat Mary Ann and Flat John were once again able to join us. They were with us on our Australian trip in 2007  and proved to be such agreeable travel partners that we’re happy to have them with us again.

Okay, getting back to the “exhausted” part . . . we checked into our hotel in Copenhagen 23 hours after leaving SFO! We resisted the temptation to take a nap, knowing from past experience that the quickest way to adapt to the new time schedule is to adhere to it from the get-go. Contributing to our tiredness was the fact that we walked 8.71 miles from the time we left Antioch until we went to bed in Copenhagen.

We’re tired all over again because today we walked 10.93 miles all over Copenhagen. Tomorrow, we’ll write about today’s activities, but now I’m ready to get to bed! We are 9 hours ahead of Pacific time, and as I write this it’s almost 10:00 at night. Let me just say that we’ve had a really good start to our vacation!

Disney World is HOT HOT HOT

There are several definitions of the word HOT which could appropriately describe Disney World, but I’m talkin’ weather here! Sure, having grown up on the East Coast Bill & I knew Florida is hot and humid in July, but when we got an invitation to spend a week having fun with our grandchildren in one of the Happiest Places on Earth, the weather concerns took a back seat!

Strapping Olive and Nikos into their seats for the first trip into Disney World . . . we’re so glad we were there for the experience.

We had a wonderful week in Orlando with Heather, Taki, Nikos and Olive. They traded into a timeshare that Bill and I had stayed in with Melanie, Vernie, Maile and Mason in January 2007. With its pirate-themed pool and water play area, it is a perfect place to stay with little kids.

4-month-old Olive napping poolside after her swim. Isn’t this the definition of VACATION?

During the week, we visited Downtown Disney as well as 3 of the theme parks: the Magic Kingdom (more than once), Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. In Downtown Disney we had a memorable dinner at the Rain Forest Café. Poor Nikos was very leery of the life-sized elephants that trumpeted loudly (and realistically. After all, this IS Disney) every 15 minutes or so. After the first couple of times, we realized we just had to angle his seat away from the elephants so he wouldn’t be so aware of them. By the time the volcano dessert arrived, those scary elephants were forgotten!

We had planned our Rain Forest reservations so that we wouldn’t miss the second attempt to launch Endeavor. The day before, we had been in position on the top floor at the timeshare when the launch was scrubbed. Luckily, Taki had his iPhone on the NASA website so we knew immediately when the countdown was halted. Sure enough, the 2nd attempt got postponed also, but as you can see, we had found a good viewing spot in Downtown Disney.

For the 3rd Endeavor launch attempt, we were in the Magic Kingdom. Some of the Disney ‘cast members’ told us where to go to get an unobstructed view. This time, there were no problems, and the shuttle took off and we saw it! I have to admit it almost brought tears to my eyes and it was hard to swallow for a few minutes. We were all speechless -- yes, even Heather and I –- immediately following the launch. Of course, that condition didn’t last long enough for Bill and Taki!

Here we are, minutes before the launch. Note the lack of crowds . . . most people were watching the parade on Main Street.

The Magic Kingdom was definitely a big hit with Nikos, which is why we kept returning to that park. Two of his favorite rides were Dumbo (which I don’t have any pictures of) and the Tomorrowland Speedway. Look at his head, barely showing above the top of the steering wheel. I’m sure he couldn’t see a thing!

Our visit to Animal Kingdom brought great memories. On the Kilimanjaro Safari we laughed about the crocodiles that we had suspected were ‘fake’ when we took this ride several years ago. The crocs weren’t in the same place this time, so we conceded that they must be real (though unmoving). Despite the heat, many of the other animals were moving around, some quite close to the vehicle as this giraffe demonstrates.

Epcot was next up. We made a beeline for The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Even Baby Olive was enthralled on this colorful ride.

 

Outside, Nikos enjoyed some time up close and personal with Nemo and Dorrie.

Most days, we took the tram from our van in the parking lot to the entrance of the park. The great thing about going to Disney World with a 2-year-old is, even the parking lot tram is fun experience!

And, one last photo from our trip. I captured Olive and Bill as they were patiently waiting for everyone else to get ready to go to the pool. I just love this shot.

Thunderstorms

Living where we do in California, one of the things Bill and I miss are thunderstorms. It’s probably hard for you to understand if you (a) live in an area that has thunderstorms or (b) have never lived in a thunderstorm area. We know, from talking to other transplants, that we’re not alone in this.

On our second day in Orlando, we had a terrific thunder and lightning storm. Heather, Niko and I observed it from our screened balcony. Bill and Taki were out buying groceries at Publix where the emergency generators kicked in after the lights went out. Olive slept through it all!

For those of you who follow Heather’s blog, you’ve seen the video. Here’s a still shot that shows the blowing rain. You’ll just have to imagine the flashing lightning and crashing thunder.