Jensen Denmark trip 2014: July 2014

Last night being a late night on the town, I let everyone sleep in. We hit breakfast at 11:00 this morning for crepes and then headed down the walking mall again to do a little shopping. Then we boarded a canal boat and road it across the harbour to the experimentarium. It was a very cool place with tons of games, science interactive pods and exhibits for all ages to enjoy. Hopping back on the boat, we saw the Mermaid in the harbour statue (finally) and then got off at Copenhagen's biggest indoor mall. This came just in time as it got cold and windy on the water and Makayla had to pee! We had a nice Tai dinner and then rented Segway scooters to ride around an indoor track in the mall. This was super fun except when makayla went screaming past me yelling "daddy, I can't stop!" She almost hit the wall, but was fine. Worth a few good laughs though!! One final 10 block walk and we were back a the apartment to start packing and hit the sack. We don't leave until 3:10 tomorrow, so we will have time for 1 last yummy breakfast before we head to the airport snd on to LAX. This Time I don't care if our flight is cancelled...having too much fun. hahaha!

Shopping.

Makayla making big bubbles at the Experimentarium!

Optical illusion.

Erik too... Wow

The mermaid statue in the harbour!

Spiral tower in Christianshavn

Beautiful Danish architecture.

Segway time!

All on all a great day and a fantastic vacation. I will post 1 more time before we leave with any last minute pics or trip updates.

Tuesday 7/1

After letting the kids sleep in, we set off on a marathon walking tour of the city to take in the sights we hadn't hit the first time around. Included was the botanical gardens, royal gardens, the artist section of Norrebro and the science/ experimentarium for makayla. Needless to say we didn't get it all in! The parks were beautiful and the weather again perfect. It was a Long haul to Norrebro and while the "Peoples Park" was fun for the kids ton play in, there were not as many restaurants as hoped. We waited to long to get lunch and everyone got very "hangry". Hangry is a real word which describes how one gets when they don't eat and are tired: Hungry + Angry = Hangry. I could see a melt down or two about to happen, so we finally stumbled into a small Italian place run by a funny little man named "Ronny" from Bangladesh. It smelled wonderful, but we were the only ones there and a little nervous. He was very happy to have customers and greated us warmly and made us whatever we wanted, most of which we're not standard menu items. Both Haley & Erik are vegetarians, which means we need to find places to eat that have options for them. This is not always easy in a city dominated by fish, smorrebrod (basically a meat buffet) and Shwarma (kebab) restaurants. Ronny old not believe that Erik at 6'3" was a vegetarian and kept trying to convert him to eating meat again. The food was amazing. Fresh salmon sandwich for Amy, ravioli form makayla and deep dish pizzas for myself, Haley & Erik. A most satisfying meal, which we ended up taking some home for breakfast!

Now int was time to go back to the apartment, everyone had full bellies and sore feet, so instead of taking a cab ($$$), we decided to try the bus. Hahaha. What a mistake. 4 buses and an hour later, we finally made it back to the apartment exhausted. It seems everyone we asked had a different opinion how to get where we wanted to go. The bus drivers did not speak English and we rode 2 of the buses without paying and played "dumb American tourist." We could have walked in half the time. Oh well.

After a nap and a shower, Amy and makayla settled in to watch a movie and I redressed to escort Haley & Erik out for a night on the town. Haley had a high school friend also visiting Copenhagen and they wanted to go out for a drink. I suggested Ruby's , the #1 rated bar for unique cocktails I the city. It again was a 20 walk, but we'll worth it. Her friends were there and we had a nice chat over a Danish whiskey sour. The drinking age here is either 16, or 18, but not really enforced, Erik with his size and rock star look wasn't asked for ID. Sort of a right of passage for the boy going off to college a year early. Yes, I am a cool dad, like my dad was. When we used to go to Europe with him on business and I was 16, he let me sample the local fare as we'll and besides being fun, it made the transition to adult life not such a big surprise. We got home at 1:00 and all slept like babies.

Today is our last day and yet to be planned. It's 8:00 a.m., I am out of cappuccino and need to go back and wake up the family for our last days adventure.

One thing I will really miss about Europe, is being able to get up early (despite when I went to bed) and walk around the corner to a hip cafe and blog away with a strong cup of coffee and a fresh croissant. Watching the people go by on there bikes, hearing all the different languages being spoken around you and having the church bell tower chimes to remind you of the time, is very cool for me. While we have great weather, and many luxuries in Southern California, we really have that feeling. Sorry Starbucks, it's just not the same!