Don’t know if having been to the greatest cities in the world, New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, etc. has jaded us towards the beauty of smaller ones, or more likely we’re just not able to enjoy them to their fullest with kids, but we’re done for awhile and yearn for the countryside.  We were in Copenhagen for 2 days and don’t have much to say about it. The last day we were hoping for a revival of the wonderful family friendly parks in Paris and London when we set off for Tivoli Gardens only to find it a mix of Times Square and some really bad mid-western amusement park--though we did have a surprising good meal on a Pirate Ship.


Denmark is beautiful in a rural sort of way. We loved the open face sandwiches (smoresbord) and had one of our best castle experiences at Egescov, but we were ready to move on—badly.


Happy to be back in the HOW!!


I got a special thrill out of walking in the rain with my bucket of dirty dishes. You know how I like to keep busy, none of this living the life of a courtier (yes, I’m reading another book about romance, war and torture in France in the 17th century) so it may come as no surprise that despite my protestations, I missed the HOW.

Even though there was “deadly” black mold growing throughout the refrigerator and the whole place smelled of rotten eggs and oddly bacon (perhaps the ole Dane working on the engine made a snack?), we were all VERY happy to be back in our home away from home.


The breakdown was a great excuse to reenergize. We hung out, sought out decent Mexican food and failed miserably (as Bette reminded me, when in Rome…), did laundry, and generally took full advantage of free wifi.

 

 
We rushed from an 8th century Viking settlement, Haithabu  in northern Germany, to the most sought after tourist destination in all of Denmark and perhaps all of Scandinavia--the original Legoland! We knew when the campsite was full that we might be in some trouble an indeed the place was JAMMED the next day. Mini World made it all worthwhile--it seemed to be a peaceful oasis amongst the Teva wearing Danes and had the most interesting buildings including: US Kennedy Space Center, the Denmark Queen's Palace and Skagen (where the two seas meet at the top of Denmark-more on this once we visit). Needless to say the kids had fun, but it made me homesick!


Yesterday we spent the day at the most magnificent castle yet-Egeskov Slot http://www.egeskov.dk/en/node/378weeblylink_new_window. It's privately owned and the owners still live in parts of the Castle. The grounds were unbelievable--filled with labyrinths, hanging walkways, beautiful gardens, a world class motorcycle and auto museum to boot. 


Today we arrived in Copenhagen and are still a little shell shocked. After spending the past 2-3 weeks in rural towns and campsites the city assaulted our senses--people everywhere. We are now happily hiding in our hotel watching the Tour and coming up with a new plan of attack for tomorrow. Our hotel is fanatstic. The Hotel Admiral is an old warehouse converted into a maritime hotel filled with museum quality ship replicas and gives off a feeling of being on a ship. It doesn't hurt that it's in the middle of Copenhagen with a fantastic view of the new Opera house. http://www.admiral-hotel-copenhagen.com/