Tivoli

This entries coming a day late.  Honestly just forgot and was pretty tired.  Currently we're on a train in Sweden after a bit of confusion earlier at the station, think were good now.

Yesterday we had breakfast at the hotel, which turned out to be a very large spread, with service for coffee.  Did a few different jams and breads and lattes.  Couple interesting juices too.

The bulk of our day was at Tivoli, which is the worlds 2nd oldest amusement park.  We got there shortly after it opened and got ride + entrance passes.  We mostly wasted tge ride portions as Sarah did one with me, I did one by myself.  The park itself is pretty good sized at the center of Copenhagen, its got lots of flowers, little souvenir shops and restaraunts.  Today was big band day apparently so it seemed like it was all local/high school jazz big bands playing in the bandshell.  We got some cocktails to walk around with. 

First ride was the tower drop.  Its been a long time since ive been on one.  I dont really like heights but I was like hey i can get a view of the city.  I did.  I definitely screamed harder than the kids next to me.  Its the kind that holds you at the top for about 10 seconds maybe then drops you.  I could in fact see to the ocean and over the buildings, and wind turbines in the background.  My scream cut off halfway down and i just started laughing.

Sooo I was like alright theres this ither spinny one tgattakes you up but youre in a cart, minimum height is small so kids are doing it.  Can sit inthe cart with Sarah.  Horrible decision.  Spoiler is we didnt die, but 2 adults in one of these squeaky carts spinning around sideways and it lasted what seemed like forever.  It was at least 2 minutes at the top, which seemed much longer.  We got a lot of laughter out of our shared terror from our stupid antelope shaped cart.  And we were done with rides :)

Got some expensive hotdogs, popcorn, and drinks and looked around more.  Sadly the aquarium was closed until later due to a band show.

After we left we looped around a little.  We had planned on going to Freetown Christiania, an oddball hippy-esque non governed area of the city, but wound up passing on it.  We did go to the Nyhavn neighborhood and walking around.  Its a 17th century canal, house, restaraunt area.  It looks pretty enough but its one of those overcrowded tourist areas.

After that we walked around a bit and grabbed some snacks as well as the hard salty licorice Martin had recommended earlier.  Got back to the hotel and packed up again for the next leg of the trip.

We had a late reservation at an Italian place down the road.  A little fancier fare put us over budget for probably the first time (along with the Tivoli tickets).  We had burrata for a starter which was fantastic. Sarah had Filetto Rossini (beef with fois gras, truffles, madeira sauce)  and I had pistachio and wasabi crusted rack of lamb.  Both very good, first time either of us have had fois gras.  I always think of a quote from Gordon Ramsay where he says "Some people say fois grois is cruel, but I think its delicious".  It can be both Gordon, but also I dont think we'd go out of our way for it again. 
Had a couple deserts and some wine.  Shnazzy honeymoon meal.

We watched Airplane! back in the bedroom and fell asleep to it.  Didnt get to see a ton of Copenhagen but had a good time.

Before

After

Jewels!

Sigh... blogger crashed again when I added the last picture.  This is another total redo.

Said our goodbyes to Nana and Martin today at the train station.  Was a 3 hour ride to Copenhagen.

Had Sunset Boulevard burgers there, its a Danish chain they were fine.  Got our 48 hour city passes and tookthe bus close to our hotel.

It was a bit of a walk and when we got to our room we were blasted with hot air.  Hotbox inside.  Opened windows amd stucktheirfan on the sillwhich fixed pretty quickly. We relaxed fora bit then headed to our timeslot we'd booked for Rosenborg Castle, a former residence of Danish royalty going back to King Christian IV in 1606. Very cool to see all the ela orate rooms, grand hall/throne room and the trwasure vault.  Had heftily armed guards which made sense since there were lots of shiny things and the most ivory ive seen in one place.

We managed to get through the vault just as it was closing, so overall good timimg walking through the castle or we mightve missed it.

Stopped for Italian on the way back.  Very good Ravioli and garlic bread, ok pizza.  At the hotel we made it back just before 6 which was during our hotels "cozy hour" where you get a free drink from the bar which we took back to our room. From here just planning out the next day and relaxing a bit

Train coffee backpack + snacks

Relaxing, Harry Potter, and Food Festival

Had another relaxing day getting some good sleep.  Had breakfast and started playing some games.  Flux, a very easy to pickup card game for a while, then onto the more harder stuff.  Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battled, a co-op game that probably took us 4 hours to get through, but we made it, killed Lord Voldemort and everything.  By the end of it it was already 5pm and tge thrift store we had meant to go to was closed :)  No biggy, we'll probably try amd go to one in Copenhagen or maybe even Norrkoping if they have one.  

We did have time though to go to the Aabernanaa food festival.  Little park area with a bunch of food trucks and some live music.  I got some Indian chicken and rice and samosas.  Sarah and Martin got argentinian bbq which was a bit of a dud.  Looked good and was cooked on the fire but the skin wasnt crisped well enough kind of rubbery.  They did some re-dos and got brisket and thai food.  Nana got some fries with veggies and toppings.  And a couple crepes for the road at the end of it.

Headed back and watched Denzel Washington kick some butt in The Equalizer. 

A little afterwards noticed that Rick had shown up for house sitting/checking cats and some weird guy followed him up the driveway (because we creep on him on our security camera).  Called him to let him know.  He asked some mormon folks going door to door if they saw him and I guess he was almostblack out drunk and asked for money.  Then stumbled back to the bowling alley/bar down the road.  Makes sense.  But that was the excitement at the end of our day.

Hogwarts battle, close to the end here

Catnip toy time

This is art on the side of a building in Aabernaa.  Does it speak to you?

Ribe + Great Food

Ribe + Great Food

Had a very nice sleep. Apparently my snores didnt keep anyone up, although Sarah prodded me awake a few times when it got pretty loud. Woke up amd our hosts had a lovely spread for us. Toast and coffee and the spreads/cheese/meats we got at the store yesterday.  

Weather was looking pretty good so we took a trup to Ribe the "Oldest City in Denmark". Sizewise its closer to a town and seemingly according to internet its not necessarily the oldest city, but is very old.  

The church there went up in the 700s. We had a good look around and Martin got some tickets for us to climb up the belltower. Very nice view from the lookout. Could see Sarah but this time she didnt spot us. Also just pretty steep steps all the way up. On the way down Martin got an earful of bell as it went off at the half hour mark.

Theres lots of little canals between houses. Cute streets and old buildings. The ocean is visibleish in the distance (from the tower at least)

Looked around town and went to a book store and window shopped a bit. Touristy town somewhat, apparently a lot of folks who go to Denmarks old Viking settlements (they do have like a Viking museum or two there) and Tibe is a stop for that.

Had a very tasty hotdog for lunch with a Cocio (a chocolate milk brand) which appare tly is pretty traditional to go with Hotdogs in Denmark. I believe in tradition and choccy milk so it what i went with. The dogs have mustard, pickles, remoulade, onions, fried onions.

Afterwards we played some games while Sarah napped and later went to dinner at the restaraunt Nana works at. Beyond excellent meal, all sharables. Had pork jowl with artichoke chips, a tomato cheese salad, mushrooms done 3 ways, fried risoto balls, chicken wrapped in thin bacon, and tuna with a wasabi mayo. Wish we could teleport back here for meals, although might be willing to fly for it, it was that good :) Thank you so much Nana!

Mostly just talking, games, and digesting afterwards. Martin and I are both nerds and tend to go off on tangents about card games or video games, more ❤️ for Sarah and Nana for putting up with us.