Denmark Tourism

David and I have had a really fun last three days exploring Denmark with different families. We have been to Lego Land with Lise and her two children Magnus and Ida, to Roskilde (and the viking museum and a famous cathedral in Denmark) with Birgitte and her son Jeppe, and today we visited the town of Odense, where a lot of the family lives, with Gunnar (the husband of Kirsten who is my Mormor's sister) and his daughters Birgitte and Dorte, as well as Dorte's husband Jan and their children Rasmus and Emilie. Then we enjoyed dinner with Kirsten and Gunnar with the whole family tonight. It has been a very nice time.

Unfortunately it is already very late and tomorrow David and I will be going to Copenhagen very early in the morning (we must be up at 6) so I will simply include some photos to bring you up to speed:

This is "Miniland" in Lego Land where they build representations of real towns or landmarks in Lego-size proportions. This is Nyhavn, a part of Copenhagen, but it shows you how intricate the replicas are. There were buses driving around and boats moving along the canal.

There are many rides throughout the park, and some are intended just for thrill (we also did some of these) and others are more to show off some Lego creations. This was a boat ride which was more for Lego viewing. I particularly liked this part with the man dangling another man whose shoe has fallen off over an eager alligator.

This is David being unfaithful. Look at the way she is looking at him!

Here we are at Mount Rushmore in mini-version. I cannot remember exactly but David and I think that there were 2.5 million Legos used to construct this replica.

Here was the "safari" that we went on. From this angle you can see a giraffe, some wilder beast and a zebra but there were also lions, some baboons, flamingos and elephants. The best part actually was watching David squeeze into the little car which was intended for small children. That was quite funny.

Yesterday we were in Roskilde where there is a famous cathedral (which you can see above) and a Viking museum that we also saw. This is a really unique cathedral because almost all of the Danish monarchy s buried here for the last 1000 years. It was also quite ornate.

This is a historic clock that can be found in the cathedral and which was built in the 1400's and still works today. On the hour the prince and his horse rear up and slay the dragon which wails before the bell sounds the hour. We got to hear the "chiming" at 14:00. 

This is a view inside the Viking museum. These are remains of viking ships which were sunk around the year 1040 and recovered about 75 years ago. They are very interesting to see. Also we had an English guide which was extremely informative and interesting so we learned a lot about the Viking times.

This morning we visited Odense and the Hans Christian Andersen village. This is David and I with a statue. The museum that we entered was very interesting and permitted us to much better understand the life and the crazy imagination of the fairy tale writer.

Also in Odense we visited Fynen Village which is a gathering of some of the oldest farm houses from the Fyn island (the middle Danish island) set up with some of their original furnishing and also workshops with "peasents" performing the tasks of the time. We got to see weaving and basket-making and wood carving and also got to extensively explore old farming. I also found horses that I got to pet (=

Here I took a picture of a woman making lace with a bunch of pins stuck in a little holder thing and she was quickly maneuvering all of those strings around to make a lace pattern. She had made about 4 inches in 3 hours. But it was truly incredible to watch.

Here are David and I in front of another one of the many historic properties in the village. We also saw an old school building and a "prison" which was really a lot more like a house with thick walls. 

We ended today playing Matador (which is the Danish version of our Monopoly, almost exactly the same game) with Peter and Trine's sons, Mikkal on the left and Emil. We have paused the game because it got too late, but it is looking like Mikkal will probably win.

Now I will get off to bed so that I can get all the sleep that is left for my day in Copenhagen tomorrow. My love from Denmark!