friday, 7/10
this was our travel day. thankfully, our train didn’t leave too early, so we could wake up around our normal time and have a leisurely morning. we got on a train that took us to berlin, then we got on a {DOUBLE DECKER} bus to copenhagen. there were about 6 people total on this bus, which made it nice. we rode on it for about 4 hours, then we had to go across water, so the bus drove onto a ferry and we got off the bus and wandered around the boat. it was awesome. the ferry ride was two hours, so we had plenty of wandering/relaxing time. note: it was very very w i n d y on the side of the boat.
we love ferry rides!!
so then we got back on our bus to continue to copenhagen. this time there were only 3 of us, so we went and sat in the very front (on the top, of course). it was coolio.
we decided to use airbnb for the first time this weekend, and it was a success! it was a little weird because it turned out that the girl was just going to stay with a friend while we were there. so we were literally living in her house while she stayed a few minutes away. kinda weird. but it was good. she was super nice and it all turned out wonderful. we got in kinda late, so we just decided to hit the hay and rest ourselves for our epic days ahead of us.
saturday, 7/11
single disappointment of the whole trip: there were eight hundred thousand million (don’t worry, that’s a thing. i’m a math teacher) 7-11s that we passed throughout the day (there were at least 4 at every train station, and then one about every 12 feet on the streets) and WE DIDN’T GET A SLURPEE. we were so disappointed in ourselves when we realized. ugh.
we woke up and took a train to frederiksborg castle. tayte was really excited about seeing this view:
we were very excited to go to this castle to see one thing, and we practically ran through the rest of it until we got there (nefertiti, anyone?). the funny thing is, we almost didn’t realize it when we found it.
these are the original carl bloch paintings that we see so much at church. i’m not sure if these are all his works, but i do know that all of these paintings are original, and this is where they were originally. it was so cool to be in here. we were rushing through the castle, trying to find this room, and we walked through the chapel and found ourselves in here. this is a panoramic picture, so it’s a little skewed, but this is just a little square (okay probably rectangle) room without much light. but it was s o c o o l!!!
when my parents came to utah for my graduation, we walked through the carl bloch exhibit at the moa. the good people here in denmark had lent byu 4 of these paintings for a time, and they had a little video showing the castle and room they came from. the room looked so much bigger and grander than it was, which took us by surprise. anyway. here are some more pictures of the originals!!!!
ok here’s the thing. the rest of this castle was pretty cool too.
just some fossils in the ground.
nbd.
we still can’t decide which we like better: frederiksborg or neuschwanstein. but we agree that if we were to build our own castle, we would combine parts of each. in fact, we are now accepting donations for the cause (because castles are expensive). with every donation you put in, your name will be entered into a drawing for a free tour once it’s built and we’re dead. (it’s weird to have tours of your castle if you’re still living in it)
when we were done ogling at this beaut, we decided it was time for a snack. so tayte bought me a hot dog with everything on it. including all 3 mustards. and ketchup. and onions. there were more condiments than hot dog. but it was really good (and really messy).
next up on the agenda was kronberg castle (i.e. the “hamlet castle.” apparently this was the model for the castle in hamlet. neither of us had read it). the outside was cool (hello, it was a castle) but the inside was pretty disappointing, not gonna lie. but we had just gone to see frederiksborg, and well…you just can’t compete with that! but here are some pics anyway:
after that, we decided to go ahead and spend the whole 120 danish kroner (about $18) to get on another ferry…. TO SWEDEN!!
yeah, we like ferries and going to lots of different countries. we won’t apologize for that.
we didn’t travel too much, but just stayed in that little town (helsingborg) the whole 2 hours (maybe) we were there. we just walked around, looking at all the swedish stuff.
while on our little stroll, we came across this view and immediately decided to start walking up those dang steps. the water was behind us, and we figured it would be an awesome view if we got a little higher up. so we started walking up those dang stairs. i began to count the number of stairs starting on the street level. (my grandma, bonnie, is having some health issues, and to help get her pumped and excited about walking, my extended family started reporting their steps. our goal was 1,000,000. it took us about 4 days.)
we got up there and saw this thing. i was exhausted and wasn’t too excited about it. it was basically a thin but tall rectangular prism (what a nerd alert!), which meant that there wasn’t much room inside and that there could only be one thing in there: a bunch of stairs. plus you had to pay to go up there, so we just turned around and started taking pictures of the view we had.
after a few minutes, i turned to tayte and said “we have to go up there, but i really don’t wanna walk up all those stairs.”
tayte turned to me and said “let’s do it for bonnie.”
it worked. we climbed up those stairs and made it to the top.
totally weird and skewed because it’s panoramic and i turned in a complete circle, but this is pretty much the view we had.
see that strip of land?
that’s denmark!!
stair (not step. big difference) count: 330.
after this, we got back on that ferry, got some dinner, and went back to copenhagen to see the little mermaid statue. hans christian andersen wrote the story and he’s from denmark so…yeah. that’s why the statue exists. the statue isn’t all that big, nor is it this spectacular and amazing thing. but i’m glad we saw her.
after this, we went back to our home away from home away from home for some shut-eye.
sunday, 7/12
before we went to copenhagen, i looked up where the temple was. it was kinda far away from everything, so i wasn’t sure we would make it. but then we decided to hit up church while we were there, and the temple looked really close. we took a bus to church, and i was just looking out the window, when all of a sudden, i saw angel moroni! we got off at our stop, and we had plenty of time for some pictures before church.
it’s totally made of brick, so i think the only way i would have known this was the temple was by seeing moroni at the top. it was the smallest temple i’ve ever seen (meaning you could walk all the way around it in less than 3 minutes).
after taking some pics, we wandered over to church. it was all in danish (but everyone speaks english), and they had headphones with a member translating. i’m really glad we went. we met some cool people and heard some good talks.
then we went back to our lil home away from home away from home to return the keys. then we lugged our big backpacks to the train station and left them in a locker. (we figured we would rather pay a few bucks then have them all day—definitely worth it!!) then it was time to see copenhagen!!
first up: rosenborg castle. this is where a lot of treasures/jewels are. there were two guards with big guns doing their little march/turn around/march back thing.
next up was what we were actually most excited for that day (we tried to see it first but it wasn’t open for visitors): vor frue kirke, or church of our lady. it houses the original christus statue that is in our temples, churches, and homes. the chapel itself was beautiful, with statues of the original 12 apostles along the sides (technically, it’s 11 of the original—not including judas iscariot—and then paul). it was such a cool feeling to be in there and to see it.
nevermind that they were setting up for their next jazz mass. (not a joke)
next up was christianborg castle. tayte thought this was where the royal family lives today, but not so. however, they do actually use the chapel in this castle for ceremonies (i.e. baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals) for the royal family.
<<<<we were able to go up to that middle window. it gave us a really cool view of the city.
bonus: we didn’t even have to walk up there. we took two elevators. booya.
remember that church in the middle. it will come into play very soon.
i was pretty excited about the next thing on our list: vor frelsers kirke, or church of our savior. it’s the church in the middle in that picture up there (see? very. soon.). the top is a spiral and you can walk up to the top!! remember that tower we climbed in sweden and how it was just a tall rectangular prism which meant that it was pretty much full of stairs? yeah, same concept. we walked up a bunch of stairs that quickly turned into a spiral staircase. at some point, you leave the “safety” of the indoors and venture into the great wide world. i was surprised by how not-scared we both were (not true about the guy in front of us though. he was trying to be tough for his lady friend, and she kept telling him that was just his instinct, blah blah blah). i thought the staircase would end at some platform or little room or something. nope. it ends when you aren’t skinny enough to continue up the stairs, and i’m not even joking. the spiral staircase literally ends when it finally hits the wall just below that golden ball thing on the top. and at some point, you realize that you literally won’t fit on the stairs anymore. it was so cool.
deceiving because you can’t tell how tall it really is. but please look closely at that spiral. that was our walkway.
if you zoom in on this picture, you can actually see people up there.
great view.
don’t worry, the camera was around his neck.
if i remember correctly, this is from the top (well, as high as i went)
suuuuuuuper tall.
once we had both feet planted firmly on the ground, the next thing we needed was some grub. we decided to go to nyhavn, basically a strip of
nyhavn
thinnest building in denmark.
on our tour, we finally found out where the royal family actually lives! so we decided that our last stop would be to pay them a little visit (just to say hello, of course)
amelianborg palace, home of the royal family of denmark.
ok their castle is pretty cool.
it’s probably just the sunset.
tayte gets obsessed over random buildings. this is frederiks kirke, and he loved it. this picture was taken shortly after i witnessed him practicing the turns that the guards do when they do a complete 180.
let’s just say that he won’t become a guard anytime soon.
after our visit with royalty, it was time to get back on that bus so we could get on the ferry so we could get back on the bus so we could drive for multiple hours so we could get on a train, all just so we could return to real life. i must say, we are really enjoying ourselves. we love seeing new places and trying new things, and so far, europe has not disappointed! i’m just so grateful to have the best travel buddy. he makes the walking and the freezing and the exhaustion all really worth it. i got a lucky one.
those dang dimples. they get me every. time.
Wow! So amazed by it all.
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