Copenhagen

*update - this post is being crazy on the ipad, I think because of the byutv video.  it is best viewed on a desktop*

Here's the play by play of our journey around Copenhagen...

We spent a bright sunny Easter Sunday wandering around Copenhagen just taking it all in.  Saturday night we drove in from Billund (paid a whopping 30 euros to drive over the huge bridge that runs over the Baltic Sea connecting Copenhagen to the rest of Denmark), and settled in at the Crowne Plaza.  I can't tell you how great it felt to stay at the most Americanized hotel we've been at yet since we've lived here, especially after spending the past 2 nights in the "cozy" cabin.  It was heavenly.  Here's a quick peak at the traditional portion of our Easter...

 Our Easter "baskets" were actually book buckets from our house.  No one sells Easter baskets in NL, at least none of my Dutch friends were into the whole bunny and basket thing.

They were pleased with their modest buckets - coloring books, a small craft, and a few chocolate eggs.  It doesn't take much to excite this crew, and I like to keep it simple - especially when traveling.

The sad part of my day was that it was too cold to dress the girlies up in their super cute Easter skirts that I made.  We had worn them the Sunday before to church, but I failed to snap a picture of it.  Don't worry, I WILL be bragging about my sewing skills (limited as they may be) in a blog post to come!
But on to the untraditional part of our Easter, our Copenhagen city walk.  We decided to brave Copenhagen sans Rick Steves and his travel genius for no other reason than simply because I ran out of time to download the book and read the whole scoop.  Shame on me, I know.  We still used our many skills learned from Rick though.  We downloaded a less informative 3 hour city walk from the city's travel website, headed to a TI for some parking info and a map, and hit the cobblestone.  Here are some highlights of that 3 hour walk, which turned into a 6 hour walk...

Tivoli Gardens - this amusement park from the 1800's is said to have inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland.  We weren't that sad that it wasn't open for the season yet, since we just had our fill of roller coaster fun at Legoland.

The massive Town Hall 

Christiansborg Palace - the Danes love a good palace.  It seems there was a different one at every turn.

Doing some Easter window shopping!

Posing with the street art

The beautiful harbor

Not a great pic, but do you love my necklace (and earrings)?  They were on loan from Stella & Dot.  They are doing a fun little project - you wear the necklace/earring set somewhere interesting that you are traveling to, then snap a pic and document in a journal that is being passed along also.  My friend passed them to me after wearing them in Paris, now I will pass them along to someone else. 

Love this photo of the icy water

Amalienborg Palace - amazing

Kastellet Millitary Fortification - they had a mini military-base-like area that we walked around.

There's the iconic Little Mermaid statue based on Hans Christian Andersen's story.

Sunny day, icy water

Carver was throwing a mild fit on the walk to Rosenborg Palace.  A nice older Danish lady (innocent bystander effected by said fit) told him that if he could just make it to the palace, he could stick his hand in this Lion's mouth and move it's tongue up and down.  A little tip from a local - pretty neat, it actually worked!

Inside the palace - pottery envy

The crown jewels were all on display in the basement.  My Kaydree (and maybe myself too) melted at the sight of this emerald necklace and crown.  I could see the fairytale playing out in her head.

By far, the highlight of our day (and our entire trip) was a walk through the Church of our Lady to see Thorvaldsen's Christus.  There were also massive statues of each of the 12 apostles (minus Judas, plus Paul) lining the church.  We were nervous that we would be arriving too close to evening mass and that we would be fighting a huge crowd, but somehow the church was almost completely empty.  It was a very special experience, one we have been looking forward to since watching this story on BYUtv almost two years ago (see video below).  I don't think my kiddos fully appreciated the statue until we came home and I showed them the picture of our family at the Christus in SLC from last summer.  Kaydree thought it was really neat that we were able to see the original in Denmark, and hopefully one day they'll all look back at the pictures and remember this Easter as being a special one.

Here's more info on Thorvaldsen from BYUtv...

We finished off with a visit to our church's temple in Denmark.  I loved the look of the pillars - very similar to the Church of Our Lady and other buildings we saw around town.  I think it's neat how they sometimes match the architecture of the local area.

We took a couple of little side trips on our way to Billund and on our way home from Copenhagen.  Details to come.