Frederiksborg Slot

Elaborate ceilings, huh?

The prince's bed, I'm assuming! It may be hard to tell in the picture, but it was a pretty small bed. Ornate and beautiful, but small. When the castle was rebuilt (see next post) J.C. Jacobsen (owner of a big brewery company here and possibly related to Don's family??:) )offered to finance the decoration of the inside on the condition that it be made into a national museum. So there are hundreds of portraits of royal people in this castle, and alot of historic furniture and other things. There is a church on the grounds, which was closed for a local wedding . The church did not burn to the ground, so it is about 400 years old now. Can you believe they just let the local people use this old castle church for their weddings? How cool is that? We want to go back and see the church, because apparently it houses several original paintings by Carl Bloch.

Another beautiful ceiling. There were very few lights throughout the castle, and we weren't supposed to use our flash, so some pictures are pretty dark.

This is the Great Hall. It was fun to walk in here and just imagine it filled with people coming to a ball or something, the king and queen up on that balcony in the right of the picture. Wow. Can you believe how ornate and busy the walls and ceilings are? I think I might go crazy if I had to spend too much time in that room, but it is really so fun to see. This was the third picture Don got. The first two were blurry because the shutter had to stay open so long to let enough light in, and with a person holding it, it was too shaky. So we found a table at the far end of the room to set the camera on and we got one great picture.

Frederiksborg Slot (Castle)

I think Don took this shot as we were walking to the castle. I think it's so beautiful.

Frederiksborg Castle was originally built in 1599, but was really only used by one king, Christian IV. After him, the castle was kind of neglected and it burned to the ground in the mid-1800's. It was rebuilt and the outside is exactly as it was originally. But they didn't have records of what the interior looked like, so the interior was done in the style of 1599, but it's not exactly like it was originally.

The castle is actually built on three small islands.

Front view. You'll probably be able to tell, as you look through our blogs, which pictures I took and which Don took. These are all Don's work!

Saturday outing

As we were walking along this street, these two ladies were slowly walking up and down the street, kind of dancing and singing these songs that I assume were Danish Christmas songs. They were also handing out these miniature ginger cookies that you see everywhere here. We've probably had them 10 times since we've been here, at peoples houses, the ward Christmas party, from these ladies...

I told you I was going to go back and get some hot crepes! We got one with chocolate, banana and coconut. They folded it in fourths and wrapped it so it was "good to go."

We passed this shop as we were walking and thought it was really cool. The design of the stuff he makes is cool, and then we thought it was fun to be able to see all of the tools he uses and his workbench and everything.

Pretty sunset...I think this particular "sunset" was at about 3 in the afternoon! The sun sets early here in the winter.

The Danes use hearts alot in their Christmas decorating. This is a pedestrian street called Stroget, with a lot of shopping, especially higher end shopping.

This anchor, right inbetween the ice skating track and Nyhavn, is a memorial to all of the sailors lost at sea in World War II.

Since he was a baby, William can muster up huge crocodile tears at the drop of a hat.

I finally got snowsuits and waterproof gloves for the boys so on Saturday we went out and walked around, seeing things for a few hours.

I can't believe he fell asleep like this--I think this is about the 5th picture we've taken of William in really funny sleeping positions!

A view of the ocean right by Amalienborg Palace. Directly to the right of this (I didn't get a picture) is a new Opera House, right on the water...I'm planning on dragging Don with me to one of those operas while we are here!

A view from our "hotel house" window. Don got a great shot.

A senior missionary couple, the Petersons, invited us to their apartment for Thanksgiving. They even managed to make mashed potatoes with nothing to really mash the potatoes with! The couple sitting to my right, the Wainscotts, work for the Embassy and can get American food from the military commissary. So they got two turkeys and pumpkin pie filling. It was a realy Thanksgiving Dinner. The man in the left of the picture is the mission president here (from the states) and the woman and two girls on the right of the picture are his family. They are in our ward and are so nice. And the girls are perfect babysitting age! Another senior missionary couple came, the Kjaers from Utah, and a Danish lady. We had a great time.

Nyhavn (New Harbor)

This is a popular part of town. Right now, as you can see, the street is lined with stalls selling Christmas decorations, scarves and touques, jewelry, etc. Plus a stall selling crepes, which I have to go back and try! Right behind the stalls is a harbor (picture below) and right across from the stalls, the entire street is lined with restaurants and pubs that all have alot of outdoor seating. We were looking at an apartment in this area, but we were warned that in the summer, people are outside drinking and of course being Loud until 2 or 3 in the morning. It doesn't get dark until 11 or 12 we hear, so the people stay out late. Needless to say, we didn't rent here. I read that even in the winter, the restaurants will put a blanket on each chair outside so brave people can still sit outside and drink. Our second night in Copenhagen, we came to this street to eat dinner. We didn't know we were at a popular spot in the city, but we had a delicious dinner here. Super expensive, and really good!

This is one of the most swankified places to stay in town. A lady at Don's work said all of the movie stars stay here when they come to Copenhagen. It is a pretty impressive hotel.

Right in front of the hotel, and right next to Nyhavn, is this park. They make an ice rink track in the winter. It's free if you have your own skates, or you can just rent the skates and go. I was there today, and just thinking that this was how I would picture a typical big city in northern Europe. Freezing outside, people of all ages laughing and skating on an ice rink, a stand selling hot dogs nearby, the pigeons or seagulls or whatever they were flying around, big beautiful buildings with Christmas decorations up...it was fun.

Amalienborg Palace

Doesn't it look like this guard's hat strap is hooked underneath his nose?

Amalienborg is made up of four identical palaces all around an octagonal square, with a huge equestrian statue of King Frederik V in the middle. You can see the royal church a block behind this square--isn't it beautiful? A couple of weeks ago when I was lost, driving around the city for 2 1/2 hours (!!!) I actually drove through this courtyard and didn't realize what it was. It's kind of strange, but cool, that anyone can just go right up to the palace by foot or by car. This palace or castle isn't very fancy compared to others in Denmark.

These four palaces were built around 1750 by noblemen but when the royal family's castle burned down in the late 1790's, they decided to move to Amalienborg.

Every day the guard changes at noon, and I hear it's something fun to see. But here they are, standing in front of their guard stations. I guess they have two hour shifts and either have to be standing in front of these stations, or marching back and forth in front of the palace.

Housing

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but a common thing to do on the beds here is to have on a queen sized bed frame, two smaller mattresses, two duvets, and two quilts. As we've shopped in IKEA, almost all of the displays are like that too. It's kind of strange. The guy who helped us the mattress was a great, kind older man. He recommended we get two smaller mattresses so we wouldn't feel the other one move at night, but then get one thick mattress pad for on top. He said then we won't have the divorce line and we can still be married 50 years from now. He was funny. That's what we're going to do, by the way!

Just some pictures so you can see what the typical neighborhoods are like here. This is all apartment housing. There are usually at least two little grocery stores within easy walking distance if you live in the city. The one thing America could use is more fresh bakeries, I think. I got some rolls from a bakery yesterday, and they were SOOOO good. Wow. I've also tried a new fruit here. It looks like a tomato, light orange in color and a star design in the center. Anyone know what it's called? It's delicious.

Playing at a park and at our "Hotel House"

These pictures were taken today at a park really close by. They have these little parks in the middle of streets (usually quieter streets) that are lined with apartments. It's been great for us to be able to get out on days when it's not too cold out. Most of the kids have already started wearing snowsuits when they go out. It doesn't snow alot here, but they need the warmth. I feel kind of guilty takng my kids out in just jackets and hats. But days like today aren't too bad out. I need to get the snowsuits soon!

William has coined the term "hotel house" for where we are staying right now. It describes it perfectly and I hope it means he feels somewhat comfortable here. He loves dragging a chair to the window by Burke's crib, climbing up and playing on the windowsill with his animals. You can see he's lined them all up, looking out the window with him. William likes order in his life. He's very particular about some things. Another funny phrase Will has started saying lately is "Oh yeah, baby!"

Modes of Transportation

This is THE hottest baby item in Denmark. These strollers are great. The wheels are big and rubber so they work well with all of the cobblestone streets. They can be zipped up all around the baby to keep the baby warm. The baby can lay down and sleep, or you can put up a little back rest and harness them into it so they can be sitting up and see everything. There is a canopy that can go up (you can see it behind the baby's head) that will block out the wind. The whole carrier part lifts out, so you can bring the baby with you if you want to leave the stroller part somewhere. These may just be a city thing, because they seem pretty big. I don't know that they would fit into the back of a car. But, EVERYONE has these here. Moms here get paid 1 year off after they have a baby. A whole year! Or the mom and dad can split the time however they like. The flip side of getting so much time off for having a baby, is that all the moms go back to work when the babies are between 10-14 months, and the babies all go to day care. So you see alot of babies being pushed around in strollers, but you don't see alot of toddlers. I checked out the price of these strollers yesterday while I was out...only $900...no big deal.

I mentioned how all the babies sleep outside in these strollers at church. Well, I've seen that everywhere, not just at church. And a mom was telling me that at alot of day cares, all the kids take their naps outside, even in the middle of winter. I guess they just believe that the cold air is good for the kids, and helps them sleep longer. Crazy!

This, I figure, must be some sort of delivery bike. Looks cool, doesn't it?

Don and I really want to get one of these. It's almost exactly like the pull behind trailers we have for bikes in the US, except for over here, it's all one piece. A regular bike tire in the back, and this two-kid compartment in front. The kids get a little better view. I think you just take the front off of your regular bike and attach this, because I know this trailer thing is sold separately, for about a third of the price of the stroller above. Backwards from US prices, huh? Near the place we want to rent, there are alot of trails around this lake and a small forest, so getting bikes and this trailer would be a blast.

Bikes are very common here. There are fairly wide bike lanes on both sides of the streets. It takes some getting used to when you're driving a car. When you turn right, you always have to look behind you to make sure there are no bikers going straight through the green light. The bikers definitely don't slow down for the cars. I've had one biker yell "hey!" to me because he thought I was turning and not waiting for him ( I totally saw him, of course!). It is kind of crazy to look at how many bikes are on the road. These people do not let the cold inconvenience them. It's fun to see.