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Bamburg – September 2003
After our visit in Copenhagen we road the train back to Germany to visit Kerstin in Bamburg. Kerstin, who is attending university in Bamburg, took a couple of days off from school to show us the city, lead our tour of the monastery and cathedral, and introduce us to her new beau Michael. Kerstin is a wonderful host – I hope she and Michael can come join us in Austin soon. At the end of our stay in Bamburg, LisaDiane and I made an anxious train trip back to Frankfurt to fly home. Two train delays – one a complete shutdown – meant we had to think on our feet…
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Botanisk Have – September 2003
The University of Copenhagen Botanical Gardens are AMAZING! Over a dozen large greenhouses are surrounded by acres of outdoor annuals, perennials, ponds, rock gardens, and lush trees. Our day in this garden was a redolent treat. After the garden we met Ellen and Søren at the Canal Kafeen where they treated us to a “traditional” Danish lunch – herring, cheese, and beer 🙂 The curried herring and smoked herring were particularly good. Refreshed, we walked past the Caritas Well on Gammeltorv and took a tour of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory (souvenirs!).
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Nordjylland – September 2003
Ellen’s mother’s parents, Gert and Karen, invited us to visit their Summer House in Nordjylland (the northern tip of Denmark). Ellen drove us from Copenhagen to the Summer House. Along the way we went on a walking tour in Vejle, visited the Skagen Museum, played in two oceans, and visited Ellen’s parents in Aalborg. You can make your own Jelling Stone! (For more info on what the Jelling Stone is, look in the album for the Midgard Fountain that we saw in the pedestrian area in Vejle.) Click here to download the Jelling Stone kit as a PDF file. I found the PDF at http://www.runsten.info/
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Rosenborg Slot – September 2003
We spent one morning at Rosenborg Slot, the castle in the center of Copenhagen which houses the Royal Danish Collections and the Crown Jewels. The castle is surrounded by the Rosenborg Castle Gardens (commonly referred to as the King’s Gardens), which are the country’s oldest royal gardens (established in the early 1600s). We toured the castle and had a nice lunch at the little cafe on the castle grounds.
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Roskilde – September 2003
Roskilde, generally recognized as Denmark’s first capital (ask someone from Jelling and you may get a different story), is home to the Vikingskibsmuseet (Viking Ship Museum). We took the train from Copenhagen to Roskilde and enjoyed a vikingtastic day this city by the fjord. The museum was hosting a special exhibit titled “The Vikings in Ireland” which included artifacts from dig sites in Dublin on loan from the Irish government. As we left the museum we were treated to the beginning of the Roskilde Universitet Årsfest – the annual commemoration party and semester kick off at RU. The “You can’t use your hands” wrestling on a floating platform was tremendous…
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København – September 2003
On our second day touring Copenhagen we decided to walk from Ellen and Søren’s’s apartment to the Danish Royal Residence of Amalienborg and then on to wherever we might go. That made for a little bit of a walk. Fortunately we got a chance to use some of Copenhagen’s ‘City Bikes’. The city of Copenhagen operates a generous scheme, called Bycykler (City Bikes), by which anyone can borrow a bicycle for free. Motivated in part by a desire to limit motor-vehicle traffic in the city center, private businesses and the city council sponsor approximately 2000 bikes for the Bycykler program. The bikes can be found at hundreds of bike racks…
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A quick stop in Sweden – September 2003
Ellen and Soren drove us to Lund – where Søren was working for TetraPak and Ellen was attending university. LisaDiane and I spent our day exploring the monuments, the university, the cathedral, the bookstore, the fabric store, and a very pleasant Thai restaurant – nice call Ellen. The picture is of the main building on the campus of Lund University.
