Bornholm

We were lucky enough to take a trip to Bornholm, an island south of Sweden in the Baltic Sea but still a part of Denmark.  It happened to be a beautiful weekend, too.

The cool berths in the overnight ferry we took to the island.  

 The town we stayed in, called Gudhjem, which translates as God Home.  We stayed in a youth hostel, as the trip was organized by DIS (where Mark has been teaching).

 The hostel had bikes for us to borrow, but it turned out that the island was very hilly and the bikes were very shabby.  So the biking wasn't too much fun, but Max made a friend.

 And we saw this cool old church with some Viking looking symbols.

 The rocky coastline was a big draw for the kids, who turn into mountain goats at the first boulder in order to scare the crap out of their mother.  Also, here are some stone age burial markers.

 We also had a nice forest hike to a pretty waterfall.

 We abandoned the bikes the second day and took the bus to Hammershus, a castle ruin on the north end of the island.  Max is standing watch in the guard house remains.

 You can just wander around the ruins, which are on a hill overlooking the sea.  Spectacular.

 A window with a view.

 A path down to the sea.

Of course, we are continually amused by the word "fart" in Denmark.  It most often means "speed" or "tour, " this word actually means something like "boat service."  Or maybe "boat tours?"  Oh, Danish!

School play

 Max's class put on an updated version of Snow White...they did an impressive job!  And they are just so cute.  Max was the huntsman:

 Grandpa thought he looked a little like Bob Dylan.

 The Wicked Witch menacing Snow White.

 The really cute dwarves.

 The guards putting Snow White in her coffin.

A very serious guard.

We were glad Grandma and Grandpa got to see the play and the school.  The kids have really loved this school.  They're not too excited to go back to school at home.  :-(

Tivoli!

Sorry for no Paris pics yet, but here are some snaps of our visit to the Tivoli Gardens and amusement park.  Grandma and Grandpa are here!  We were taken with how beautiful the gardens are. The rides were a blast!!

Tivoli is as much botanical garden as amusement park, with beautiful flowers and buildings everywhere.  Apparently, it is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.

If you look closely, you can see Maggie and Grandma here.

 Grandma and Grandpa went on the scariest rides with the kids.

Max went from the little roller coaster...

  ...to a big one!  A big step!

 We finished off the evening by dining in a pirate ship!  How cool is that?

 The evening lights coming on at Tivoli...a beautiful place and a really fun day.

For your amusement...on the side of a tour bus...this is what a tour bus is often called.  Hee hee!

Too much fun!

I knew this would happen...life is moving too fast.  I haven't posted in a while.  Our date of departure is looming.  Spring is starting to really happen here.  We just returned from Paris (pictures soon).  In the past month or so, we've just been enjoying Copenhagen and our friends here.  The kids are loving school immensely, and they don't want to go back to their old school.  I am loving city living in all its aspects.  

 The lakes on a beautiful day.

 In the courtyard at one of the yoga studios I attend.

 The tree in Frederiksberg Garden where children leave their pacifiers to show that they are grown up now.  Sniff.

 A wild goblet in the Danish crown jewel collection.

 The leaders in the world championship half-marathon race.  (And some of CPH's unending construction in the background.)

 Charlottelund Beach.

 I have been teaching yoga to Max's class at school.  Here are the girls in savasana.

 Amazing pizza at Mother.

 The changing of the guard.

Spring in the botanical gardens!

Trip to Aarhus

First, a couple of local pictures:

Happy hour in Christianhavn.  Don't worry, we haven't taken up smoking.  A large percentage of the population  here smokes (as in Europe in general, I guess), and it's horrible to walk down the street and be continually hit with puffs of cigarette smoke.

The street behind our apartment.  We like it because it's quieter than our front door street.  It's called (in translation) Big Cannon Street.

Fastelavn is the Shrove Tuesday celebration here before Lent begins.  It has turned into a secular Halloween type affair.  The kids' school didn't have regular classes; they had an all-day celebration and talent show.  You can see pictures here if you select "Fastelavn & Talent Show" in the drop down menu on the right.  There are some pictures of Maggie playing her saxophone.  She also won a prize for her Merida costume.  There are also pics of Maggie's friend-who-is-a-boy, Adrian.  He is wearing striped pants and a red beret.

Last weekend, we took a trip to Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city. It was an easy, comfy 3-hour train ride.  We visited a historic Denmark museum, Den Gamle By (The Old Town), where I took virtually no pictures for some reason.  We also visited their modern art museum, ARoS, which has a very cool rooftop walk.  You can see outside pics at the link, but here is Maggie inside:

And a boy with one of their most famous pieces, Boy:

Spring is beginning to spring here in Denmark, so we took the bus to a park south of Aarhus and hiked through some woods, across a field full of sheep and Iron Age burial mounds,

and ended up here:

 

Shoes off and all!  It was a great day.  As much as we are loving living in a city, it was really nice to get out in nature.

Oh yes, we also visited the cathedral, which was amazing.  Many churches here have ships hanging to symbolize the navigation of birth to death.  This boat was actually being sent to Peter the Great as a model of a warship.  The ship carrying it sank, and the model floated to the shore intact.

Fascinating to me was the fact that the original frescoes were covered in white to make the church more modest during the Reformation.  But they have been able to save a few frescoes from the church's Catholic days, like the one above.

Pictures!!

The kids had a week off school for vinterferie (winter holiday).  Mark had to work, so no big trips, but a short trip to Roskilde to the Viking Museum.  Roskilde is a very pretty little town, and apparently they have a really awesome music festival there in the summer.  The Viking Museum has ships that we sunk 1000 years ago to clog up the harbor so invaders from Norway couldn't get through.  I didn't get good pictures of the ship remains, but here are the kids in their Viking getup.

In Viking dress.

Ready to fend off invading Norwegians.

This is the central garden in the Carlsberg Glyptotek museum (yes, the beer family).   We went one day so the kids could sketch.  They have a wonderful collection of sculptures, but also more contemporary French art as you see below.

We also went to the new Blue Planet Aquarium, which is in this amazing building:

Giving the world some love.

This guy is holding up the door around the Parliament building.  Doesn't look too happy about it.

In front of the old part of the Royal Library.

Inside the new part of the Royal Library, which is a really amazing building right on the harbor.  They call it the Black Diamond.  You can eat in the library here.  A great place to study AND you can grab a good coffee!

In case you need to anchor your ship.

Here is a better photo of the Merman and his Seven Sons calling for their mother.  Creepy every time. 

Here's a shot of the Opera House from the water (we took a little boat tour).  It is bigger than it appears in this photo!