Paris

Not in any great order, but I promised Paris pics!  

 On one of the bridges covered with locks.  These are becoming a problem as the bridges weren't built to support the added weight.  Some folks think they are an eyesore as well.

 Getting' creative at the Tour Eiffel.

 A cute one of the boys.

 Goofin' at the Louvre.

 We waited 2 AND A HALF HOURS to get into the Catacombs.  It was pretty creepy, but I'm not totally convinced it was worth the wait.  The kids thought so, though!  Luckily, it was a beautiful day and there was pastry close by.

On our last day, our friend David arranged a trip out of Paris to Chateau-Thierry, an area where Mark's grandfather fought in World War I.  There are a monument and a cemetery, meticulously maintained by the U.S. government.  There is also a walking tour of one of the worst battle sites, including remaining German cannons with shrapnel marks in them (see below), trenches and craters, shrapnel in the trees (now grown over), and unknown soldiers buried in the landscape.  

Near Chateau-Thierry, we also visited these amazing castle ruins.

Back in Paris, we walked through Luxembourg Gardens more than once:

We ate incredible cheese.

We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

And of course, we saw Notre Dame, one of the most amazing structures in the world.  Max's favorite was Sacre Coeur, where we happened upon evening vespers.  I almost got religion again.

 

Creepy statue in Notre Dame.

We visited a replica of the Orient Express.

We visited the Louvre, where the kids spent some time sketching in a room full of Rubens.

The Louvre is a place one might be tempted to skip because of the tourist crush, but you can find quiet nooks and crannies in the far reaches of this mammoth museum.  We spent an entire day there.  Plus we had bought a museum pass, so we sailed right past the line...that rocked.

We finished with a three course French meal at a great little place in Montparnasse called Aux Artistes.  We did much more than I can include here.  It was an amazing trip.

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.