europe 2013: day six

On Sunday morning we had another great breakfast before heading to church. It was a wonderful meeting and they provided us with headsets so we could understand. After church, we walked down the street to the Copenhagen LDS Temple. David I matched on accident and he was miffed about it all day. Ha! We were a lot of red.

My parents have a Danish friend who lives in Copenhagen named Torbin. He met us at the temple and we talked there for about an hour about some interesting Danish things and other stories about his life. It was really fun listening to him talk! Then we all hopped on the bus and headed to Thorvaldsen Museum.

waiting for the bus.

Going to the Thorvaldsen Museum was important for us because it has the original Christus statue. My church uses this statue in a lot of our buildings, including the Mesa Temple (which is the temple I grew up going to). The statue is beautiful in real life and we were told by the church curator that the gold behind the statue symbolizes eternity and we have to go through Jesus Christ to attain eternal life. That was really meaningful for me and I liked that a lot.

It was time for lunch after that so we walked over to Torvehallerne Market. Let me just interject that if you ever go to Copenhagen, go to this market. It was sooooo cool! We walked around for a while (and I was kind of camera happy - sorry!) and then we all got something to eat.

David stopped at a stand that was selling shredded duck sandwiches on a baguette. I had a bite of it and it was delicious but I was too excited to settle on something.

I ended up going to Gorm's Pizza and Sarah and I shared a delicious Margherita pizza with tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil oil and arugula.

I also got this delicious salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, mozzarella, toasted pine nuts, balsamic reduction and basil dressing. It was yummy!

Denmark is known for their black licorice. They sell it everywhere! All of my siblings like black licorice (except one that I know of) - it must be in our blood. The black licorice was soooo good! Really warm and fresh and they also had the most delicious black licorice ice cream! The Danes also really love their salted black licorice which I didn't love quite as much but it was still tasty.

packages of fresh black licorice.

Then we walked around the city for a while longer and saw a few things before we went back to the hotel to change for dinner at Halifax Burger. We had a bit of a snafu getting there because our group was separated and there were a few different locations in Copenhagen, but when all was said and done, we all ate and had a great time.

Clint (BIL), Debbie (sister), my parents and Anette and Torbin. 

europe 2013: day five

On Friday night, we flew into Copenhagen and took the train to our hotel. The rest of my family had already arrived and were doing their own thing so David and I walked over to Tivoli Gardens and had a late dinner and walked around for a little bit before going back to the hotel and going to bed.

Most people in Copenhagen cycle as their main source of transportation and I was dying at the sea of bikes everywhere. At first it looked like none of them were locked up and David and I were marveling at the fact that people were trusting enough to do that. Then we later saw that there are tiny locks on the wheels. I wish I could bike around town but it's just not as safe in the US (at least where I live). I have seen so many bicyclists get hit by cars that it scares me. Anyway, enough of that random tangent.

The next morning we woke up early and had a big breakfast in the hotel with my family (we did this every morning and it was a really fun and delicious way to start the day). Beautiful Sarah and funny Mark with a mouth full of breakfast. Mark is one of the family clowns in the family and had us all laughing lots.

Then we all hopped on the train to Frederiksborg Palace and toured the castle. I love the cooper roof and the detail of the chapel was stunning. It was really beautiful inside and out. We also had a very helpful tour guide who told us all kinds of interesting stuff about the art.

This palace holds the Carl Bloch paintings of Christ and since my church uses them in their media and in our church buildings, it was a special thing to see the original paintings of the art I am so familiar with. They are beautiful in real life. I didn't get a good picture of them because the room they reside in is very, very dark. We were all commenting on how we wished that there had been better lighting because we couldn't see very well. Then we found out later that they purposely made the room's lighting dim because the artist wanted the main source of light to be through Christ. I thought that was really special.

Then David and I had our very first Polser. I think just about every culture has their version of the hot dog and in Denmark, it's the red skinned hot dog with grainy mustard, remoulade, pickles, chopped onion and crispy onions on top. It was delicious!

via

After Frederiksborg, the rest of my family went on to Kronborg Castle (a.k.a. Elsinore - which is known for being the castle for Hamlet) or the Open Air Museum. I had been to Kronborg the last time I was in Copenhagen, but I'm sad I missed the Open Air Museum. I heard it really interesting. Even though we missed out on that, we had our own fun plans. I finally got to meet my blogging friend, Senja! I became friends with Senja a couple of years ago (she even sent me this adorable onesie for Fritz when he was born - she's the best!). We have been e-mailing back and forth about potentially meeting up with her in Malmo, Sweden on our last day of the trip since she lives on the south west coast of Sweden but her plans changed so she, her husband, Mikael and their adorable baby, Matilda, came to Copenhagen for the day.

While walking around Stroget (the pedestrian shopping streets), David and I shared a Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce. You guys - it was heaven. I enjoyed it thusly. I realize this is an unattractive picture of me but you need to grasp just how delicious it was.

We found the cutest little children's boutique called Karrusella and I wanted to spend every last dollar I had and buy up everything they sold but I resisted. It was fun to browse with Senja and Mikael and die over the adorable baby shoes that Senja found for Matilda. We had a great time walking around the city and window shopping. I basically mugged on Matilda the whole time because I was missing Fritz something fierce and she is also one of the world's cutest babies. We ended up at Nyhavn and got to see the beautiful, colorful buildings along the canal. It was such a beautiful day and we were so lucky that we got to meet Senja and her family!

adorable Senja and me.

That night we went to Mother Pizza for dinner. I had been put in charge of finding restaurants for us to eat at and everyone really enjoyed it. It was such a cool restaurant with a great Scandavian vibe. We loved it (even though this picture looks like people are annoyed - don't worry, I'm pretty sure they were just involved in really interesting conversation, which was plentiful on this trip).

My poor mom was so tired and jet lagged that she was doing some major head surfing at the table. This was such a "classic mom" thing that we had to get a picture. We were all laughing pretty hard and then she'd wake up and smile weakly and within 30 seconds, she was out again. It was sad/funny. She's the best.

europe 2013: day four

Our last day in London was really relaxed and fun. We packed up our suitcases and left them at the hotel for a few hours while we went to Portobello Road Market. Even though it wasn't a Saturday, they still had tons of booths open. We got some crepes and browsed through streets of shops.

Then we headed over to Harrods (where I could have stayed for a few more hours) and grabbed a few gifts before we left for Denmark. I got a few things for friends there and also at Fortnum and Mason (oh, please let me live there) and we had a great time browsing the food and grocery sections. Then we headed upstairs and I bought 8 of the Peter Rabbit collection for my kids and I am so happy to have that as a memento of this trip. I've always wanted these sweet, little books (my awesome friend Jaimey even threw me a Peter Rabbit book shower for Fritz) and it's extra special that they're from London.

Our final "London bucket list" item was having fish and chips. I had researched a few places and we tried to go to The Golden Hind on a recommendation but after over an hour of walking and trying to find it, we gave up. My first choice was to go to Kerbisher & Malt but our concierge told us to go to a place close to our hotel (I think it had "Lion" in the name) and it was a bust. Like, gross - soggy batter, undercooked peas, dry fries and the tartar sauce was nasty (tasted like it had gone bad). Maybe I'm wrong but it kind of seemed like fish and chips is more of a tourist thing rather than something that the British eat very often. When we asked people on the street where they ate fish and chips, they just said, "Well . . . I don't know." What do you think London readers? Oh well, San Diego has pretty good fish and chips and now I can at least say I've had fish and chips in London. :)

After that disappointing meal we grabbed our bags and headed back to Heathrow airport to board a plane to Copenhagen! As soon as we got on the plane and they started announcing things in Danish, David and I started laughing about how we were going to survive in that country. I'll post about it tomorrow but spoiler alert - we lived! :)

europe 2013: day three

The day before had wiped us out with all the walking and jet lag so we accidentally slept in until 9:00! We only woke up because the house keeping tried to come in our room. Have you ever woken up in a jump-run? It's not pleasant. We rushed to get ready and then got on the train to beautiful Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court was easily my favorite place we visited in London. I could have spent two full days there. The inside of the house was fascinating (their exhibit on the bedrooms and the politics that went on there was so interesting!) and I loved thinking about what life was like there as a royal and a service person. I guess watching hours of Downton Abbey really made my imagination run wild!

The gardens took my breath away. I was truly dying over the saturated colors of the flowers and plants and the immaculately manicured lawns and gardens. But my favorite part was the more informal garden over by the maze. I told David that if I had been a princess, I would have stayed in that garden every day and read my letters and drank my tea and read my books there. It was perfect.

the world's most fake smile but it was gorgeous!

We also got crazy lucky because I guess they've had a cold spring in London and it just recently got warm so everything was blooming like crazy. The daffodils and tulips were breathtaking and the wisteria on the wall was just starting to bloom. I can just imagine the splash of purple on that brick wall in a few weeks.

On our way back to the train stop, we saw an ice cream stand and bought one with flake (99s?) and I loved it. David wasn't as excited as I was about this super fluffy ice cream - it was almost like frozen whipped cream. That didn't stop him from helping me eat it though. :)

Then we headed back for the train station. I had originally planned to ride the boat back to Westminster but the concierge told me that it takes a couple of hours and that most of it was pretty uninteresting. It ended up being for the best anyway because we were really short on time with sleeping in and all. So we hopped back on the train and headed for St. Paul's Cathedral. Our plan was to be there for Even Song and then make the trek up the stairs to the top of the dome. We got there near the end of Even Song but after it was over they announced they were closing for a private concert. Such a bummer! It was still beautiful though and I'm glad that we got to go inside at all.

I had been researching a good Indian restaurant for a while and had come across a few that sounded good but once we got to London, everyone said to get "Time Out Magazine" to find restaurant recommendations and reviews. I never did find a physical magazine but I looked it up online and found Namaste Kitchen. It had great reviews and was pretty decently priced so we headed over there at around 7:00.

lamb cutlets marinated with kachri, in ginger, black pepper & spices slow cooked in tandoor

When we arrived, the place was empty. Not a soul to be seen except for a couple of employees. The atmosphere was nice and the menu looked great so we were really confused and put off by the lack of other customers, but we were hungry so we asked for a table. When the host looked around the restaurant and hesitated about giving us a table, I thought, "Really?! This place is empty and you're wondering if you have room for us?" but he was nice and sat us immediately. Within 10 minutes of sitting down, the place was packed and there was a line out the door. We felt really lucky that we got a table! Everything we had was delicious, the service was great and the atmosphere was clean, comfortable and modern. I also loved how reasonably priced everything was and I loved how the menu was traditional Indian with a modern twist - think "gourmet Indian" (their date and ginger naan which was pretty much dessert because it was so tasty). I really recommend it.