Catching up on the month of May - Copenhagen

I have been falling behind with my blog posts due to a very busy May. April ended with a visit to Phoenix Park in Dublin. This is a huge park near the city centre, more than twice the size of Central Park in New York. We did a tour of the President's house ( or Áras an Uachtaráin, if you prefer it in Irish!) there and remarked upon the beautiful gardens, designed in the shape of a harp - the symbol of Ireland.

 

The weather is finally starting to warm up so we have enjoyed some beautiful walks in the sunshine along the pier in Dun Laoghaire, as well.

The highlight of May, however, was our 5 day visit to Copenhagen. We also enjoyed some lovely Spring weather there and made the most of walking around the many beautiful streets and squares.

 

 

 

 with a visit to the impressive Lego store, as well!

 

It was lovely to see all the cherry blossoms in the parks. The girls enjoyed a play in the park and a great run around in Kongens Have ("The King's Garden"), which are the gardens next to Rosenberg Castle. This castle looks like an excellent representation of Cinderella's palace - it was actually built by Christian IV as a summerhouse in 1606!

The next day we walked over to Nyhavn - New Harbour - which is so pretty with its colourful houses. Hans Christian Anderson, who obviously moved regularly during his life, lived in several of these. We did a harbour cruise which was a very relaxing and enjoyable way to see the sights along the harbour, some of the canals and finally the Little Mermaid. 

  

 

 

For Pia and Ella, the highlight of our visit was the Friday we spent in Tivoli, the second oldest amusement park in the world. We happily spent the day on ride after ride - luckily all the Danish children were in school so the girls did not even have to put up with any queues! Both girls enjoyed their first roller coaster ride - Ella went back for seconds and thirds, while Pia was content to leave it at one!

 The multi-coloured slushies were also a big hit!

 

 

 

In Copenhagen we were staying with our friend who is the Provost of Regensen College. Regensen is one of the student colleges of Copenhagen University and is nearly 400 years old. It is a beautiful building right in the middle of the city in the Latin Quarter. The College still retains many of its old traditions, including celebrating the birth of the Linden tree in the college courtyard.

James and the girls outside Regensen College

We were invited to attend the lunch and enjoyed a great selection of Danish sandwiches made by the students themselves. They were so good I forgot to take a photo of them until I had almost finished ....neither did I remember to take a photo of the homemade schnapps! Luckily we did not need to drive home! Below are some photos from the lunch.

 Our friend, Stuart, the Provost of Regensen, wearing his very important Provost's chain (!), and his wife.

 The day ends with the students 'storming' the Round Tower just outside the Regensen - this involves running in without paying the entrance fee, singing many College songs once at the top, and usually throwing rolls of toilet paper of the top of the tower onto the trees below! The toilet paper part was banned this year after the College recieved a rather hefty clean up bill last year. We did enjoy participating in the rest of the 'storming' activities, though!

 

On the Sunday we took the train out to Roskilde, a small coastal town about 1/2 hour from Copenhagen. Roskilde was a Viking town and in 1962 five different types of Viking ships were discovered and excavated in the fjord. Some of the ships were used for transporting cargo, others were much bigger and were used as warships. It was discovered that these ships were deliberately sunk in the fjord in 1070 as a means of blocking off the entrance to the harbour and protecting Roskilde from enemy attack. The ships have now been reconstructed in the Viking Museum using the original wood. The missing sections have been filled in with metal. It was very well done - and a great mix of the original and the new. 

The above ship, Skuldelev 2, was actually built near Dublin in 1042.

Pia and Ella write their names in Runes - Pia's foxes also had their names written in Runes. James has wished to visit Roskilde since he was a child and had his imagination aroused by hearing Viking stories. Here he is doing his own Viking impersonation!

We also did a boat trip on the fjord in a replica Viking ship. I somehow managed to give the guide the impression that I knew how to row so I was made head rower along with another man (who actually did know how to row!). However, I managed to keep us heading in the right direction (and even took a few photos at the same time!)

 

On our final day in Copenhagen, we walked over to Amalienborg Palace, which is where the Royal family live. There are actually 4 identical palaces around a courtyard.

This is the palace that Prince Frederik and Princess Mary live in. The flag flying means they are at home (or at least in Copenhagen) but alas, we did not run into them!
We then walked over to nearby Kastellet park and enjoyed the spectacular display of cherry blossoms.

We finished up at the Little Mermaid again - a lovely way to end our 5 days in Copenhagen!

More catch ups from May in my next blog post - the girls are enjoying having Nonna and Dad-Dad with us now.