Art, church, hotel

Sunday being a day of rest, we rested. Jet lag still has a hold. In the afternoon we went to an art museum, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. It was interesting to see the work of some Danish painters and sculptors, but some things we wanted to see were closed off (or, at least, we couldn't find how to get to them). The tucked-away top-floor collection of modern art -- most of which were super-sized versions of everyday things -- were interesting.

In the afternoon we went to the Copenhagen Community Church, whose service starts at 3 PM. They meet on the 4th floor of a building above a pub and the main shopping street. They were very welcoming. A bit more charismatic than what we are used to, but we enjoyed the service. The message was from Psalm 30. After the service, they provide a dinner for everyone, and then there was a business meeting which we were asked to stay for, and even asked to speak at -- about how our home church handles the ongoing work (i.e. the Dayspring chart).



Here is the building the church met in (the top row of windows):


This happened to be going on in the main square (but was not associated with the church we had just attended):


An artistic commentary on trash in the city, in the town square:




Here's a tour of our hotel room. There are three beds, but none are big enough to fit two people.







Notice how the shower drain is positioned in the bathroom, with the shower head directly above it (not visible):

Copenhagen & Carnival?

Rain today, as predicted. Late start out the door. First task: gather foodstuffs, razors, lotion, glue, other things. Visited three stores to get things, but still don't have superglue to fix Ivy's ailing glasses (I admit I -- Greg -- should have fixed them before we left).

As we approached the Strøget (the walking shopping area, "largest in Europe"), we heard loud drums. It was a Carnival parade, strangely out of place here -- in a Protestant country, very much after Lent and Easter. Apparently it's a regular thing -- there's a Wikipedia entry just for Danish carnival. See below for pictures. And yes, it was raining during this scantily-clad event.

After gathering supplies, we went in search of lunch. We found a reasonable cafe just a little off the beaten path, took a seat, and waited. And waited. All told, an hour after we had ordered, no food had arrived. Our waitress was apologetic, and rather than lunch we got coffee and pastries -- on the house. Some more window shopping at various stores (ever see an $8,000 lamp before?), and we had dinner at McDonald's to compensate for sticker shocks. We were back home and relaxed until bedtime.

By the way, Skype is our new hero. We talk for free to people over the computer (with/without video), and very cheaply to most numbers we want to call -- 2.1 cents per minute to the US or land lines in Europe. It has made our lives much easier. If you want to chat, let me know.

Finally, our hotel is right next to Tivoli Gardens. We initially thought this would be some sort of public garden area; boy were we naïve. It's a kind of theme park, think Disneyland. But we've been told it's very different than Disney -- we haven't been in yet. Last night at midnight we were reminded that we are right next to it when we were treated to a 10-minute fireworks show that seemed to loom over the hotel. Other than that, this hotel has been really quiet. I'll post some pictures of our room soon.

Farvel!

Karen Blixen Museet

Yesterday (Friday) was supposed to be rainy, but it was nice, so we headed on the train for Rungsted Kyst (that second word meaning "coast"), which is the place where Karen Blixen, the famous author, lived. Ivy has read a bunch of her work. The Copenhagen train station was very confusing; hard to find the train we needed (we finally had to ask). And the train was really expensive.

The coastal town of Rungsted is beautiful. It reminds me a little of coastal Santa Barbara (no mountains, though). Karen Blixen was very into three things: writing, painting, and tracking bird migrations. We had to put slippers on to see some of the rooms in the house. The best part, actually, was walking around the grounds -- there are a bunch of long trails that lead through the woods. Lots of birds (it was a sort of sanctuary) and beautiful trees. We came upon a group of horses, across a fence in the next-door riding school. I cut my hand on some barbed wire when I slipped. Fortunately, my jaw hasn't locked up yet...

Last night we dined at a nice French place, then came home and crashed.

Requisite pictures:






























That's right, gasoline is about 10.5 DKK = $1.95 per liter, which is about $7.34 per gallon. We've also heard that cars bear a 180% purchase tax (because the Danish make no cars and therefore their industry isn't affected). So a $10,000 car would be $28,000. Cars = expensive in Denmark.

Smørrebrød

We spent the afternoon in the national museum. There were lots of exhibits about Denmark through the ages. Some of the highlights were in the coin collection, of all places. For example, there was a Swedish "coin" that weighed 2kg and was about 2 feet tall. At the time Sweden was trying to keep the price of copper high by casting ridiculously large currency. Also, they had an exhibit on currency in the Bible, including the type of silver coins they thought Judas got for betraying Jesus, an example of what could have been a widow's mite, denarii, and other coins that were minted under Herod. Really interesting.

I found a book in the museum bookstore called Prehistoric Cooking. Before looking through the book I had never thought about the difficulty of cooking before people discovered metal.

For lunch we ate smorrebrod -- open faced sandwiches. We got four of them and shared them. All of them had a small slice of whole grain bread spread with butter. On top of that was layered various ingredients like potato slices, beets, mayonnaise, pickled herring, chicken, pork rinds, radishes. It was better than it sounds. It's about $2.50 per sandwich, so we were able to eat all these interesting and healthy(ish) sandwiches for less money than eating a meal at McDonalds (at least cheaper than McDonalds in Denmark). You can see some recipes for Smørrebrød.

Sleep!

13 hours of sleep last night. Deeply needed and appreciated. Hotel was quiet -- which was also appreciated. Our room has 3 beds -- main, trundle, and bunk in a room which is tiny by American standards, but quite reasonable by Euro standards. We also have internet, allowing us to blog and talk with people (over Skype -- search for Greg's name on Skype to chat with us).

Last night we ate dinner at Wagamama, a noodle place. We both got ramen (though much better than the grad-school variety). It's good for jet lag.

We're in this hotel until mid-next week, so we have plenty of time to get acquainted with the area.

Today's plan: visit museums and make plans for the rest of our trip.

Wandering in Copenhagen

Ivy and I had about 8 hours to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we wandered around Copenhagen and took in the sights. Weather was beautiful, but perhaps a bit too warm at the end of the day. Finally, we got to go to the hotel, check in, and crash for a bit.

Here are some selected photos: