Mommie and Auntie's European Adventures Part 3

Beautiful Copenhagen......

So at long last we arrived in Copenhagen - finally we would be able to see where Kelly has been calling "home" for the last several months.  Since we were so tired from early morning flights we took it easy on our first day. Kelly gave us a tour of City Center, we visited DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad), went to an early dinner and then called it a day.  On the second day we toured the harbor area, visited Kelly's Kollegium, a grocery store and made her dinner while she did her laundry.  Rachel-Mom's wondering when YOU are going to start doing YOUR own laundry??

The first two pictures below are  from the harbor area.    We really enjoyed Kelly being the tour guide and explaining some of the Danish history to us. 

Our next adventure included renting a car..... thanks to Aunt Jill's bravery and Kelly's navigating we safely made it to Helsingor, which is about an hour north of Copenhagen.  We visited Kronborg Castle, which is also known as Hamlet's Castle.  We thoroughly enjoyed our tour and independence, but all the while we were there we kept thinking about how much we would have loved sharing this day with Jake (and everyone else).  So the picture below of the cannons is for you, Jake.  Mom has many more pictures to share with you.  
After safely returning to Copenhagen, we met Kelly's friend Erin and her mother, Susan for dinner.  Kelly and Erin really enjoyed a restaurant called RizRaz several weeks ago and decided to share it with all of us.  We had a really wonderful time and it was really special and very comforting to meet Kelly's friends.

Good Bye

So........this morning we had to say Good Bye to Kelly.  She is headed off on a trek to the Czech Republic.  She walked us to the Metro Station and gave us our route to the next step of our adventure.    It appeared as though she was very worried about Mommie and Auntie heading off on our own.    She has truly been our guide and we have thoroughly enjoyed letting her lead us!  Kelly, how incredibly proud we are of you and honored that you wanted to share this with us.  We love you!

We realize what an incredibly special time this has been and we truly appreciate how fortunate we are to have husbands, children,  family and friends support this big adventure.  Jeff, Joe, Matthew, Rachel, Jake, Gramis and Paul we love you all very much.  Thank you for supporting this adventure!

Next Stop.....Sweden to visit the Oden

We landed in Sweden this morning and tomorrow we head out to visit the ship that Jeff will call home on his big adventure.  Our mission -- pictures and descriptions!  

Wild Women of Western Europe

Mommy/Auntie's European Adventures - Part 2

Last Day in London 

Cultural Night was WICKED Good ! We had amazing seats and the musical was absolutely wonderful!  Thank you Kelly.

This picture of Kelly, with Big Ben in the background, was taken from our capsule atop the London Eye.  It was not nearly as scary as we expected it to be and the sights were beautiful.  In addition to Big Ben, we were able to see Buckingham Palace, the Bullet, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and much of the city.  Before heading to the theatre we stopped by The Albert for our afternoon Cream Tea.

Daring in Dublin..........

After an evening of theatre we slept for 2 hours and made our way to Dublin where there was a pub literally on every corner.  Despite Kelly's insistence we didn't stop at ALL of them.  We spent our first afternoon wandering around the city.  We stumbled upon a hotel that offered live music and Irish Dancing every night - so, that seemed to be our duty.  To our surprise we found that each table offered the option of pouring your own brew. The music and the dancing were wonderful.   In the picture below is Kelly preparing to "pull a pint." 

Wild Women in Wicklow

Next, we decided to get out and visit the countryside to the south of Dublin - Wicklow County.  Our guide, Kev, took us first to Dun Laoghaire, a small town where people were actually swimming in the extremely cold water.  We headed on to Glendalough where we saw some amazing scenery.  Many of the roads we travelled were very familiar since they are very popular areas for movie filming. Braveheart and PS I Love You were two of the movies filmed in this area.  We stopped at a breathtaking  overlook that  featured the Guiness Estate.  After lunch at a traditional Irish Pub, we headed onto to the Glendalough Monastery.

Kelly and Jan at the overlook to the Guiness Estate.

This is a typical street in the Temple Bar section of Dublin.  

Next stop:  Copenhagen

London Calling

So... I spent last week in Holland with my psychology program and I had a GREAT time!  But, I will save my Holland pictures and stories for another time because for the past few days I have been exploring London with my mother and Auntie Jill.  I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them (and keeping them in line).  For this blog I have asked (told) them to take over my job and tell you a little bit about our adventures.

Mother/Auntie's European Adventures Part 1

We have become very good at following rules (orders)!  As you can see London Bridge has not fallen down.  This picture was taken on a cruise of the River Thames.  On our first full day together we took a tour called the "Magic of London", which included a private tour of the Tower of London, Cream Tea at Harrods, Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace and a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral.  

This is a picture of us at Buckingham Palace right before the official changing of the guards.  

On our second day we went back and spent more time at some of the wonderful places we visited only briefly on our tour.  This is a picture of Kelly and Aunt Jill between Covent Garden Market and Trafalgar Square.  Covent Garden is a large open air market that was filled with people, performers and many wonderful sights and sounds.  Aunt Jillie bought a hand made sweater from a woman named Zara.  After walking for miles and miles we went in search of our new favorite - Cream Tea.

After our tea, we crossed the River Thames via Jubilee Walkway where we could see Big Ben all illuminated.  We passed by the London Eye, which is the ferris wheel like structure  in the background of the picture.   Today we will go back to this area and take a "flight" on the London Eye (Kelly's making us do it)!  Then, we will search out a new Cream Tea location before we head to our "cultural night".   

Cultural Night

Weeks ago Kelly arranged to take us to see the London Production of WICKED!, which is London's #1 production.  We are surely the luckiest mommy and auntie on the entire continent. 

Tomorrow we head to Dublin - stay tuned for the next edition of Mommy/Auntie's European Adventures.

Travel Break Itinerary

So... tomorrow morning  I leave for my 3 week study break.  I am INSANELY excited to travel, have fun and SEE MY MOTHER AND AUNTIE!  But, I just wanted to let the rest of you know what my plans are.  Also to be patient because I won't have much access to internet or time to post in the coming weeks.  Be prepared for lots of updates and pictures when I return.

Week 1 (October 12-17): I will be traveling to Holland with my Psychology program for a tour around the country and Amsterdam.  We will focus our trip on aspects of child development, but also spend time enjoying the culture and attractions.  (A. Kath, we will be stopping at the Anne Frank house... perhaps I can get you a few pictures?)

Week 2 (October 17-26): I will meet my mother and Auntie in London where we will stay for 4 nights.  Then we will head to Dublin for 2 nights and back to Copenhagen for 4 nights.

Week 3 (October 26-31): I am participating in an adventure trip offered through DIS to the Czech Republic.  We will be doing activities like climbing, hiking and such... it will be fun!

and just for a little bonus...

This is a picture of Erin, my visiting father Flemming and I at the Carlsberg Brewery.  (By the way U. Joe, I did not try the Elephant Beer because I heard how strong it was and given the fact that we were beer "tasting" at 10:30 in the morning I decided to pass.)

Carlsberg Brewery and more...

Okay, so when I said that we "ditched" the bikes what I really meant was that we locked them securely in a bike rack.  And when I said that we never went back to get them I forgot to tell you that the hostel manager would be driving to Brunnby to pick them up later in the day.  So, I guess we didn't exactly just "ditch 'em" but I thought it sounded much cooler than the whole truth (sorry Jakenator).

For Uncle Joe:

My observation so far has been that men do in fact cook quite a bit here.  Both meals I have had at my visiting family were prepared by the father and the men in my kollegium are much more confidant in the kitchen than I am.  Perhaps some of the men in my life (Matthew) should learn from this and work on their cooking skills.

For my Aunt Kathy:

The drift wood sculptures were built illegally because it was done on a nature reserve without government permission.  They were supposed to be torn down, but the people protested and now they have become part of the reserve.  It is indeed cold here, but I am holding up.  By the way, I have many more pictures of Tivoli, castles and such.  Let me know what you would like for your classroom and I would be happy to send you some.

Family Visit #2

On Friday night Erin and I went to our visiting family's house again for dinner.  It was a fabulous dinner of ham and vegetables cooked by Flemming.  It was very nice to have a real meal cooked for us because you can only have pasta and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner so many times each week.  After dinner we spent time talking and relaxing together.  We also watched a little bit of Denmark's Dancing With the Stars.  It was quite funny to watch even though we had no idea what anyone was saying.  It did however make me miss watching this show with Mom at home.

Saturday morning we woke up early to have a Danish breakfast with our visiting parents and then the four of us drove into the city for some sight seeing.  The daughters did not join us because Mette had to work and Katharine had a badminton match.  

The first thing we planned on doing in Copenhagen was get tickets to sit in on a session of The Danish Parliament, but they were closed for the day.  So, we went to the Carlsberg Brewery instead.  Carlsberg is one of the largest breweries in the world.  It was founded in and is currently based in Copenhagen.  In addition to supporting various teams and charities, the Carlsberg company has funded the construction of many galleries and museums in Denmark.

This is a picture of the bottle collection in the old warehouse of the brewery.  There were rows and rows of beer bottles from all over the world.

I just took this picture because it is called "Polar Beer."  It reminded my father and I wondered if he would drink Polar Beer with a polar bear when he is with PolarTrek at the South Pole...bahahah!

So, at the end of the tour of the Carlsberg Museum you get the chance to try 2 of their brews.  Now,  I am not really much of a beer connoisseur.  Fortunately for me, there was a cool station where you could smell a variety of ingredients (cloves, chocolate, coffee, honey, citrus etc.) and depending on what scents you liked there was a guide to which beer to drink.  The picture above is me deciding whether or not I was satisfied with my second selection.

After the brewery we took a leisurely walk by the Little Mermaid and headed toward the Queen's palace.

We got there just in time to see the changing of the guards.  There was no great ceremony, it was just a routine change.  The guards have to stand there, completely still without talking for shifts of 2 hours.  I would definitely not like that job.

Alright, so I know this was not the most exciting blog entry but I have a very busy week ahead of me.  I have midterm projects and papers to finish, laundry, packing and preparing for my 3 week break which starts on Friday.  I have a lot to do and I hope to be ready to leave for Holland on Sunday.

A note for my followers...

I may be encouraged to post more often if I know that you are actually reading what I write.  There are some of you that are kind enough to leave little messages and questions for me, but others who do not (Uncle John).  I enjoy sharing my European Adventures with you, but it would be nice to hear from you once in a while as well.