After leaving Sweden, we spent a few days in Copenhagen. On our first afternoon in the city, we went to see the changing of the guard. They're less formal than the guards at Buckingham Palace--I think they're allowed to talk and take pictures with the tourists. Their uniforms still look uncomfortable, though. Bearskin hats in July!
I was charmed by the hearts carved into the little red towers at each station.
We also visited the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden. It was a hot and humid afternoon, so being in the Palm House was almost unbearable. Stephen was brave enough to climb up the spiral staircase to the very top of the house, but I got lightheaded when I tried to follow him. We cooled off afterward in the shadier Orchid House, which had some very alien-looking flowers.
One of our favorite things to do was to sit by the canal in the evening when everyone was out drinking beer and cider and chatting with friends. Sometimes we'd stop on the way back to our hotel and buy gelato or waffles drizzled with chocolate sauce. The Copenhagen Jazz Festival was in full swing, so we saw bands playing in practically every square.
One evening, we rented a boat at sunset and rowed up the canal, dodging the zippy motorboats and the wide, flat canal boats that motored past. We even got saw a jazz boat with a four-piece band on board!
On our last night in the city, we decided to walk out to the famous statue of the Little Mermaid. As we got closer, we saw some kind of screen lit up near the shoreline where the statue normally sits.
A sign nearby explained that the Little Mermaid had been taken to China to sit in the Danish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo. In its place was a video installation that offered a live broadcast of the statue as it sat in Shangai. I guess it's bad luck that we happened to be in Copenhagen during the one six-month period in 96 years that the statue was gone--but at least it hadn't been vandalized.
