pickled herring and other things

This past weekend, I traveled to Denmark with Kathy and her parents. Why so cold? Well, let me give you a little background. Kathy is related to one of the past kings of Denmark- as far back as Christian VIII. And when we were first contemplating even signing up for the Maastricht trip, Kathy agreed to go on the condition that she would be able to take a trip to Denmark...to reclaim the throne. It would be a perilous journey. There would be enemies. There would be friends. This is that story.

Somehow, I slept pretty well in the couchette on the way there. We were interrupted about four times by various train personnel even though they took our passes when we first got on board. Anyway, we arrived in drizzly grey weather. Thankfully our hotel was really close to the train station.

It was also really close....to magical Tivoli Gardens! If you didn't know, Tivoli is the original theme park. Go wikipedia it. Tragically, it is still winter here and the park does not open until April. Nevertheless we tried to see it from the outside. Turns out Tivoli is different from Six Flags. That thing is barricaded like an FBI secret. We tried our best to take pictures through the few open holes but this is the best I could do. Our first shenanigan was when we went through the only door and it turned out to be a casino. We ran to the windows to see as much of the theme park as possible and forgot that casinos aren't fans of cameras or videorecorders...we got kicked out.

Hans Christian Andersen

So much for that. We wandered the city along Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard and came across the WEIRDEST statue I have ever seen. I know I keep revising that statement many times this semester but really, it's a bull trampling a lizard-dragon in the throat. It took a few minutes to realize there were two creatures there.

We decided to eat lunch at a buffet place, Butterfly Cafe, where we could sample 'authentic' Danish cuisine...good stuff! Unfortunately for me much of the food is seafood and thus risky for me to eat because I am allergic to shellfish. So far, we've been lucky and every menu has been in English. And actually, everyone we have met here speaks excellent English. The people in Copenhagen are sooo nice! Rather than just answer your question and leave you to it, every person we met (and we met a lot of people) continued a conversation and often accompanied us to our destination.