Koor-ben-haun

Sort of how it sounds when the locals pronounce København. Known to us as Copenhagen.

Luckily almost everyone in Copenhagen speaks English, because all of our combined understanding of Spanish, French and Italian helped us not a whit in Scandinavia. People spoke Swedish or Danish around us, and we couldn’t snatch out even a word here or there. And somehow, Danish seemed even trickier to interpret than Swedish. Chris joked that it seems to work sort of like this: whenever there is a letter l followed by a vowel in a word, you just throw in the syllable “huven”. There seem to be lots of extra syllables going on in those words.

But the kids figured out the word for hot dog pretty fast. Pølse. There are carts everywhere, and the quality (so this veggie-head hears) is much better than your typical American dog. They stuff them into a bun with a hole down the middle.

We stayed in a very cool apartment. Renting apartments is generally much cheaper than staying in hotels when traveling, and the internet makes them easy to find. Works out great with kids, because you get a kitchen–and sometimes even a tiny washing machine.

We watched the crown princess of Sweden marry her beloved on television. It was fun to think that just days before we’d walked very near to where they were. My favorite part: when they answered the do you take this man/woman question with ja! Somehow that cracked Lulu and me up.

I took a photo of my new Swedish clogs in the reflection of our Danish refrigerator.

We saw all the classic Copenhagen sites. The harbor.

The statue of Hans Christian Andersen. (The ever-popular-with-tourists Little Mermaid statue has swum off to China for the summer.)

Hippie-haven Christiania. Reminded us an awful lot of Telegraph Avenue, back in Berkeley.

Tivoli gardens. Rides to make teenagers happy, and gardens to please a mama. Beautiful.

We walked and walked. Saw interesting public art.

And more captivating gardens.

And pretty jars in a coffee shop. It took fifteen minutes to get our lattes. And they cost six or seven bucks, when converted to dollars! But at least the shelves were stunning while we waited.

The National Museum of Denmark was wonderful. It had one of the most amazing children’s areas I’ve ever seen in a museum, with big plastic medieval meats and viking costumes.

We also enjoyed the English language tour at the Museum of Danish Resistance, which tells the story of Denmark during World War II. Fascinating stuff–now we need to go home and watch Flame and Citron, a Danish film about two actual resistance fighters, which came out a few years back.

Since I didn’t eat pølse, I dug into sandwiches. I love all the dark, hearty, seedy bread in northern Europe! Accompanied by a beer, of course.

Chris and I walked over to the harbor to watch the Danes play Cameroon in the World Cup on a giant screen. Man, those Danes are a patriotic folk. There were red and white flags everywhere.

We were lucky enough to experience what happens when the Danes score a goal. Out comes their inner viking!

It was fun to be there with them. Danny Kaye had it right.