Conquering Copenhagen: Part 3

Monday:

Since our flight wasn't until 3pm, we had a bit of exploring to do. The last place we really wanted to check out was Rosenborg Castle. It was without a doubt the coolest thing we'd seen and we really wished we'd had the time to go inside. But we had a great time exploring the beautiful gardens that surrounded it. We also let Amelia out to stretch her legs, she loved running around the grass and chasing the magpies.

After that we collected our luggage at the hotel and hopped back on the metro to head home. Once again our flight was uneventful. This time we were able to take the stroller on board with us. We were moved to the front of the line at Heathrow in passport control and our bag was one of the first ones off the plane. I don't think we could've asked for a smoother trip home. Amelia was golden on the plane, especially for not napping at all that day.

And that's pretty much it. We did really enjoy Copenhagen, but found the limited hours on attractions hard to do with a baby. If we'd been there before she was born, we would've rented bikes and explored more. As it is, we really enjoyed our time, but definitely don't feel like we need to hurry back. There are too many other places we need to check out first!

Rosenborg castle & garden







Other miscellaneous photos:
Copenhagen anchors were everywhere, here's one at Nyhavn

Waiting for the hop om/hop off bus to depart

Flowers growing out of these house walls

Mia found a new game to play at the hotel

Mia's reward for being such a good traveller!

Conquering Copenhagan: Part 2

Sunday:

That morning we woke up to damp streets and sidewalks, but no rain. Very good news. We headed down to our yummy breakfast buffet and then back up for Mia's nap. After that was all done, we headed out again. We waited for the hop on/off bus so we could ride to Tivoli Gardens. But it never came. Upon looking at the map, we determined that it was within walking distance and decided to try that. Our time between Mia's morning and afternoon nap is limited and we didn't want to spend it waiting on the bus. And we're so glad we decided to walk. We went down this pedestrian only shopping area and saw street performers, and all kinds of great shops. It was so much more fun than taking the bus. The walk didn't take long at all. And before we headed into Tivoli, we decided to eat an early lunch at McDonald's (we try to hit one in every country, we like to compare which is best), we figured it would be cheaper than inside and it was right there. So we ate, and decided that it was good, but that Italy still wins.

So on to Tivoli. We had both heard lots being said about it, but neither of us knew exactly what it was. We knew there were rides and whatnot, but thought that there was more to it than that. It turns out there isn't. After paying an entrance fee to get in, we found you still have to pay to go on any rides. We looked for some kid rides, thinking Amelia might like to try one or two, but she was too little. So we didn't really do much except wander around. It was pretty, but it was basically an amusement park. Not what we came for. The good part was that the sun came out in full force. We even took off Amelia's long sleeved t-shirt and let her explore Tivoli in her onsie and jeans. I wished I'd worn shorts. It really turned out to be a gorgeous day.

After Tivoli we walked back to put Mia down. She slept hard and when she woke up, we headed off to Amalienborg, it was nice. The current monarchs actually live in the palaces (there are four) and they're not open to the public. There is a museum though, but again we missed the opening hours. We looked around the grounds, but unlike Buckingham Palace or any of the other ones here, they are very plain and not too ornate. Not fun for a tourist, but as a rule I approve that their monarchy doesn't have to have all the whistles and bells.

After that, it was such a nice evening that we decided to go for a walk and explore the other areas we'd missed. We'd passed by a cool fountain on the hop on/off bus and decided to try to find it. We did and found out there was a triathlon going on and there were lots of people there cheering on the runners. We joined in. We also wanted to see the bust of Winston Churchill, which was on the grounds by an 'English Church'. The bust sits outside under the very tree that Churchill planted himself. Not sure if we're becoming too British or not, but we thought that was pretty darn cool.

Afterward we went back to the hotel and had another picnic dinner with one order off room service so that we could at least get some veg in us. Don't worry, we'd been eating plenty of fruit. We'd take a couple of apples & pears to go at breakfast.

Here are some shots of our day.
Tivoli Gardens



Mia enjoying the one and only ride

Look at all those lollipops

Amelienborg palace


The fountain

Churchill park

Conquering Copenhagen

Well, we think we might have the picture issue sorted out, so we figured it's time to update you about our trip to Copenhagen.

Don't worry, it won't be as detailed as our Italian trip, mostly because we stayed in one city and we were there for half of the time.

Our flight left Heathrow at 12:30, we had a fairly uneventful trip to the airport, and were able to board the plane just fine. The flight is only 1.5 hours from London to Copenhagen, so before we knew it, we'd landed. The airport in Copenhagen has been voted the best airport in Europe. And I could see why, it's very clean, nicely decorated and the staff are all friendly.

One unfortunate thing about this flight was that they didn't put our stroller on the plane with us (more often than not, they let you store it in the overhead compartment), it had to be sent down to where the rest of the baggage resided. They did let us take it all the way to the gate however. But with it being in baggage, it meant we didn't have it at the gate when we landed, we had to pick it up with our suitcase.

It isn't very fun carrying Amelia around, she's heavy, very squirmy. But we survived, thankfully passport control was very quick. We were able to get to baggage claim and pick up our suitcase without any problems. Unfortunately we couldn't find our stroller. It didn't come off with the rest of the luggage and we were a little confused. Finally after all the bags had been offloaded from the plane Matt went to ask about our stroller. He had the easy job. Mine was to prevent Amelia from getting run over by people with their baggage trolleys and whatnot. I was trying to keep an eye on our luggage and her at the same time. She thought it was a pretty fun game to race away from me and make me chase her (all the while I'm trying to make sure no one steals our stuff).

After being told the wrong claim area twice, Matt was finally able to locate our stroller and we headed off. The directions the hotel gave us stated that the easiest (and cheapest) way to get there would be to take the metro. So we did. It is a very pleasant metro and very clean and bright especially compared to the tube. We got off the metro at the right stop and were finally able to get a good look at Copenhagen. It is a very pretty city. It first struck me that it looked a lot like Amsterdam. It has the same kind of architecture, bikes everywhere and canals running through the city.

We started the 10 minute walk or so to our hotel, but ooohed and ahhhed the entire way. Our plan was to check in and try to get Amelia to take her afternoon nap. Our hotel was very nice. And our room was huge, especially by European standards. It opened into a long(ish) hallway which led into the room itself. It was on the ground floor and tucked away, I'm pretty sure they try to put most people with children in that room. We liked it because we could put Amelia's cot at the far end of the hall (by the door) and still be able to sit on our bed and keep a little light on and read. That was a very big improvement over hiding in the bathroom reading in a tiny hotel room in Italy.

Amelia was a champ, we put her in the cot and she fell right asleep. Matt and I just hung out and unpacked quietly while we waited for her to wake up. Once she did, we headed out to explore our little neck of the woods. Right by our hotel is an area called Nyhaven. It's boarded by a long canal which has tons of restaurants beside it, people would eat either inside, or under a canopy and on the other side of the walk way, other people would sit on the curb by the canal and drink and socialize, it was obviously a pretty popular hangout.

We wandered around for a bit, the canal led right to the ocean so we headed down there and enjoyed looking at all the giant battleships (still active). It was a very pleasant evening. We also looked for a place to eat, but to our dismay, Copenhagen is even more expensive than London when it comes to eating out. We looked for something that wasn't too pricey and eventually decided to head back to the hotel and order room service. This was good for a couple of reasons, first Amelia was starting to get a little fussy and second, when we'd looked at the prices earlier in the hotel, we realized that it was actually cheaper than the prices we'd been seeing on our walk.

So back we went, and ordered in. The food was really, really good. After our yummy feast we all headed to bed, eager to start exploring the city in earnest the next day.

Saturday:

After our fantastic breakfast buffet, we suited up and were ready to explore. Saturday started out very gray. We'd checked the weather forecast before flying out and knew that rain had been predicted. So like the good Londoners we are, we came prepared. We had Amelia's rain cover for her stroller as well as our umbrellas and jackets. That morning we decided that we'd take the 'hop on, hop off' bus. If you remember, we did that in Italy and it was a huge success. Luckily (or not, since we planned it that way) there was a stop fairly close to our hotel. We got there and purchased our tickets and hopped on. We learned a few things that day about these buses as well as Copenhagen. First off, Copenhagen is really small, it doesn't really need the hop on, hop off. Secondly, the hop on/off buses there were very poorly run. So we don't recommend using them. They were kind of a waste of our money.

However, we didn't know that when we boarded. So off we went. After a few snags of the bus pulling into a stop and stopping and us having to get off and take another one (it wasn't broken, but that's just how they operated) we were able to ride the entire route. Because of the dark clouds, the cover of the bus was on up top, so we rode on the bottom part. Amelia was very good. She loved looking out of the windows at the sights. As we rode, Matt and I made mental notes of places we'd like to come back and visit. The purpose of this first ride was to purely get a lay of the land and see what was available.

After we'd completed the circuit, we set out to look for somewhere to eat lunch. We decided on hot dogs. There are hot dog stands everywhere in Scandinavian countries (so Matt tells me), I know they were in Iceland, though I'm not sure if that's considered Scandinavian. Anyway, I can't really get a good hot dog here in London, so I didn't mind at all. We purchased our hot dogs and discussed what we wanted to do that afternoon/evening.

We decided we'd walk to Amalienborg Palace, partly because it was close to our hotel and partly because we liked that the name was close to Amelia's and thought it'd be fun to get a t-shirt with it or something. So we put Mia down for her afternoon nap and settled in with our books that we'd brought. After awhile Matt decided to check the opening hours of the palace and got on his computer (we'd taken it because the hotel offered free wi fi). As he was searching he came across a very legitimate looking link and as you all know, it was attached to a very nasty virus which crashed his computer. We couldn't even get it to boot up or anything. It was not cool.

And in addition to that, the rain that had been threatening all day started to pour. Now as you know, living in London for almost 4 years has given us a chance to experience lots and lots of rain. But this amount that came down, and for how long it did, impressed even us. By the time Amelia woke up, we were too late to go to the palace (Matt had seen the times before it crashed) and it was raining so hard that we didn't want to hang around the grounds looking at the outside, which was our Plan B if it was closed.

However, we also wanted to get out of the hotel room. So we decided to venture out again and try to find a reasonable place to eat. Now lest you think we're cheap, we're not. We don't mind paying money for a meal that looks good, but as we passed people sitting under the canopies, you can see what the food is like and we decided it wasn't worth the expense.

Like the previous evening, nothing really caught our fancy. And despite our best efforts, we were getting really wet. It didn't help that Amelia liked to stick her leg outside the protection of the rain cover and her pant leg was completely soaked. We were all soaked. But we didn't want to go back and just order room service again, the menu was limited, and while cheaper than the outside restaurants, still quite pricey. Luckily just as we were completely unsure what to do next, we stumbled upon a small grocery store. Yay! We'd just been talking about wishing we had one.

We went in and loaded up. We bought bread, lunch meat, two kinds of types of crisps, lots of water and a variety of Danish candy to try. We were pumped.

After that we headed back to the hotel and ate our picnic dinner on the bed. It was great. The rain kept coming down that night, long after we'd fallen asleep.

Mia riding the metro, getting her water intake in humid Copenhagen.

Sunset over Nyhavn


Mia loves her apples

Riding the hop on/hop off



Cruising pass the yachts

Yellow brick olden day navy barracks

Outside the front of Tivoli

Rainy rain rain...

Matt's Daddy Pig Moment

Even though we still can't post pictures (not sure when we'll be able to), I thought I'd share a funny story that happened yesterday.

Before I get to the story, I have to share a video of one of Amelia's favorite shows (though honestly, I think Matt and I like it just as much, if not more than she does). Peppa Pig is a little 5 minute cartoon that airs over here and it's one of those rare ones that adults like as well. One of the best characters in Peppa Pig is Daddy Pig, he's generally pretty stubborn and not all that bright.

Here's a clip of Daddy Pig moments I found on Youtube, it's kind of long, so you can just watch the first few to get an idea. But I dare you to start it and not get sucked in. Daddy Pig is hilarious.



Yesterday Matt took the day off of work so he could come with me to a doctor's appointment for Amelia. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with Amelia, she's as healthy as a horse.

As part of the appointment we had to strip Amelia down to her birthday suit to get her weighed and measured (she's in the 75% for weight now, and in the 90% for height). I spoke with the nurse while Matt finished dressing Amelia.

After that we had to wait for the doctor to be available, and since it was a pediatric wing, there were lots of toys and books to play with. Amelia had a great time walking to the bookshelf and bringing books back for us to read. Actually, she didn't stay around long enough to have the books read to her, but she did like picking them up and bringing them.

Eventually we were called in to see the doctor. She oohed and aaahed over Amelia, as all good pediatrician should do. During the course of our visit, we asked the paranoid first parent question as to whether Amelia was too bowlegged (we'd noticed this recently, it wasn't the reason for the appointment, but we figured we'd might as well ask while there). The doctor looked down at Amelia's feet and commented that she looked fine, but that it would probably help her walk better if her shoes were on the right feet. That of course got me a little curious, as to my knowledge Amelia doesn't yet possess the ability to put her own shoes on. And as a rule, I always make sure they're on the right feet. But as I looked, sure enough, they were on the wrong feet. And I'd like to point out that her shoes are velcro, so not exactly tricky to get right.

Matt also looked at Mia's feet and then sheepishly confessed that he'd been the one to put her shoes on. He was pretty embarrassed, but the doctor and I had a good laugh at his expense.

So that is Matt's Daddy Pig moment.

Denmark Delayed...

Hey everyone. I know you're all anxiously awaiting our report on our trip to Denmark. But due to Matt's computer catching a nasty virus (who would've thought researching Amalienborg Palace would be so hazardous), we can't post pictures. Thankfully Matt's laptop still works, but it's been scrubbed clean. He's had to start over with only basic Windows. Also, thankfully, we only lost about 6 weeks worth of photos/videos of Amelia, it could've been worse.

So until we're able to get our pictures downloaded from the camera and onto the computer again (including being able to resize them etc) we're not going to post about our trip. Or actually much on the blog.

Just know that it was fun, rainy, humid and beautiful. Usually all at the same time. Amelia was a fantastic traveler, even though her cot (provided by the hotel) left a lot to be desired. She was great on both flights and really charmed all those blond danish folks.

See you back here soon!

Summer Fun

The other night Matt and I were looking at some older blog posts on here. And it hit me how much I enjoyed some of the posts that we actually wrote, rather than just a montage of pictures.

So here I am, trying again to actually write something, rather than just take the lazy way out of just posting pictures and videos. Though we will keep doing that as well.

I think for this one, I can only write about one thing, Amelia and how darn cute she is. It seems like everyday she does something new, and there are times when I just look at her and love her even more and more. So here are some of the highlights.

First off, she is a little chatterbox! Just over the last two weeks or so, she's really, really found her voice. She's always been vocal, but now she really chatters. To me, to Matt, to her books, toys and TV. She also loves to sing. She's always been into music. I remember when I was pregnant with her, anytime music came on, she'd start to wiggle. She's still the same. She loves watching Cbeebies in the morning and the 'birthday song' is one of her favorites. When I put her down for naps, I often hear her chatter and sing to herself. It's so stinking cute.

She's also showing her British roots by still doing 'cheers'. Over a month ago, one night at dinner I taught her out to touch our cups and say 'cheers'. Now she does it every single time she has her sippy. She is happy if we don't have a cup, she'll let us use our hand or whatever is nearby. I've even caught her tapping her cup against the wall and her various toys and stuffed animals. She even sounds like she's saying 'cheers' though it sounds like she's saying 'deers'. But that's a huge improvement on 'duh' which is what it used to be.

We've had so much fun this summer. Every day that's nice, Amelia and I try to go out and do something. We're so lucky in that we've got several parks close by. We sometimes head to the zoo, or we go feed the ducks at Regent's Park. Or we'll head to the playground at Wellington Park, off the high street. Or we'll head to the fountains in Swiss Cottage or go to the Hyde Park Lido. It's awesome. We have some friends who live nearby and we often go with them. In fact today started out (and still is) bright and sunny (yesterday was pouring rain all day). So we met up with two other mums and their kids at the playground and had some fun. All the other kids are older than Amelia, and it's fun to see her want to keep up with the big kids. She does a pretty good job. And luckily the older kids are really good with her (well the boy Oliver can take or leave her, he's just two though and teaches her how to handle being picked on...much like a big brother). After we were through with the park, we walked up to the high street and ate some yummy gelato. And after having authentic gelato in Italy, I know for a fact that this stuff is yummy.

It surprises me all the time how much Amelia picks up on and understands. She will get her shoes for me, if I ask her to. Of course she'll also bring me my shoes and Matt's shoes, even if we hadn't asked. She also will get her foot/soccer ball when asked (it's her favorite toy we take it with us all the time when we go to the park). If I start to hum the William Tell Overture aka the Lone Ranger theme song, Amelia will go and climb on her rocking horse so she can rock in style. Also, if you hum the 'Skippy the Bush Kangaroo' theme song (it's an old TV show from Oz, where Skippy helps solves crimes with the help of a plucky little boy...not unlike Flipper and/or Lassie). She'll get one of her stuffed kangaroos and start it hopping along, just like Matt always does with it.

And about 80% of the time if I say to her "Mia, let's change your bum" she'll go and lay down on her changing mat. Such a clever girl.

At dinner time, she's started to blow on the food we put on her tray (she sees us doing it) and she's also started trying to 'feed' one of the little toys that are attached to the tray (they are a giraffe and a zebra). She'll blow on the food and then give it to the giraffe to eat, she puts it right at the mouth.

There's just so much that she does. I really need to be better at writing it down.

That's pretty much it from here. We need to really think about packing for Denmark, we leave on Friday! Luckily it's only a 2 hour plane ride and only about another 30 minutes or so on the metro to our hotel. We're excited about this hotel we're staying in, it's supposedly 4 stars, but we got it for an excellent rate. It's got a breakfast buffet included as well as free wireless internet. So we're bringing a laptop and will most likely post about our adventures while in Denmark, rather than when we get home.

We're very excited to go and in very much need of a nice relaxing holiday!

Chasing bubbles

Amelia loves playing with her bubbles!

Fun at the zoo - maybe she's been there to often judging by her expression??







Other random pics