Copenhagen: Jazz, Amusement Parks & Free-Town

We arrived in Copenhagen September 11. We went for an evening stroll and found a live jazz band on a floating stage. We had planned on walking further but they were too good, so we sat on a bench across the canal and enjoyed the music for quite a while.

September 12 we went to see the city. We found a small canal lined with colourful buildings, which Andrew fell in love with.

Next we walked to the palace of the royal family and then to a popular city park. In the park there was a small church beside a famous fountain. It was beautiful.

September 13 was a big day for us because we went to the amusement park called Tivoli Gardens (the second oldest amusement park in the world; the oldest one is nearby in a suburb of Copenhagen). Not only does this park have beautiful grounds,

but it has crazy rides. There is a roller coaster, a 'drop of doom' type ride,

and something we hadn't seen before, an airplane ride.

The plane rotates around backwards or forwards,  spins you in 3 different directions, and speeds up to 100km an hour (subjecting us to 5Gs we're told).

Unfortunately Andrew and I are babies because we weren't feeling good after multiple back-to-back rides. We decided it was best to take it easy, so we went on a kid ride, the boats.

We went back at night to go on the rides again and because the park was lit up, and our nausea had subsided.

We went for another boat ride too.

September 14 we went to Free-Town Christiania, which is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood/commune in which the cannabis trade is tolerated. There were signs up everywhere that asked for no pictures to be taken, which is unfortunate because it was a very interesting area, to say the least. There were small carts selling varieties of hash, picnic tables with many people playing backgammon, and many run down houses.

After, we went back to the canal that Andrew liked for a few more pictures.

On to Gothenburg Sweden.

Stilts In Arhus

We made it to Arhus, Denmark on September 9. We walked around the city and then made it to the open-air museum. The museum had 75 half-timbered houses brought to Arhus from all over Denmark.

Just as we were about to leave we found stilts! We couldn't resist so we tried them out. 

Surprisingly I did kind of get the hang of it, but it took a while. Andrew and I had a race and Andrew's strategy paid off. He took huge steps and then would fall and keep going, instead of my strategy, which was taking small steps, and not falling off as often. Here is a look at Andrew goofing off.

September 10 we took it easy. We are both sick with colds and it was really rainy so our outing consisted of going to sit by the bay and walking by the canals. Even though it was grey, the scenery was still beautiful.

... especially sick bicky (I don't know how to spell that made up word... any ideas Dad?) Andrew.

Here is a picture of the city of Arhus.

Afterwards we went to get groceries. We thought we would treat ourselves and get some aged cheese, we even looked up what 'aged' was in Danish; we thought we were so smart. When we got back home and were ready to feast, I opened the cheese and the air became polluted by the most awful smell. It smelled like sweaty feet, worse than blue cheese! The smell was so bad we couldn't eat it, actually I wouldn't even try it.

Now we are going to Copenhagen for a few days and we will not be experimenting with cheese!