KC & Diane Do Europe: Denmark

Get ready for all the heart eye emojis for Denmark! It's a beautiful place.

My mother-in-law, Diane, was interested in going to Denmark because of her Danish heritage. She contacted several relatives and we met up with the first one the day after we arrived. Her name is Chrestine and she was kind enough to show us around the island of Fyn, which is where their common ancestor (Diane's great, great grandfather) lived most of his life. Chrestine had only recently uncovered all of this family history for herself, so she was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the area.

I think we made about five stops, most of them churches, and this house, which is where he was born? (Shoot, I'm probably getting that wrong.) 

 The churches in the area were unbelievable. That blue sky backdrop was killer!

The cemeteries were the most beautiful I've ever seen. My kids wanted me to tell them every name on the headstones. "Who's buried there? Who's buried here?" They are morbidly fascinated with the fact that they're walking all over dead people.

Inside one of the churches. Purty, purty.

With the help of Grandpa KC, Sienna got a green caterpillar to crawl on her.

We met up with the rest of Chrestine's family for dinner and they were really fun and funny.

I tried fish soup and Danish omelette while I was there.

Adam went with the weinerschnitzel, always a solid choice.

The lovely town where the restaurant was located...wish I could remember the name of it!

I have a good hair day approximately one day a month. This is proof of that one day.

The next day, we went to downtown Copenhagen to a picturesque street called Nyhavn. 

It was hot and the kids ate hot dogs, or a fun version that I think they called French hot dogs, which were cylindrical buns with a hole in the middle. They squirt ketchup in the hole first, then insert the hot dog, which sticks out the end. A superior way to eat a hot dog if you're a kid.

OH. Haha. Now that I'm looking at this picture, this is not what they were eating at the time. But they did eat those French hot dogs one time.

Noah found some Noah-size shade.

Open face sandwiches are all the rage in Denmark. The adults tried these for lunch. Mind was some kind of fish? I can't remember.

Beef tartar for Adam.

Beef tenderloin for KC.

Crab & vegis for Diane.

Vafflebageren (waffle bakery) had the best fresh made waffle cones with ice cream in them. Big time yum.

The next day was Sunday and we went to church in a ward building nearby. It's always fun to meet some of the local LDS crowd. After church, we chatted with some other travelers visiting from America and they knew some of our friends in Luxembourg. Of course they did. KC & Diane drove by the Copenhagen temple on their way home from church. Here's a pic Diane took.


Then we came back to the Airbnb and ate Adam's fantastic homemade bolognese sauce over fettuccine. I took three trips to three different grocery stores the day before to find all the ingredients. Good thing one of my favorite things to do in a foreign country is ogle at food in grocery stores. Snack insight about Danish people: they are bonkers over black licorice.

To stave off pasta coma, we went to downtown Copenhagen to see the Church of our Lady, which has the original Christus statue that all Mormons know and love. (Sienna took this picture of us on the street outside. Not bad, Bird, not bad.)

This is the entrance.

 BEHOLD. This is the original Christus statue by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. It is made of Carrara marble and was completed in 1838. It was widely unknown until 1896 when an American textbook writer referred to it as "the most perfect statue of Christ in the world."

 In the 1950s, LDS church leader, Stephen Richards bought a replica and gifted it to then-president David McKay. In 1966, the statue was placed on display at Temple Square in SLC. Another replica was used in a church pavillion at New York's World Fair in 1964. Both were used to communicate to outsiders that the church is Christ-centered. The church has used replicas of the statue in 14 other visitor's centers at LDS temples around the world. The image is also used frequently in church publications.

Under the statue is says Kommer Til Mig, which is "Come to Me" in Danish. The reference Matthew 11:28 is also there, referring to the scripture in the Bible that says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

It was a special experience to visit. The woman working at the gift shop inside the church told KC, "We sure get a lot of visitors from Utah." Haha.

We took a second trip to Vaffelbageren even though it was chilly and rained all the way on the walk back to our cars.

Our Airbnb had a trampoline and yard and was lots of fun for practicing slingshot airplane flying, one of the toys Diane brought from home.

The next day we spent entirely at Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world. It had so much old timey charm, I loved it. And needless to say, the kids died over it. A day just for them?! They were exploding.

 Now I know why parents take their kids to Disneyland. Faces were smiling so hard they were breaking.

 Lunch on a pirate ship with cannonball meatballs?! Arggghh, me likey, says Noah Bluebeard.

Noah didn't want to risk his life, but Sienna was gunning for all the thrills. I had a headache after going on some rides with her and she just wanted more.

 

Noah's in seventh heaven here considering how much he loves popcorn and pirates.

Sienna's beard a papa (cotton candy) was nearly her height and made us all hysterical watching her attempt to eat it.

 Happy birthday to KC this day! Sorry, this is not much of a birthday cake....

Such a fun family day.

The final day we had planned to take a train across a bridge to Sweden, but we were all tired and wanted to chill. So we drove north an hour and a half to the town of Gilleleje, on the North Sea. We hung out at the beach and visited Diane's other distant relative.

Chilly and windy? Who cares. The kids put their swimsuits on anyway.

 

 Someone told me to try these: chocolate covered marshmallow fluff with a wafer layer bottom. Meh.

We met Diane's other distant relative. His family was warm and welcoming and the kids loved playing in their fun backyard with the younger boy.

 

Denmark had it all: beautiful farm land, accessible seaside, hip capital city, and of course, delightful people. It was a travel experience to remember.