A Really Great Day, But No Warm Weather

We had a fun day on Friday. We had Danish sandwiches called Smørrebrød (open faced with lots of weird stuff on them!) for lunch.

The reviews from the kids were mixed but they did all try them. We walked all over the picturesque city of Copenhagen. 

We continued walking and found Amalienborg Palace. This is where the current Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, lives with her family. Like England, her husband is a Prince rather than the king. They have two grown children, Prince Frederich (heir to the throne) who is married to Princess Mary. They have a son, Prince Christian who will inherit the throne someday. The other son is Prince Joachim, who is also married with a family. We saw many Danish military guards at the palace,

and we were able to see the changing of the guard. That was pretty neat, though these guards are so young. Peoples' children are guarding the palace! There is traffic going right through the royal complex. At one point we saw a huge tractor trailer go through. As Americans, this struck us as so odd. We are used to lock down security! If we had such a complex, there would not be access to just anybody, especially large vehicles.

After our walking tour of the city, we took the kids to Tivoli Gardens. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world, and it opened in 1843. The oldest one is also in Denmark and from what I understand it is not too far from where we were today. Tivoli is a place that Walt Disney visited and inspired his plans for Disneyland. It was easy to see basic similarities as we entered the park. The gardens are stunning, there are many fountains and small town like roads and buildings. Worlds of Fun also has a very similar layout, though it is much bigger. Tivoli is right in the middle of downtown Copenhagen so there is no room to expand as Worlds of Fun has (out in the middle of nowhere!). This replica statue of The Little Mermaid is in one of the many bodies of water at the park.

Abbie, (aka The Kansas Crab) met a new friend at the park.

The kids had a blast. With Myles' encouragement, my BABY went on a big roller coaster with the big kids. I'm not sure I will ever forgive him for that!

Ben has inherited my bad motion intolerance so he wisely chooses to avoid most of the extreme rides. Natalie, however proved to be quite the daredevil. She not only insisted on riding the loopy roller coaster and the tower that drops really fast, she went alone! Myles and I did not buy tickets for us to ride, Ben's stomach can't take those things and Abbie was scared. But then at the end Abbie found some courage and rode on the big roller coaster when Natalie went a second time. They loved it, though I'm not sure Abbie will try it again anytime soon.

They had a blast on many rides: Abbie on the Ferris Wheel

Natalie with the bumper cars

Ben in a boat

Trey pulling himself (and Ben) way high

We left the park at about 8:00 only because we were freezing! We had been out all day. The temperatures were in the low 50s and it was cloudy during the day. In the evening it dropped into the 40s, and that really is not amusement park weather. Nonetheless, everyone had a great time and the Tivoli experience is now right up near the top of our European adventure!