Copenhagen, Denmark

Fifteen years ago I went to Copenhagen for a weekend, with my mother-in-law and our benefactor:

Martin's great-aunt Elsa, who, at 95 years of age, wanted go to Copenhagen for "one last trip".  Little did she know at the time that she would have thirteen more years left in her, finally dying in 2022 at age 108!  Understandably she never did make it back, so I hope we provided her one last rockin' trip to the Danish capital.

It would not be my last trip, however.  1.5 decades and two kids later I would return.

We met up with friends from Pennsylvania, Pia and Ryan, who visited us in Norway 2 years ago when I was literally about to pop with Fiona.  I love not being pregnant, and equally love the idea of meeting friends in fun destinations.  Our friends are so widespread I feel like a holiday with "just us" is a waste of precious travel time and money.  I realize this makes me a terrible wife and mother, but it also makes me a good friend.

We could have gotten on a plane for a 1 hour flight to Copenhagen, but we had 3 daycare-free weeks to fill, so chose the slower means of transport:

The closest thing to a cruise I've ever been on!  A meat cruise some (we) call it, as it is customary for Norwegians to stock up on duty free meat and alcohol onboard as it is much cheaper than in Norway.

We were completely without [motorized] wheels throughout this entire journey.  We took the train from home to Oslo, walked 20 minutes to the ferry terminal, boarded the ship where we promptly began drinking at the outdoor deck bar.

Fiona was asleep in her pram and Freya, just in the very beginning of the stage of life when she's tolerable to take anywhere, busied herself coloring.  It was a tiny taste of our previous (dearly beloved) life of carefree travels, and it was nothing short of glorious.

It is really a beautiful journey out of the Oslo harbor, though chasing after two littles we didn't get to stop and enjoy the scenery until we were out in the open ocean.  There's a pool onboard, restaurants, and a kids play area that sells beer comparatively cheap to Norway.  We entertained ourselves (beer) as best we could between departure at 3pm (beer) until we docked in Copenhagen the next morning (switch from beer to coffee) at 10am. 

Our Airbnb was in an incredible central location, and as we were dropping off our luggage we saw a huge crowd gathering at the Amalienborg Castle, literally right next door.

It was a changing of the guards ceremony at the official residence of the Danish royal family.  Our neighbors for the week!

Boat tour

We met up with our travel companions and they were literally coming straight off an international flight, so thankfully Pia had pre-planned a fab daytime activity to keep themselves awake and keep us all entertained while we awaited check-in at our accommodation.

Within the first few hours of arrival we saw all the highlights of Copenhagen from our private boat.  Its capacity was approximately 150 people less than the standard tourist vessel, so I feel very fortunate to get a VIP experience compared to the gargantuan boats most people get.  

Copenhagen is really pretty from the water and the weather was perfection.  Never a guarantee during Scandinavian summer!  Highlights of the boat tour include: bare boob sunbathers, bunjee jumpers from a crane, a sea plane taking off and:

The Little Mermaid statue

Away from the crowd, so very VIP!  I felt so fancy seeing her from a different vantage point and becoming a tourist attraction ourselves.  A Chinese woman was taking pictures of us, rather than the statue, no doubt to capture our lily white children.  I love being a spectacle!  I hope our fine selves are plastered all over her holiday slideshows.

Bike tour

Now that we'd seen the town by sea, the next day it was time to see it by land via bicycle:

Every time I've ridden a bike in the past decade it's always been for tourist purposes.  But I've never had one of these awesome kid-carrying bikes before, which was highly entertaining for them.

We did a big loop around town, stopping at various playgrounds to entertain the kids.  Copenhagen playgrounds are bountiful and impressive.  Shout out to Max at Copenhagen Family Tours for hauling the 8 of us all around.

Would I rather look at historical artifacts and fancy royal things?  Yes I would, but I am simply not at that stage of life right now.  So we will continue to stop at 3 playgrounds per day on holiday for the foreseeable future, and return to the boring museums and tours full of grey hair [decades] into the future. 

There were also plenty of breaks for refreshments.

And of course we had to cycle ourselves back to the biggest (surprisingly small) thing in Copenhagen:

Crazy crowds there!  But you can get good photos if you walk down on the rocks right next to the water.  Far more impressive than this toddler-sized statue is located right next door:

Gefion Fountain

This fountain is big and beautiful and tells the tale of a Norse goddess who turned her 4 sons (OMG, that poor woman) into oxen.  It's a must visit if you're in the neighborhood to see the Little Mermaid, which you almost certainly will be.  It squirts water in just the right places to allow kids to soak themselves without being overly annoying to passersby.  

Which is precisely what you will also find on the Stroget walking street:

Pro travel parenting tip: find a fountain if you want some time to yourself.  After a disastrous dinner at the Torvehallerne food haul (OMG these kids do not sit and eat) we stumbled upon this water feature that is really not for kids to play in, but our little hellions took it upon themselves and had a ball.

They got soaked to their skin, and I have some hilarious pictures of Freya walking down the street in just her panties with a towel wrapped around her neck like a scarf.  I just know those photos will come in handy someday.

Fredriksborg Castle

The next day we headed out of town on the train to a castle, one of approximately 75,000 that seem to exist in tiny Denmark, as Pia found a blog post about how great and kid friendly it was.

Spoiler alert: it was not.  At least not for pram-aged kids, so hauling Fiona around was cumbersome.  Plus the costumes they let kids play with, literally the draw card to bring us there, were put away after a certain time that is not published or mentioned anywhere on the internet or in person.  What the hell?!

There was some nice architecture and artwork and stuff that would have been infinitely more enjoyable without kids.  But without these precious angels we wouldn't have made the decision to stop at the local mall to escape the rain and play in the various play areas:

While I may sound sarcastic (I assure you that is my intent) it was actually an interesting glimpse at real Denmark and Danish people, which was rather lacking in tourist-heavy central Copenhagen.  This was a little ways out of town in a suburban mall, so we very much got a peek at normal Danish life that we otherwise would not have seen.  I was so impressed with the free play areas (plural), so the day turned out to be much more kid friendly than a crusty old castle could provide.

As is our custom, we split the adults by gender and had one night out and one night home with the kids.  I let Pia plan whatever she wanted (on ladies night out and the trip as a whole, because we can theoretically go to Copenhagen whenever we please) and she wanted to go to a strictly Scandinavian restaurant, so we chose Restaurant Barr.

A place this popular requires reservations months in advance, so snagging a table felt like quite the feat.  A chic place like this adheres to the tenants of minimalism and Scandinavian design, one of them being not cooking their beef.

Beef tartare is so not my jam!  I'm a huge hypocrite, though, because if it was carpaccio I would've been all over it.  But Pia loved it, so I took one for the team and ate raw ground beef with flowers on top.  

The best part of the evening was finding a bar in the touristy, usually not-to-be-patronized Nyhavn neighborhood and drinking spiked hot chocolate until they closed down...at 2 a.m.!  

I haven't closed a bar down or been out that late in at least a decade, so that was a treat.  A successful mama's night out!

Rosenborg Castle

Would you believe it?  Another castle!  There are 15 working Danish royals and I swear they probably each have a handful of castles to their name. 

We didn't make it inside due to poor planning but the highlight for me was right outside, a pond full of big fish looking for a snack:

I will never not stop to look at fishes!

Tivoli Gardens

Almost as popular for tourists as the Little Mermaid statue is Tivoli, the third oldest amusement park in the world.  The oldest one is a short 30-minute train ride away and Ryan, a roller coaster superfan, went to that one on his own one morning to do what he does best.  The rest of us only went to this one, which really is a necessity for kids.  Freya rode her first roller coaster!

That face cracks me up as it accurately portrays her nervousness about the ride.  

Her reaction was very similar to mine when skydiving: terror before and during, followed by jubilation and a sense of accomplishment after the fact.  Brave girl!

Now that she's 4 she got to ride a few tame rides, while poor little Fiona...did not.

I took this kid leash from my sister as a joke, but it actually came in quite handy!  Don't hate on people who put their kid on a leash.  It's necessary sometimes!

Side note: how amazing are these matching Bluey outfits?!

These 4 Aussie citizen kids are forced to like Bluey whether they want to or not.  Not optional!

Sadly it was time for us to get back on the boat and head back to the rainy pathetic excuse of summer in Norway, while they were off to the sunny shores of Greece.

The boat ride back was similar to the boat ride there, except the weather was a million times worse so there was no more leisurely beer drinking out on the deck.

We had a fabulous trip which was 100% made possible by the fact that our friends have kids around(ish) the same age as ours.  Kids entertaining kids so the parents can enjoy themselves is nothing short of absolutely priceless!  I highly, highly recommend this tactic.  

I hate to jinx myself but when it comes to traveling I dare say we are getting our groove back.