Denmark Day 2

On Saturday we were all awake by 6a.  The summer days are 17 hours and 30 minutes long with the sun dawning at 3:30 in the morning.   So it's a little tough to go to bed and sleep in.  We spent the morning checking out the shopping area (Stroget Street) and taking a Canal tour which was really a great way to see the city.  

Ella was enamored by the street performers

Stroget Street

Wonderful berries and grapes sold on the street .. the girls loved this

These boats are very long and narrow and fit underneath very short bridges

 The young guide on our boat gave the tour information in 3 languages: German, Danish and English.  It was fun just listening to her we were all very impressed.  I really wish that I knew more than just one language .. it really would have come in handy here.

Picture of The Amalienborg Palace from the water.   The Royal Danish family live here in the winter.

Ice cream is universally good!

The Stege's joined us on the site seeing after lunch

The Church of our Saviour - 400 steps to the top (we didn't count)

 Saturday night we traveled by train to Lillerod, a short ride outside of Copenhagen, to visit our friends Stig and Eva Hansen and family.  The Hansen's lived in Austin in 2001 (and 2002?) while Stig was on a temporary assignment for work.  At the time they lived next door to me, Mindy, Drew and Brodie.  Drew and their youngest daughter Alina are very close in age and spent many afternoons playing together.  We haven't seen them since 2003 so it was great to reconnect again now.

Eva organized a wonderful dinner and we enjoyed catching up with the entire family.

Hans and his girlfriend Marikka

Ella is still talking about how she loved Eva's meatballs!

Drew and Alina catching up

Elderberry flowers grow wild in Denmark and are used to make a wonderful juice that tastes great with strawberries.  These were found in the forest behind the Hansen house.

Ella found a new friend Fricka

 Stig, Eva, Morten (Lise's boyfriend), Alina (all grown up!), Drew, Ella, Lise, Jason, Anji, Marikka, and Hans

We really enjoyed listening to all of these young, ambitious students.  I know they were such a great influence on Drew and Ella.

We also watched home videos of Drew and Alina putting on a dance show and Brodie at his 8th birthday at the skating rink.  So funny!

Time to signoff, the sun is going down at 11p so I better try and get some sleep.