Copenhagen: Day 2

Day 2 in the Motherland! After sleeping an obnoxious amount (see last post...15 hours woot woot!) I was ready for more adventuring with Kun-Wei. And what better way to start the day then with a Jensen sighting! Seriously. The Jensen name was flipping everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Danish pride.

After a scrumptious breakfast of Danish pastries whose names I couldn't pronounce at the time and can't remember now we headed to Frederiksberg Slot (Frederiksberg Castle). This is not to be confused with Frederiksborg Castle which is an entirely different castle also located in Denmark. The castle had a BEAUTIFUL garden that we wandered around in for quite a while.

The highlight of the garden was probably the wicked duck fight that Kun-Wei and I got to watch at the garden's entrance. DUCK FIGHT. It was crazy vicious, and reminded me of my favorite "Mighty Ducks" quote EVER. When Coach Bombay needed to inspire his team to win despite their rather painful lack of ability, he came out with this gem:

"Ducks never say die. Ever seen a duck fight? No way! You know why? Because the other animals are afraid. They know, that if they mess with one duck, they've gotta deal with the whole flock. I'm proud to be a duck, and I'd be proud to fly with any of you."

Well, it turns out that this is probably an incorrect assessment of duck teamwork. If another animal wanted to mess with a duck, it would appear that causing infighting within the ranks wouldn't be that difficult. I've gotta say, this has shaken my faith in movies as sources of information. Aw man. However, the speech was enough to inspire a ragtag bunch of kids to win with only cooperation and cheap/painfully obvious gimmicks on their side. So that's cool!

This is a very regal statue of King Frederik VI. Sexy.

It's the castle itself! Rather backlit! It's all yellow and sunny and makes me proud of the Danes. Because it's bright and happy. And surrounded by crazy weird trees. I don't know how well you can see those trees on the side but they look like they came out of a Dr. Seuss book.

What's this? Um, this is a tree that has a crazy amount of baby...stuff tied to its branches with ribbons and strings. Pacifiers. Lots of pacifiers. I don't know what the deal with the baby trees is but this was not the only baby tree that we saw.

Update: I googled "Baby trees Denmark" and this is what I found:

"What you see here is the Pacifier Tree in Frederiksberg Gardens, close to Copenhagen. All year round the tree is being decorated by small children who give up their baby pacifiers and donate them to the tree.

In return, the Pacifier Fairy gives them a special gift.

This is a year long tradition. Often combined with a great picnic, outing to the nearby Zoo or some other activities.

In Denmark you reach a milestone when you become 3 years old. You are not a baby anymore, but just about to leave your day nursery to start in kindergarten. Which - among other things - means giving up your pacifiers.

That's pretty hard to do. So to ease the pain many parents make this giving-up-day a special day by taking their toddlers toFrederiksberg Gardens or other places, where they have pacifier trees.

Usually the children attach some small, personal and touching letters to their pacifiers when they hang them on the tree.

Next, we wandered down into the city center again. We got to see more gorgeous water. I have to say, this trip has given me mad appreciation for canals. Those things are the BOMB. Seriously. Loves me some canals.

I don't know what this is!

HORSE STATUE! Another horse statue! I think this is a statue of the apocryphal founder of Copenhagen?

Update: This is a statue of the ACTUAL founder of Copenhagen Bishop Absalon who was an archbishop and statesman in the 12th century.

This was my lunch at the Nyhavn canal!!! Oh man, Kun-Wei and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch at one of the many lovely restaurants along the canal. I had this DELICIOUS salmon on crunchy bread and this tasty sauce/dressing stuff. Oh man. It was some of the best fish I've had. Simple but om nom nom.

THIS IS WHERE WE ATE. Do you see how pretty these buildings are? So pretty. Oh man. Nyhavn canal...GO SEE IT. After lunch we left from this canal on a boat! We took a canal tour! It was fantastic!

BOAT! It's a boat! And a...famousy boat...in Copenhagen.

Canal tour!

More canal touring!

Fancy bridge on a canal tour! You have to appreciate a city that makes its bridges fancy.

This is The Old Stock Exchange of Copenhagen (Børsen). It's one of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen.

This is Kun-Wei and I in front of the Town Hall!

A noble stag! The real question here is, is this a statue in honor of Bambi and his family or Harry Potter's family? Lily=Doe, James=Stag, Baby Harry=Fawn. Much as I love Bambi, my vote is for Harry and the Potters.

The clock tower of City Hall.

I don't remember what this building is and google is totally failing me. Sorry.

UPDATE: Steven's magic iPhone (Seriously, it runs on magic) has informed him that this building is the Royal Danish Theatre. I remembered something about a musical or something and was trying to search for that but just kept getting pictures of the shiny new Copenhagen Opera House (I don't think I have a picture of that but google it to see a very sleek building on the waterfront). Thanks Steven's magic iPhone and Steven!

It's 47!!! Nyhavn 47! We saw lots of 47s in Copenhagen, thereby making it number one awesome city of awesome. Cecil totally agrees.

It's the Amalienborg Palace! The winter residence of the Danish royal family! There are four buildings but the one with 5 chimneys is the one in which the Queen actually lives.

Pretty!

Water at sunset! See the spire in the background? Apparently you can see Sweden from the top! We didn't see Sweden because we didn't make it over to the tower, but it was nice knowing that was an option.

Nyhavn at sunset! We kept going there. Kun-Wei got some beautiful night pictures of the place but...my camera decided that it did not want to cooperate.

So that was Copenhagen!

Next up...MUNICH!!! City of BEER. Mmmmm. And pretzels! Even more mmmmm.

Much love and cheers!