Last I wrote was in Norway the night before we left.  On Friday, we had another late start and headed out to the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. It’s a very cool museum with two very well-preserved Viking ships. It reminded me of 7^th grade, when I had to build a Viking ship and hope that it would float. We took a bus back to the Ambassador’s house and packed up our stuff. It was hard to leave such spacious and comfortable and Internet-connected accommodations, but off we went. Because Daddy had had a work meeting in Oslo, we got a ride to the boat, which was nice.

The boat to Copenhagen embarked around 5:30 PM. We spent a fair amount of time on the top deck, watching the coastal towns pass by as we glided off in into the glistening waters. Very relaxing. The girls eventually (well, immediately) got restless, so we ended up going downstairs and having a glass of wine and some dinner sitting by the window and looking out. Finally, we all went downstairs and set up the 4 beds and put a movie on for the girls on the DVD player. The room was cramped but not terribly so. The girls had fun being on the top bunk – so much so that A didn’t fall asleep until after 1 AM. M hadn’t been asleep for that long either.

Morning came early, and brightly, on the boat. We woke up in Danish waters, and packed up and dressed and schlepped our bags off of the boat. Cabbed to the hotel, where the room wasn’t ready yet, so we headed out for a day of sightseeing in Copenhagen. We went first to the Rosenborg Castle in the middle of the city. It’s very old but full of furnishings, treasures (glassware, china, etc.) and some gorgeous gold crowns that are kept in a treasury. After the Castle, we walked to Tivoli Gardens. It was a long walk, through the Parliament and the Nyhavn area, where Copenhagen’s version of the Painted Ladies are. It rained a bit, but not too bad.

Then it was off to Tivoli. Tivoli is a huge park/amusement park right in the center of the city. This weekend is the 160^th birthday of the park, and they are shooting off fireworks every night. Daddy and I dithered for an hour or so over whether to spring for an unlimited ride pass for the girls or to buy tickets as we went. We finally decided to go for the unlimited pass. The girls were too small to ride the big rides without us (which meant we had to buy some tickets for us to go on rides), and too small to ride even some of the big rides with us. We waited for 30 minutes to go on some swings that go very, very high, and at the 11^th hour got a reprieve because the girls were a hair too short. We were relieved because it was making me very nervous to think of them way up there with only an amusement park seatbelt. We did bumper cars instead. The girls discovered a kid-friendly roller coaster at the end of the day, and rode it twice, which was fun.

We had dinner at Wagamama, a noodle shop famous in England, in part because we wanted to and in part because it is supposed to be cheap. Scandinavia is kicking our butts in terms of money. Everything is VERY VERY expensive. Even breakfast from 7-11 is running us $60. It’s very depressing.

Today, we took a train from Copenhagen and went to Elsinore, which is north of town and is the site of a huge and very well-preserved castle that is the setting for Hamlet. It was fun to walk through it and look out to the ocean, imagining what it was like to be there defending it from enemies. Once we were done we took a train south to a suburb of Copenhagen, to see a beautiful modern art museum called Louisiana. It has a huge sculpture garden, situated right on the ocean, and some indoor exhibits as well.  We spent several hours there, walking around and exploring. My favorite thing there was an exhibit of drawings that David Hockney did on his iPad. They are displayed on iPads mounted on a wall, and there are some videos that show how he does them. I loved them.

We headed back to Copenhagen via train when the museum closed. It’s a bit rainy here, so we took a cab to see The Little Mermaid statue. (We took a picture of the girls holding up KidsPost in front of the statue, which we’ll send in when we get home.) We came back here to the hotel around 8:30, and ended up ordering room service because we couldn’t find anywhere to get takeout. Another small fortune.

We are liking Denmark – it’s clean and green (bikes everywhere!), and cultured and civilized. People here are in shape from all the biking and they all speak English. It is more interesting than Oslo – with older buildings and more to see. The girls are doing A LOT of walking. They are being good sports about everything – not much complaining and not a lot of sleeping either! They are always making up stories and entertaining each other. A is now writing a note to the Tooth Fairy, as usual. I am going to try to go downstairs and mooch off of the free internet in the lobby and post this to the blog.

Tomorrow is an early morning – Legoland – and then on Tuesday morning we head to St. Petersburg.

We miss everyone at home but are having fun.

Some pics: