Chris was possibly even worse the next morning.

Bloodshot, drenched in sweat. Sick.

Naturally, he did not want breakfast.

I went down to the breakfast buffet at 7:30 to find Car Deal guy. He was not there yet, but I saw Shipcollector. Shipcollector was going to head off in another direction by train, so the fellowship of the car rental was breaking up.

He and I shared breakfast, and chatted over coffee. He is a very charming man, and I always enjoy talking with him.

But we were finished eating, and still no Car Deal guy. Shipcollector went off to check out, and get ready to meet his train.

I was trying to decide whether to call in to Car Deal guy’s room.

More ship people came by, though. There was greetings, a little more coffee drinking.

I asked people if they had seen Car Deal guy. No one had, and I just couldn’t tell if it would be appropriate to call his room.

Finally, at 10:00, I called.

He was asleep! but he thanked me for waking him before they cleared away breakfast, and rushed down to get some food.

I had a few more bites, and more coffee. We discussed ship things, and I told him Chris was still sick.

Here’s the thing. Our plane flew out at 8:30 PM that evening. Car Deal guy flew out the next morning, so he had a hotel room near the airport.

We had a day to kill. BEFORE the illness, the plan was to do a little sightseeing together. But now, that seemed out of the question. Car Deal guy was very sympathetic, and even offered to let Chris sleep in his hotel room until we had to leave for the airport. What a guy!

In the end, we asked the hotel there in Kassel if we could check out late, and Chris was able to sleep a couple more hours. He was much recovered, and we took off at 1.

It’s sort of amazing to me. Chris and I are special to each other. I suppose it’s the same with many husbands and wives (which we are preparing to be). Spouses can be less guarded with each other.

So, while Chris was limp and tired and pathetic while lying in bed in our hotel room, somehow he got some starch in him for the trip to Frankfurt. They way he’d been, i thought he might just prop himself against the side and semi-snooze.

But he sat up, consulted the map and discussed ships and directions the whole way. Miraculous. By the time we got to Car Deal guy’s hotel (one that Chris and I had stayed in when we were there last), he didn’t need to lay down.

What he DID need was food. No breakfast and no dinner the night before meant he needed some fuel. So we sat in the hotel lobby cafe and talked. We didn’t leave for the airport until 6:30.

Our flight was to Copenhagen. We were going to stay the night at the hilton hotel there, and then take off in the morning. Tomorrow’s flight would be back to Helsinki, then on to New York, and finally to Los Angeles.

But today, we merely needed to check in, get on the flight, and walk to our hotel.

Unfortunately, Chris deflated somewhat when we were alone again. I propped him up in a cushy chair with a ginger ale and went off to find some internet. It was the journey back, and that is when the pull of all the home things starts. What’s in my email now?

We made the flight no problem, quick trip to Copenhagen. It was about 10 when we got to Copenhagen. We only needed to find the hotel and crawl into bed.

But Chris was hungry. We passed all the usual airport food on on the way to the hotel. Chris thought we could do better. “Airport food is too expensive.We might as well get room service”

The hotel was beautiful. We settled put all our bags down and consulted room service. Room Service hours ended at 10:30.

NOW Chris was starving. We walked back to the airport, remembering a Burger King there.

Burger King was closed.

Everything was closed.

This is a reason to always always always pack a big supply of cliff bars for any journey.

I had eaten on the plane, and was not so hungry. But Chris’s brain was short-circuited.

I tried to come up with alternatives:
“Baby, we can just order the room service. It’s not THAT expensive.”

“They close at 10:30. It’s too late.”

“I bet they will have something.”

He couldn’t believe that nothing in the airport was open, and that there was nothing nearby. It was as if he knew it was true while at the same time thinking it COULDN”T be true.

I made him go back to the hotel room.

“You rest here. I’m done with you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You just stay here. I’ll handle it.”

I went down to the bar in the lobby, hoping I could talk them into giving us some room service. In the end, they gave me a hamburger with all the sides (a meal in itself!) to take up to the room.

I came back with a big plate of burger. Chris ate at last.

“You came back so fast, I thought you were going to say you couldnt’ get anything.”

“No, I’m taking care of you. You needed food.”

So we split the plate and then watched some TV to unwind after our day.

“Too bad we can’t enjoy this room very much. It’s really nice.”

“I know!”

“Good night, baby. Get good sleeps.”

“Good night….You got the wake-up call?”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

“thank you. Good night.”

“Good night.”

We drove into town to attend the big deal once-every-two-years 1250 Ship model show in KASSEL.

Everyone was excited. They were stacking up outside the door.

People were not let in before the appointed time. Only the ones selling things were inside. There were a lot of people selling things. Car Deal guy and Shipcollector were peering into the room excitedly, but Chris was motioned in by Norbert the German hippie. He would help Norbert sell, so he got a pass.

Usually, Chris would like to have a big selection of ship models to sell. But this year, he had some bad luck with the production of the models and didn’t really have enough to make reserving a sale table worthwhile. Norbert had kindly offered him space on the tables he’d reserved

I stood out with the rest of the collectors and watched in amazement as the hall filled up. Lots of people had gotten there early.

Then, the ticket sellers let us through. The collectors swooped in and began to buy ships.

It’s difficult to convey the atmostphere at this show. It was a lot of quiet concentrated peering:

many people peering:

It seemed to be bigger than the other time I’d been. In addition to the first big room, four other rooms were filled with model ships and model paraphenalia.

Sellers had devised many different methods of displaying these tiny delicate models:

This is a recreation of a harbor, one that loaded containers (best known as those trailers that semi trucks drag behind them) onto container ships:

As you can see, the typical ship collector is
1. Male
2. over a certain age

This homogeneity was broken up when I saw these two:

Twins, I think.

they were very cute.

I was sitting at the table with Chris, prepared to sell some of the ships he had brought. I felt pretty ignorant though. I could take money and give change, but as for answering questions about the merchandise, I had to defer to Chris

He was pretty busy answering questions.

Of course, he did have to slip away and try to talk with manufacturers and other people who could be useful to our business.

Those dicussions looked like this:

It was all about the models, friends.

Someone tried to take a survey of the attendees:

it was somewhat incomplete. But it was an idea of how far different folks had travelled to get there.

I got to meet some of the people behind the manufacturing lines I had gotten to know. That was pretty exciting.

There was a little snack bar where we got some food to get us through, but at the end of the day we were wiped slick.

We packed up and got ready to go. It was kind of hard to stop talking and saying goodbye to all these people. Everyone had stories or ship facts to share.

But we made it back to the hotel.

Chris had turned into a deflated balloon. His eyes were bloodshot and he had no energy. My man was sick.

“I used up all my energy reserves today,” he said. “I need to lay down.”

He crawled into bed and slept.

I went off to explore the hotel’s sauna.

They had the hottest sauna I had ever been in. There was a sort of cartoon on teh wall explaining how it worked. You were supposed to hose off, get into the sauna, then get into the freezing cold “hot tub”(was it supposed to be freezing?), hose off again, rinse and repeat.

it looked complicated, so I just went into the sauna. wow, it was hot.

There were two. One normal, and one that said it was at 90 degrees celsius. That’s 194 degrees! it was so hot, I almost felt like I should have a lifegaurd there to drag me out if I fainted.

But it felt good.

I went back upstairs to check on Chris. He looked worse.

So I showered, and read and hung around until dinner.

He was worse.

So I went to dinner alone and had a time with a bunch of ship people. Car Deal guy was there, and some new people I hadn’t met. It was a good time, but I was worried about Chris.

Car Deal guy and I talked it over. We realized we didn’t have much planned for the next day but to make it back to Frankfurt in the evening to meet our flight. I recommended we take it easy, and he could mosey into breakfast whenever and we’d find each other there.

I went back to the room. Poor Chris.

“Hey baby,” he said weakly.

“Poor thing.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t go to dinner with you.”

“It’s okay baby, you are sick. You can’t help it.”

“I’m sick”

“I know. Get some sleep. We dont’ have to get up in the morning anytime. You can just rest.”

“You’re nice.”

“Good night.

Chris dove in right away to talk to the manufacturers and collectors:

As you see, they are very intent on their discussions.

I thought the garden was lovely.

But..I forgot to mention. The airport had lost my bag.

I’d been wearing grubby tourist clothes this whole trip, but i had kept in reserve a nice dress shirt and skirt to wear for the Kassel pre-show dinner. I remembered it being formal.

But my bag was lost. The aiport was supposed to deliver it, but it didn’t come.

I remained in my grubbies, trying to carry it off with some level of suavity.

But here is the dining room:

I tried not to think about how I was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans.

There seemed to be a lot of suits and ties in the house:

But before I could worry too much about it, Norbert the German hippie arrived:

You can’t see it, but he has Birkenstocks on. He is an excellent model ship maker, and a truly wonderful man. He speaks fluent English and uses the term “hella” liberally.

But of course, the ship collectors were all very polite and did not make me feel out of place. They had lots of things to say about ships and models.

My bag arrived at last, right before desert. In addition to my pretty outfit, it also had some treasured ship models for the show. So, we had a great time at dinner and all agreed to get up early and see the show.

So, this was the day we go to Germany. This very night is the night of the ship collectors’ dinner-before-the-show. We must be there to converse and create good feelings and maybe even new alliances.

we CANNOT miss the flight. Or the train to the airport. Or the wake up call.

These were the things Chris was concerned with the night before.

We did not miss the flight, or all it’s predecessors. We arrived in Frankfurt on time.

NOW, the plan was to meet a fellow American ship collector. He got a great deal on a rental car (because of his employer) and invited us to save even more money by sharing the bill and riding together. At the end, there was car-deal guy, another ship-collector friend, and Chris and I.

All in Frankfurt airport, to meet on the same day.

Car deal guy was going to arrive the earliest, so he was waiting around (according to the plan) before we got there. Shipcollector was arriving at about the same time as we were, but from America and therefore required to go through customs. We were all supposed to meet at the car rental counter and sally forth.

But Frankfurt is a big airport. We found a map, went off to the rental counter. No Car Deal guy.

Maybe he is coming.

But were is Shipcollector?

Are we in the right place?

Being the Murphy that I am, I asked the question. Rental counter said Car Deal guy had left a message that he was at a different rental counter.

OH!

So we ran off to find the OTHER rental counter. We saw Shipcollector from far away, and Car Deal guy was right there too. Oh good.

…should I be frustrated at the lack of question-asking gumption of those around me? Should I just feel superior and enlightened? It is unlikely that anything I do will cause a change in the behaviour of others…so maybe I should just feel smugly superior, since that is a slightly happier feeling than frustration…

Although, to be honest, it was my asking for directions that led us to that (wrong) rental counter in the first place…

Okay, so we are settled in a nice rental…Ford…? Tooling along the autobahn in a ford station wagon, everyone had print outs of the directions, but Chris actually got us there.

It was a pleasant ride. I do enjoy the conversation with the ship collectors. They are smart people, and almost uniformly polite and gentlemanly. There is an on-going discourse about “the Wives” feelings concerning the hobby of ship-collecting. Many wives feel a bit of resentment towards it.

I feel a bit of resentment at the phrase “the wives” (what a horrible stereotype of a phrase!)

But then again, as the wife-to-be of Chris, I see the ships as an inflow of capital. The other “wives” see it truly as a drain on the family budget.

So, I am free to enjoy the company and conversation of these nice men without resenting their peer pressure to spend wads of dough. It is a little odd, though, when at ship event I am shoved towards “the wives” as if our shared gender will mean LOTS of THINGS to DISCUSS. These ladies are all very nice, but I seldom find much to really talk about.

I’d rather go hang out with the men. I guess this is what comes of being the youngest with three brothers..”Whatcha doing? Can I see? What’s that? What are you talking about? …cool…”

This will be Chris’s 3rd Kassel meeting. Shipcollector had been once before, and Car Deal guy had never been. I’d been once before (and met Shipcollector for the first time then). After our traipsing through Scandinavia, Germany felt like home.

The hotel was cozy, and they gave us free coffee in the lobby. We quickly packed our bags into the room (hey, we got a free upgrade! Look at this suite!) and came back down to begin early schmoozing. There was beer served in the patio and garden, and a generous show of empty glasses. The party was on!

I was pretty psyched to see the pantomime.

The curtain dropped:

The story unfolded.

Some French looking guy in a white clown suit (possibly the illegitimate son of the Pillsbury dough boy) was involved:

There was a halequin and a girl:

Of course, a magic sword appeared in short order:

But, in an unexpected twist, a dancing bear arrived:

In the end, even though I was rooting for the bear, the harlequin got the girl AND…

…the blessing of the Greek pantheon.

Chris commented “Maybe it made more sense in Danish.”

We were STARVING at that point. It was tough to decide on a place to eat.
There were a lot of places to eat. But they were
*expensive
*cold
*smokey

I was just about ready to cry with how tired and hungry I was.

This is where we ate.

It was really nice and yummy. And we were in the non-smoking section.

TIvoli was really beautiful at night:

Tired and beat, we made it back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, Kassel Germany. The real reason for our trip was to get to the ship show.

“We can’t be late. This is really important”

“Don’t worry baby. Good night.”

When we entered Tivoli, I saw this little guy holding up the handrail on the stairs:

We walked down the stairs.

A little ways down the path, I saw this theater:

“Oh yeah!” I told Chris. “We are going to want to see their performances..They have pantomimes!”

We determined to check out when they would be showing.

But first we took a tour.

Here is one of their signature rides:

and another:

See the question was, do we buy the bracelet that let us ride on all the rides for one price? This required some looking around.

They had bumper cars:

There was a roller coaster thingy:

The ODIN EXPRESS

how cool is that?

Well, after we walked all around, we decided to go for the bracelets.

But we also noticed the gardens:

Pretty benches too, with very tame looking gryphon monster:

Also a tame Lion:

I’ve already said, I like my monsters fierce.

This was a ticket booth:

We got the bracelets, but then I wanted an ice cream:

They also had a lot of carny-type games. This was the view of that alley:

There were also a lot of restaurants:

This ride I called Mohammed’s hammer:

we chose not to ride it. Didn’t want to be hammered.

THey had a pirate ship:

It was a restaurant.

We rode on this one ride:

It was called the traveling suitcase. It was full of fairytale references.

This was the fairytale of the swineherd:

Here is the evil snow queen:

and everyone’s favorite that needs no introduction:

Look, Ma! No seashells!

We rode the ferris wheel too, and had a nice view:

The gardens really were pretty:

It was getting time to see the pantomime. We made our way back. On the way, we saw this band:

They were playing Pomp and Circumstance

“There is no way a band could play that in America and not be ironic.” Chris was sure of this.

Their little stage reminded me of the old hollywood bowl.

But then we made our way to the theatre:

I didn’t see that peacock last time.

We got a good seat.

MORE TO COME

We’d been looking forward to Tivoli since before we left California. I remember Chris telling me about it:

“Did you know that Copenhagen has an amusement park that is even older than Disneyland?”
“Wow, really? We will have to check that out.”
“I think so.”

Tivoli was created in 1844, with rides and shows and restaurants. Thing is, Europeans are not as impressed with castles as we Americans. So…if you can’t have a castle in the middle like Disney, what do you do? What’s exotic and romantic to you? Arabian nights! So, they have a bit of an arabian theme. Oh, and Chinese too.

So Chis and I had been really waiting to see this old school European disneyland…But one thing we did want to see what Tivoli with all the lights on. Which means we certainly couldn’t go there first thing. So, we had to kill some time in the morning.

We hung out in the hotel room and relaxed for a while. This was the view from the hotel:

Chris thought we should go to the national library. But maybe we would just wander around the city a bit first:

We walked past a famous museum, but didn’t go in.

I liked the mural they had on the side:


There was a pretty little garden along the way:

But we made our way to the library. I love libraries! And plus, they had a book store.

See, when I go to a foreign country, I like to see if I can find an illustrated book of fairy tales. It seems to me that a people’s sense of themselves and their taste gets expressed in the fairy tales. To me, it makes a very good souvenir.

Of course, Denmark loves it’s Hans Christian Andersen, so I figured I would have a good chance of getting a good book.

You know, all the best libraries have lions:

TO BE CONTINUED

Morning in Denmark, breakfast without danishes and then

WE ARE OFF

…we’ve been riding on the railroad—all the week-long day… Yes, another train ride. This time North and not over any water. We were going to see HAMLET. Or at least the place that Hamlet was supposed to have lived. This makes me very very very excited. Love the shakespeare.

We made our way through the town, seeing the sites.
The danes like domes:

This fountain looked puckish:

Helsingor is a cute little town, but the sky looks ominous.

The again, this is Hamlet’s home town. It really should be ominous, shouldn’t it?
We made our way toward the castle:

Don’t those towers look sharp? They remind me of fangs…It’s sort of gothic. Some cities I’ve been to (like, Edinburgh) have so many of these steeple fangs that it reminds me of the rows and rows of teeth in a dragon-dinosaur mouth. It looks like they should hurt.

But still, it was Shakespeare, so I had to get in front of it:

That spiky fortress is Kronborg, the castle in Elsinore.

Mr. Swan watched us come up to the castle:

We walked through this to reach it:

We noticed Mama Swan in the corner on her eggs:

She didn’t seem too choosy about the material for her nest…All kinds of crap in there.

The other side of the entrance was even better:

Chris had to admire the towelled crabby man. I can understand why he is crabby; any man that had to depilitate all of his body hair might have that expression on his face.

As you might imagine, the danes are justifiably fond of this place. There was all sorts of information about it, and four tours which you could go on for a special price.

I learned a lot about Helsingor.

As it turns out, Hamlet and his dad would not have lived there. The thing was, Kronborg was not the kind of castle that a King lived in. It was a bully kind of castle. They put it up there to stop ships from going by without paying some fees.

They were serious.

Check all those cannons waiting to shoot you if you didn’t pull over and cough up the money.

Look, There’s a ship going by right NOW!

*cshk* PULL OVER, buddy.

They had a tour of the cellars of the castle.
Man on man…They were dark and scary. I had to hold Chris’s hand.

“Baby, the walls are cold and damp.”

He said “Do you think that when a king is ordering up his castle, he might say ‘Look, we need a little more dankness in the cellar. It’s not as dank as I would like it to be.'”

They wound around, thick square pillars with vaulted arches that didn’t quite vault enough to stand up straight.

But right around the first corner we found this:

HOLGER DANSKE!!!

“I knew you would like him,” Chris said, “He is a ancient Danish hero buried under this castle. He is supposed to come back to life in the time of the country’s need.”

WHOA! forget whinging Hamlet! This guy is awesome!

…It’s a nice thing for a country to have in their back pocket. Just ask the Brits about Arthur

The Danes like him. Here’s another statue of Ol’ H.D.:

But then we pressed forward in the cellar caves:

Forget his hand, i was holding Chris’s entire right side. And then he started making spooky noises that echoed down the hall.

i was quite happy to get back above ground:

Enough spooky ghosts! Let’s go into the chapel:

No Chris, you can’t swing from that:

Each pew had a different character carved on the top, as well as a different face lower down:

What a lot of artistry to do all that. Here’s a closer look of one with a moustache:

Another ghoulish carving above the doorway leading out:

We had lunch right by the wall; cliff bars that we’d brought with.

It was windy, so we stayed ducked low to stay out of it.

Some guys were there with a pole, the one trying to teach the other to fly fish standing on the rocks. They were having a great time.

NOW, on to the Chambers!

Lots of Kings visited this castle. But the C4 above the door stands for Christian the fourth, I think:

It strikes me as sort of hip and modern to use the arabic numeral ‘4’ instead of the roman ‘iv’.
Daring in a monarch.

There was a lot of art happening in those chambers. Art through the ages.

I really liked this Rhino:

That was done when Rhinos were not such a common sight. Rhinos often look like they are wearing armor, because their skin folds that way. But this tapestry-maker had the rhino in the coolest spiky armor.

Yet another entry in the gallery of the grotesque which I find so delightful.

Okay, here is a funny thing. The chambers were full of art of the ages, as I might expect from royalty.

But let me tell you something about the Danes. They are into ‘design.’ They think very highly of their own art, in particular their furniture.

It reminds me of how America tells itself that we don’t do manufacturering anymore, that we do “knowledge” work. Danes want to have their design be their big export. I guess it’s working for them.

Anyway, art is a very high form of design, and they cherish art. So, in the middle of all this respected canonical art they had some contemporary artists on display as well.

I found it sort of jarring. But before I said anything, Chris commented, “It’s kind of cool how they have let artists display here. They are supporting art.”

Then I felt ashamed. Okay, so it was not pinky-up-teacup art. It was rougher and more experimental. But they were letting artists be seen. And I agree with that.

Oh no. They had a MARITIME MUSEUM.
You could see how Chris was quite thrilled with this trip. Everywhere you turn, more ship things. Look, a Prow:

“I stab at thee!”

But what are these stairs?

“They go to the roof. Do you want to see?’

Of course! But they went on in a lot of circles. Round and Round and Round. But we found the top:

It’s kind of windy.

Look! A ship!

If I stood on my tiptoes and leaned over I could see the bottom of the castle square.

Chris saw me. “BABY! Dont’ do that.”
Then he pointed. “I was hoping I have a chance to say it. ‘Get thee to a nunnery!’ ”

oh…real nuns walking by. You can’t even ask for that.

Okay, back down the spiral staircase…and we have to stop at the gift shop!

Look. A Holger Danske doll..a Holger Dollske?

That’s one sexy little figurine.

Alas, they did sell Skulls.

And the Precious Moments Hamlet and Ophelia:

…makes me wonder if they read the end of the story…

They also had a poster showing the Danish monarchic line. It begame with Gorm the Old, whose son was Harald Bluetooth.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! I LOVE IT!

After the roof and gift shop, it was time to go.

We wandered back into town, discussing what we might do about dinner. The way we figured, a town like this might have a grocery store in it. The 7-11 was the closest we could find in Copenhagen.

But if we found a grocery store, they probably would want cash. Krona, that is.

We looked around and discovered this place:

YAY! at LAST a full on grocery store. We asked, and they took credit cards, but only if you had a PIN.

Back to the Currency Exchange, one of which seemed to be at every train station, and then to fill my backpack with lovely foods. Cheese and bread and coke and cookie snacks, and also little focaccias with Pepporoni for dinner. How nice not to feel swindled as we bought our food.

It was at this shop that I found the one and only thing in Denmark that cost less than one US Dollar: Pretzel Sticks. They were 75 cents, just about.

Now back to the train. What a long day. Fabulous.

The hotel picnic with pizzas and bread and cookies was great.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know about Holger Danske. Where are we going tomorrow?”

“Well in the morning, I’d like to check out the library. But in the evening…”

“I know! Tivoli!”

“That’s right.”

For breakfast, they served rolls with butter and jam, or cold cuts. There was yogurt and muesli, coffee cake, and cheese.

You know, in Denmark, they don’t eat Danish for breakfast. Kind of disappointing.

But the food was good and hearty. We, like the seasons travelers we are, filled our bellies on the complimentary breakfast and hoped that we would only need a light lunch later.

Off to Sweden!

As you see, we need to cross some water to get to Malmo.

Thing is, Malmo is a nice place to live. Just a little cheaper than Copenhagen, we’re told. A lot of people live in Malmo and work in Copenhagen. And they do it by train. There is a giant bridge that makes this possible.

Back to the train, and about an hour later, we stepped on Swedish soil.

They seem to use bikes just as much as Denmark.

This sort of amazed me:

A woman in a formal dress with hose, pushing a bike. Toto, this isn’t L.A.

To be honest, Malmo, Sweden seemed softer than Denmark:

Isn’t that a cute bridge?

Chris said, “Remember, Copenhagen is a capital. Maybe that’s why it seems like a rougher city.”

I was still recovering from the sunburn I’d gotten in Suomenlinna. I really thought it would be a good idea to get some sunscreen.

Chris pointed this out:

“They talked about that in the guidebook. It’s a very old drug store.”

I have to say, it was the fanciest place I have ever purchased sunscreen.

Sweden was full of cheery vistas:

They seemed to really enjoy flowers. Chris found some kind of city garden:

There were even baby ducks:

“Are you thinking of Kinkade now?” Chris asked

“Well, there are plenty of bushes to pee in around here…” I said.

“How do you like that bridge?”

Chris found me a cafe in the garden, which was very nice.

Apparently, it had been some kind of officers’ mess in a previous life.

Old is not hard to find in Europe.

This is the military installation the officers were associated with:

I guess Sweden missed the fashion for fairy tale castles. These are working castles.

But I have to say, I love their fierce national beast:

The american eagle is looking pretty tame and polite now. Maybe he needs a make-over to be more fierce.
But I guess there are those who say the symbol of america is quite fierce enough…

Chris snuck in a maritime museum as well. More Ships! Actually, I was quite glad to see the museum, since I was getting a case of traver’s tummy and needed to be near the bathroom.

This place had another submarine. This one was a lot bigger than the Vessiko:

It’s name is right there: U 3
It’s amazing to me that such a large ship is moved by two small propellers:

Now, this maritime museum had a massive collection of small ships. Not as small as Chris’s ships, but much more detailed because they are made as prototype models by the people who actually make the real ships. No expense spared, these manufacturer models are gorgeous.

Naturally, Chris took a million photos of them. I didn’t.

Maybe after he downloads his pictures I’ll post some.

But we spent a long time looking at those models. Sweden is also a seafaring country.

We mosied back to the train station. On the way, we stopped to see another Lutheran church:

Pretty on the outside.
White on the inside:

Sweden was very pretty, I thought:

flowers!

On the train station going out, we did find Swedish fish:

Chris enjoys Swedish fish. Apparently in sweden, they come in more colors than red.

But the train had finally arrived:

One thing I liked about the trains–they were very quiet. Electric. It made waiting at the station much more pleasant.

hoo…that was a long day. We ate McDonald’s for dinner and collapsed into bed.

“Tomorrow, we’ll go to Elsinore.”

“THAT will be very very cool.”

Good night.

Denmark. Our flight let us off and we took the train to Copenhagen Central Station.

It’s a beautiful thing that some airports do–to have a train station right in the airport. We had our backpacks and rolly bags right with us and got off at the central train station. The danes are seafaring people. Even though this was a train station, something about it looked like the inside of ship:

We were concerned that the hotel was too far away to walk, and we were thinking about taking a taxi. But in the end we walked.

It looked a lot different from Helsinki:

EVERYONE rode bikes–and the bikes are all very serviceable. There were not status bikes. In fact, they weren’t even locked up. People rode them to get to where they needed to go, and most of them had baskets on the front.

This hotel was not the lap of luxury that Hotel Kamp had been. It was serviceable, and they promised that their breakfasts were complimentary.We dropped off our bags and went to explore.

It was a capital city with a LOT of statues and ornate buildings:

But…It was a more densely populated area. I guess the majesty of beautiful fountains wears thin…at least for graffitti artists:

The city was extremely ornate:

And it seemed like there was a statue of a guy on a horse at the end of every block:

I guess that is one of the benefits of a monarchy.

I thought the opera house looked great.

Check out these arches:

It was funny, they were putting on Porgy and Bess.

I mentioned the danes were into ships, right?

We were just walking around, looking at the streets.

We wanted to find the palace. Or something cool to see.

“Hey baby, look! This one has chain mail on.”

Chris is very good with maps, and we found the palace. By that time, I was really tired. I sat down on the curb so I could take it all it:

Those were some particularly good gargoyle-type statues on that one.

The square was large and quiet. I hadn’t been sitting very long before a loud STOMP and Danish commanding SHOUT rang out.

See the guy in the big hat? He had yelled at me. Apparently sitting on the curb in the palace square is a reprimandable offense.

I got yelled at by the royal guard.

The royal palace is built right next to the royal church. I guess it’s convenient for baptisms and coronations:

And you can’t miss the church’s dome:

Here’s the funny thing. We arrived on a Monday, a holiday, It was Whitsun. Talk about a medieval sounding holiday!

But it’s a church holiday. Pentecost. And it’s a real holiday, as in the stores are closed.

The churches were closed too. I guess Denmark is stuck in the age of Irony.

My church has a few calendars to choose from, not even counting the calendar that said it was pentecost in denmark.

Which I was reminded of because we walked just a little further down the street to check out THESE domes:

Can you smell the onion?

THOSE looked like orthodox onions! I had to check it out!

But it’s the shape of the cross that gives it away:

Except that cross was kind of ambiguous. I had to decipher the danish sign. It was an Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

But, it too was closed. No going inside churches for us.

So I took my achey feet a little further along to see what else we could see on Pentecost monday.

Don’t forget, Denmark is the home of Hans Christian Andersen.

Which reminds me…just for a second…I saw no split pea soup anywhere…

but back to Hans.

This is apparently where Hans hung out:

As you see, it is now a place where tourists hang out. I’m a big fan of fairy tales, but I was surprised to find a different literary refernce. Tattoo Ole’s shop, as big as life. I’ve written about Until I Find You here before. How amazing that one of the characters in the book was real.

It was closed too, though. I couldn’t go inside. Too bad.

We ate a belgian waffle at Andersen’s tourist row. It was better than belgian waffle in America, and not as good as belgian waffle in Belgium.

But it was getting late. We found some dinner and ate in the hotel room.

“What do you want to do tomorrow?”

“Let’s take the train to Sweden.” Chris had it all figured out

“Wow. Three countries, just like that.”

I had to get some sleep My feet were killing me.

“Hey baby…Do you think they will have danishes for breakfast?”

“we’ll see.”