Fun in the sun!!!

We arrived in Denmark on Thursday morning and since then we have walked, walked and walked some more. This seems to be our common theme, mainly due to the fact walking and looking is free (well mostly anyway)!

The Marble Church started 1750 finished 1894



Bottle buskers, these guys were amazing! (were playing little mermaid when we arrived though)

Copenhagen is a beautiful city (though a little flat) there are lots of really old buildings statues and castles everywhere. Because it is so flat and public transport stupidly expensive everyone has a bike and no one wears helmets. The girls are well dressed and most riding in heels (very interesting to watch). Our host Heidi who stayed with Sharon in Auckland met us off the ferry and cooked us the biggest healthiest brunch ever, mmm it was soo good.
We spent the first 3 days walking around Copenhagen (Kobenhavn). We played street ball (a game like basketball but played on only half a court with 3 players on each team and as far as we could tell little to no rules) with some 'marginalised kids' that Heidi works with and got well and truly walloped, sorry New Zealand we let you down big time! However we do have the excuse that we hadn’t played this game before and I (Andy) was in bare feet on concrete (ouch!!). We walked along canals, around the palace and into the Marble church which was beautiful, down bustling street of shops and buskers and checked out a Brazilian festival which didn’t seem all that Brazilian, just a whole heap of people (including us) enjoying the sun mmmm. We also had a quick glimpse of Christiania which is an old area of Copenhagen that is run by hippy’s left over from the 60s, unfortunately no photos allowed (due to some questionable practices) but very interesting to see as it is just like being transported back in time to that era including barrels of fire to warm yourself and freedom of expression, expressed in all sorts of crazy art forms, music, housing and theatre.Frederiksborg Castle

Saturday evening we hopped on a train heading to north Zealand to someone’s bbq, we arrived really late but had a lot of fun! There were jut a few people there but they were really into singstar which made for quite a few laughs. At one point in the night all the Danish people decided the two Kiwis should sing a Danish song… They found this hilarious and we were to find out later that this song was all about a man who wanted to sleep with lots of different things (a warning to other don’t trust the Danish ha!)
Sunday morning we wandered around a Frederiksborg castle with a huge Baroque style garden.

The Chaple.
A small part of the Baroque stlye garden (Les they may have positions vacant...)


The Danish love building with wonky wood this is farm house from 1700The best tree ever!!!

Daisy girl.

It was Sunday morning and the day of Pentecost so they had a special service in the chapel, the only original part of the castle built in 1560 that survived a fire. The Chapel was stunning and gave a glimpse of what the whole castle would have looked like. The service had a choir and a conductor and the singing was amazing, it was a Lutheran service so very conservative but it was amazing to sit there and listen and gaze, the only thing we could do as we where unable to understand what was going on. After the service I got a few photos before being told off and ushered to the back of the church (darn tourists). We then wandered around the big park around the castle and its amazing gardens that are meticulously cared for. The weather was amazing we are finally getting our European tan on.
That evening we went to stay with Heidi’s grandmother who is the sweetest most generous grandmother ever and who loved having new people to talk to. She fed us up and set us off in the morning on another big walk around the lakes and parks of the area. We visited a Danish graveyard which was done in a different but really beautiful way and we ended up at a museum of historic buildings recovered from different ages around Denmark, you can see in the photos that there was rarely a straight piece of timber used, I think they found it easier to shape the rocks and bricks around the timber, go figure!?!
Heidi’s grandma gave us a bike to use around town and another bed to sleep on in Heidi’s small apartment, she drove us back to Copenhagen giving us a history tour at the same time which at the age of 84 in a manual with no power steering was a nerve racking experience, but we made it back safe none-the-less.
So here you find us on Tuesday having a relaxing day, very tired but full of good experiences!!!