We lived up to my Travlin’ Fam license plates the past few days. We were able to take a trip to Scandinavia and visit family in Copenhagen, Denmark. We also took a trip in to Sweden which is where some of our ancestors immigrated from in the late 1800’s. It was the first international trip for the boys and they were thrilled to get to use their passports. The Reaves/Shultis crew welcomed us to Copenhagen and showed us the great things about the area.
Copenhagen
We spent the majority of our time in Copenhagen. By the end of it, Sam even knew our metro station and could say it close to right. (Østerport for those who want to quiz him.) Fortunately, nearly everything was in Danish and English so our lack of knowing the local language didn't hold us back too much.
Having a local tour guide proved very beneficial when starting our adventure in Copenhagen. Pam showed us around while we were in town and Chris was our metro guide. We started by visiting the Little Mermaid statue.
We then spent the afternoon cruising the harbor which gave us a a good view of the city.
Casey and Ryan gave us a tour of the round tower which was built by Christian IV to show off the city. Having done a school report on it, they were full of great info.
We were able to see the changing of the guards at the palace. That is always a fun sight.
During our time, we made sure to keep the ice cream vendors in business.
We visited Kronborg Castle, which was the inspiration for Hamlet. It was interesting to see how the soldiers were housed and we found out that they were partially paid in beer (8 liters per day!). We saw the Norse legend Holger Dansk. The boys were impressed with the dungeon and how it was used to punish soldiers and pirates.
Another great stop while we were in Copenhagen was Tivoli. This is a great amusement park where the boys conquered their fears...that is if Sam ever had any! Casey and Ryan encouraged Mason to try more rides than we thought he would do. Sam wanted to ride them all.
Our favorite rides:
Mason-Golden Tower
Sam-ships
Bryan & Laura- old wooden roller coaster
One morning Chris walked us down to get “cake” from the local bakery. Cake is what they call anything that is sweet so my “cake” was a rhubarb pastry. Oh, and everywhere had Rhubarb everything. It was great!!
We took a day and headed to Roskilde where there was a Viking museum. There were five ships in a museum which were over 1000 years old that had been used as a blockade by the locals to keep ships out of their canals. Prior to being used as a blockade, they were used for trips to Greenland-three weeks on the ocean, uncovered. It was amazing to see! The boys loved the opportunity to build their own boats while there.
There are so many beautiful sites to see in Copenhagen. We didn't get them all, but we did get to see the gardens around Rosenberg Castle. They were beautiful.
Much to Bryan's dismay, Flogging Molly was playing in this location the day AFTER we left. We missed them in Sweden by a day as well.
Part of traveling is exploring the food in the area. We were not disappointed! Several nights our hosts cooked us delicious meals. We ate hotdogs that had been highlighted on the Food Network. We had ice cream that was so delicious there aren't words to describe it. We ate at a market in Nøerport that had the best fish and chips. We went to Papriøen (or Paper Island) twice and we were blown away both times. Simply described, it is a warehouse with about 50 food carts inside. You can get anything from duck to ostrich to burgers or Moroccan food. Anything you want to drink is there also.
Our evenings were full of card games, ping pong and enjoying time with family. So many memories were made through these games!
Stockholm
We took the train to Stockholm for a few days. We loved travelling via rail and would love to have that available at home! We rented a place from Air BnB and were in the middle of everything.
The Vasa museum was a ship that sank 1500 meters into its maiden voyage in 1620. They excavated it in the mid 1900’s and it was remarkably well preserved in the water. They even had the skeletons on display with analysis of the back story of each person.
We visited the Stockholm Aquarium and Sam was thrilled he could pronounce a word in Swedish: aquaria. They had a very cool frog display with 25 different species of frogs hiding in the trees for us to find. We lucked out and arrived when they were feeding the sharks, eel and rays.
Over the years, we’ve learned that some of our favorite memories come out of free experiences. The Royal Armory continued that tradition. They had the royal carriages on display. The highlight for all of us was the armor that was used for the horses and ceremonies.
Skansen was an open air museum that was part history farm/part zoo. We were there 3 hours and didn't quite cover half of it! It was fun to learn about the Swedish history. We have a picture of Ola and Betsey Hanson from Malmö in the 1880's so it was fun to take a picture with a Malmö sign!
Overall favorites:
City
Mason- Copenhagen
Sam- Stockholm
Bryan- Copenhagen
Laura- Copenhagen
Food
Mason- Lasagne at Mom’s kitchen in Stockholm
Sam- Farm Chicken at Bröm in Stockholm
Bryan- Fish and Chips (at 3 places in Copenhagen)
Laura- Creme Brulé Doughnut at Paper Island
Thing to do
Mason- Tivoli
Sam- seeing the Viking boats
Bryan- Kronborg Castle, Paper Island, Vasa Museum, Roskilde
Laura- Kronborg Castle and studying the maps while wandering the beautiful cities
Memories
When it is light a long time, sleep masks are a lifesaver.
“Seriously a crow??” Sam at 4:00am after waking his parents up at 3:30 with excitement and random facts and being told to go back to sleep. He slept until 8:30-parents not so much.
Ping pong tournaments are a great way to spend an evening.
Mason proved he was paying attention to his Rick Riordan books as he shared many mythology stories that related to the historical sites we saw.
The names Christian, Frederick are everywhere in Copenhagen and the same could be said for Gustav in Sweden. If you ever get asked a trivia question about their Kings, any of these names are a safe bet.
The key to pronouncing anything in Danish (and likely Swedish) is to only pronounce some syllables, add in others and sound like you are slurring your words. Or at least that is what it sounds like.
This trip created a whole new set of memories for our family. We feel fortunate to have Chris, Pam, Ryan and Casey as a part of this adventure. They made Copengagen feel like home from the first day we arrived. I believe we have a couple of world travelers on our hands. For now, we return to the day to day adventures of life remembering that there is a great big world left out there to explore.
