The Orangery, Helsingor & The Sea {Denmark Wrap-Up}

We managed to fit in quite a bit of sightseeing in Denmark between visits with family and friends. We knew we wouldn't have time for Legoland or Bakken this trip... and we didn't make it to Tivoli this time as planned... but we definitely made it up to the kids later with a spontaneous stop at Rainbow Magicland outside Rome.

Here's a wrap-up of the Danish part of our trip:

Fredensborg palace (official residence of the Danish royal family)

beautiful gardens behind the palace - we took a tour of the kitchen garden also

outside the Orangery at Fredensborg (Crown Prince Frederik's 40th birthday was celebrated here in 2008... see pics here; love Princess Mary's cherry-red dress)

inside the Orangery

the whole arrangement was just filled with beautiful sights

must have a stop for ice cream outside the palace - note the "Royal Twins" in honor of the new prince and princess born on January 8th of this year

(I had a Slotsis.)

"To go or not to go..." is the question at the restaurant at Kronborg Castle (Hamlet's castle) in Helsingor

a beautiful spot for lunch

Danish open-faced sandwiches

path into the Renaissance castle

the famous statue of Holger underneath the castle - legend says if Denmark is threatened he will awake from his slumber and protect the country

(don't know if you can tell, but my children are ready to bolt out of the room)

inside Kronborg

Kronborg's Lego and art room for children

playing at the beach in Southwest Zealand

a beautiful day for a walk along a Danish beach

xoxo

Trelleborg

Trelleborg is the site of an old Viking fortress (dated to about 980 AD) which covers about 15 acres and possibly housed 500-800 Vikings, just outside of Slagelse, Denmark. Although the site had been known about for ages, excavation only really began in 1933 when a motorcycle club began making plans to turn the circular rampart into a raceway. There is a museum with artifacts and skeletons, a gift shop, and games and activities for children. The large, open, grassy fields and picnic tables also make it a great place to take the kids.

If interested, you can read more about it here, and the museum's website is here. One thing I will tell you, though, that I haven't seen mentioned, is there were quite a lot of sheep roaming the grounds. When there are quite a lot of sheep, there is quite a lot of sheep poo. So if you go through that little wooden gate any time soon, be prepared to tip-toe and dodge your way through with e v e r y s t e p . Also, they don't want you to try to pet the sheep - they run away anyway if you get anywhere near.

old Viking games

site of the fortress (mind your step)

learning to shoot like a Viking

a reconstruction of one of the long houses (now thought to be not quite accurate, but still pretty cool)

more reconstructions

we happily discovered Ben 10 ice cream in the gift shop

I wore my Stuart Weitzman Donuts because of course I had to have my only gladiators along for a trip that included Rome, and they are insanely comforable. Luckily, they also clean up quite easily with Lysol wipes.

xoxo

Copenhagen {City Sights & Some Shopping}

Modalu "Pippa" on arm, ready to shop Stroget

a cappuccino sitting outside at Cafe Europa...

...and breakfast

the menu

the bakery at Illum (for pastries after breakfast, of course)

walking toward the harbor

I liked these doors

oranges, apples, limes + pineapple

Copenhagen is definitely the place to fill in your Christmas plate collection

sunglass display at Illum

inside one of my favorite department stores

shopping the Wheat (one of our faves) collection with my eight-year-old

what she chose

one of Duchess Kate's dresses at the Reiss boutique inside Illum (they told me they often have pieces that are sold out elsewhere)

my Reiss purchase

some new Zara for my girls

(and for me)

my son preferred the Lego store

I have some pics from the old Viking fortress at Trelleborg in Slagelse I'll post next... and I have some Target buys & a brush review I'll try to get up before Italy pics.

Happy Thursday!

xoxo

Arriving in Denmark {The Ascot and Kobenhavner Cafeen}

We arrived in Copenhagen on July 8th in the afternoon, after a ten hour flight with very little sleep (some of us less than others) and a nine hour time change... so after checking into our hotel (The Ascot) we set straight out into the city to resist the urge to take a nap. Our goal was to make it to an 8:00 pm local time bedtime. We walked around Stroget and had dinner at Kobenhavner Cafeen on Badstuestraede.

my dinner - fiskefillet med pommes frites og remoulade

I could tell my Danish-born husband was happy to be back... this is what he ate - the flaeskesteg (with lots of potatoes and cabbage)

We couldn't find anything suitable on the menu for my nine-year-old vegetarian, but they put together a nice omelet with a side of vegetables and some toast for her.

After dinner we slowly made our way back to the hotel. A large room like we had last time was not available at the Scandic Palace, so I found a new place on booking.com... a site I highly recommend. It is very easy to use and perfect for our situation where I am booking for five people. I've been so frustrated using other sites when, upon filling in the form, keep receiving the message: "exceeds max children" "exceeds max children" "exceeds max children". Booking.com lets me "exceed max children" and just finds something for me. In Italy, we had adjoining rooms in Castellammare di Stabia and two next to each other in Arezzo. In Copenhagen, they found us a lovely suite of rooms in The Ascot Hotel. It is a great location - we could walk to Stroget easily. Booking.com took a credit card number to reserve but I was not charged by them and there weren't any fees. We were given confirmation numbers, everything went smoothly, and we were charged exactly what the site said we would be by the hotels.

Here are some pictures of The Ascot... I will definitely look to this place for our next visit to Denmark. Our apartment had a large, nicely decorated living room, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a large kitchen with a little deck off of it. Very nice.

This is the hotel bar, off the lobby. Very cozy -- or hyggelig -- as they would say in Denmark. There is a separate restaurant also.

I'll have some shopping snaps from Stroget up next. Happy Tuesday!

xoxo