The Little Mermaid

On our very last day in Copenhagen we had two humble goals. To walk by the Lego store, and to see the Little Mermaid.

Legos were invented in a small town about three hours away by train from Copenhagen in 1943. Since then about a hundred lego pieces have been built for every man, woman and child alive today. Billund is also the site of the original Legoland. The city has it's own airport (originally built by Lego, though sadly not from Lego) and is the most visited attraction in Denmark. I had told the kids we would go there. But then we found out that it wasn't exactly in Copenhagen and instead they agreed to be taken to the main Lego retail store in Copenhagen instead.

Vivian and Evan had fun. But it was about as large and exciting as a medium sized shoe store. The Lego people seriously need to hire someone with a bit more imagination.

After the Lego store we walked past the Danish royal palace - with it's royal guard in poofy bearskin hats and all who marched up and down the sidewalks in front of the palace. They seemed, both in demeanor and gait to be less militaristic. More relaxed.  Then we got to the harbor and Jo found us a way to get past the throngs of Chinese tourists up to the statue of the Little Mermaid. Evan found himself a rock and solemnly posed as the Little Mermaid himself.

Then we walked around Churchill Parken, across the moat and into the Kastallet fortress where there was a board that read "Rule and Regulations" in Danish and English. Vivian was carrying a little stick which she used like a school teacher to point to various icons and explain them to us and any one else watching.

"Put your trash in trashcans"
"Dogs must be on a leash"
"No fishing"

And then she got to the last one which was a capital "P" with a red line across it and announced

"And no peeing".

She's a Hyderabadi. "Yahaan peshab karna mana hai".



We walked up a path to the top of the grassy glacis and the kids ran around while Jo and I rested at a bench. Here is a sequence of them pretending to load and fire a cannon.

Both the Lego store and the Little Mermaid were underwhelming but we expected that. Still, a nice and relaxing last day. Tomorrow we catch an early morning flight to Reykjavik and then to Boston. We'll be back in the US of A by noon. 

Louisiana, Denmark

Today we told the kids that it was our day to enjoy grown-up things. So we took the train to the town of Humlebæk  and walked for fifteen minutes or so to get to Louisiana, Denmark's famous museum of modern art. And then spent most of the day with them at the superb children's section where they painted and sculpted.

It felt that way. But in reality we mostly spent the day out in the breathtaking sculpture gardens. The sound between Denmark and Sweden is along one edge of the property - with sailboats and jetties and swimmers. Huge old trees and artist designed trails and site specific sculptures made it a magical place for kids. 

We didn't get much time in the permanent art collection but there is a superb room filled with Giacometti, and two amazing temporary exhibits of Nolde and Philip Guston that I dragged everyone through. A beautiful day at a great place.

Vivian and Evan rolled down a long sloping grass lawn over and over again (it reminded me of rolling down the sand dunes in Pilani). Evan found himself a low branch and pretended to be a sleeping sloth (he's got talent). And Vivian found herself a good climbing tree. And when they got bored of these diversions they played tag around soaring Calder mobiles and squat Moore figures.

København

Copenhagen is our last stop. We arrived there from the Faroe Islands with Evan sleeping as usual. We caught a train from the airport (where the baggage claim looked "end-of-world-ish" according to Jo - wagons upon wagons of luggage piled up along the walls, a frenzy of people, no luggage carts to spare). And then walked from the central station to our hotel. Our first order of business was to do some laundry. The Laundromat Cafe served a great dinner, a fine collection of beers and ciders, and had laundry facilities.

The next morning we walked to Copenhagen's famous public harbor swimming pool - the Islands Brygge Havnebadet on Amager Island where the kids swam for a bit. These pools are floating wooden structures. The children's pools have bottoms and are suitably shallow. The harbor water freely flows in and out of the pools. It was a bit cold and windy and then it started drizzling and that was that. We walked to a nearby cafe and had a long slow brunch and went back to the hotel for our afternoon beauty sleep.

That evening Jo voted for Tivoli Gardens. It's only a couple of blocks from the hotel - one of the world's great amusement parks and the place where Walt got his inspiration for the Disney parks. Vivian and I went on our first roller coaster ride at the world's oldest wooden roller coaster - a whopping 100 years old and suitably rickety. That's when I realized that Vivian is a fearless adrenaline junkie. She went on many more rides by herself, some that I would have balked at. And bounced around joyously as if life was one long happy dance.

I'm not a fan of the Disney parks. I try put my feelings aside occasionally and go with the kids. Last year in June Jo took the kids to Disney with Nicolle and her clan. I still had my dad to take care off and was mercifully excused. So I was a bit apprehensive about Tivoli. It turned out to be as much gardens and park and restaurants and concerts as amusement. And it has a grace and charm that probably comes from being smaller and older. No room for miles of asphalt parking and townships of hotels. And no humans in rodent costumes and no princesses (Denmark has a real one). The founder of the park famously got a lease from the king of Denmark in 1843 by saying "when the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics".

Evan was too short for many of the rides but he got in a few here and there including a tame steel roller coaster that he loved. But he holds on tight and has a very serious look the whole time - just like on this carousel ride.

We had a great dinner at one of the restaurants while watching the house orchestra and band play outside the windows. We strolled past the illuminations at the moorish Nimb and the Chinese theater. Then I bought them two giant cotton candies. They ate and sang and made a video for Ava. And at midnight we watched the fireworks and then took two very sticky jacked up kids back to the hotel.

Next morning Evan woke up and asked if we could go to Tivoli Gardens right away.

Torshavn Hipster

On the last day in the Faroe Islands we stayed in town and did some window shopping on Niels Finsensgøta, the main shopping street. It's got at least half a dozen stores - may be eight.

Jo walked in to a girls store and found a skirt and a dress for Vivian. They were cute. Then Evan found a jacket he liked. He put in on and loved it. I told him it made him look like a flaming hipster. Vivian and Jo told him he looked great.

I tried to convinced Evan to leave it behind and promised that we'd find him a more suitable item of clothing at a boys store. He sobbed and very unwillingly left the jacket and the store.

And there wasn't another boy's jacket in downtown Torshavn. So we went back and got it. Mother of pearl buttons and all. And Evan wore it around proudly and called himself The President and Vivian treated him like he was.