Grandparents arrive!

We were all so excited to have my parents make the long journey over and visit us - it has been 7 long months since we have seen any family and we miss everyone.

We had a great time showing them our new home and new Danish lifestyle (sans car, etc). They were definitely troopers, hanging in there with all the walking (even more than we normally do since biking was not an option) to and from the train stations, riding busses, etc. No taxis for us!! :-)

The day of arrival - they made it, cheers! (the kids are distracted by the gifts...)

We started the visit by walking the 1.5 mile each way trek to the Charlottenlund beach, we went through the Charlottenlund slot property

 Dad's first $7 cup of Danish coffee

 

Then we picked up Raegan from school and headed downtown for the canal cruise tour out of Nyhavn, followed by dinner at a pub down there

on the train

 A drink at Nyhavn before the canal cruise

 the opera house

 the (underwhelming) little mermaid

 there are about 11 of the super low bridges that you actually have to duck for on the canal cruise

 the sand sculpture festival

We also went down to see the Rosenborg Castle and Kings Gardens, they were amazed by the double decker bike parking at the Norrebro train station

 

Wyatt and I hung out on the lawn since it's not worth the price of admission to take Wyatt in just to shush him the whole time. He did enjoy lining up his trucks though

 

 Ron met up with us after work at the Norrebro Bryghus - it was really great, definitely something to try again!

 Enjoying the walk to the train station to get home

 More of the ever-present European graffiti...

 ...and unique and interesting billboard art

 This is the Charlottenlund train station, the one nearest to us- quite pretty

 Not really sure what to say about this ad below - we unfortunately/fortunately did not attend any of this festival that our commune put on (this translates to Denmark's street theater festival)...wonder what that might have been like!!

 

Over the weekend we took a day trip on the train to Malmo, Sweden. We happened to go on the most eventful weekend there for their big music festival. There was a big carnival, stages for music, and tents set up in several areas for this festival.

 

St. Peter's Cathedral

King's Park



The Turning Torso

Oresund Bridge to Copenhagen

We found the beer garden at the festival

 We also took a trip up to Helsingor to see Hamlet's Castle.



The train station in Helsingor

Kronborg Castle

 



Wyatt was doing his "circus tricks"

Raegan started her English speaking horse riding lessons later that afternoon. She did really well!

We finished out Gramma and Grampa's visit to Copenhagen by showing them Osterbro - where our apartment was - and taking them to Bakken Amusement park.

Then we were off to the second portion of their visit - a week in Costa Brava Spain (Blanes)! ...will be a separate post...

Prague

We recently returned from a long weekend in Prague. I didn't know too much about this city before planning our trip and it is really beautiful with all the ornate architecture on the historic buildings everywhere. It definitely exceeded our expectations. It's probably the most beautiful city that I've been to so far. There is quite a bit to do there - we didn't get to it all by far - and it has a fun vibe.

We had 4 full days and kept busy. We walked over the famous Charles Bridge that connects Old Town with New town - lots of vendors and interesting street performers there.

 

the organ grinder - Raegan said she wanted to play one

 

these guys were playing folksy country music - Ron's favorite musicians there

We happened upon a fancy old car-for-hire and decided to take a quick tour of the city in style...

 

This is the John Lennon wall

The Prague Castle is really amazing, we took the tram up the big hill to get to the massive castle complex

Views of the city from the castle

 

We took the kids to Slovansky Island - right in the middle of the city close to the Charles Bridge - to see the playground and the boats before checking out what was to be the best Mexican restaurant in the city! (the restaurant was of course disappointing...)

Day 2 we decided to take the funicular (train) up Petrin Hill to go up the observation tower which is a mini version of the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at the funicular to see a huge line, looked up the hill and said 'eh, we can just walk'. Well, it was much larger of a hill than we thought, especially given I am pushing Wyatt in the stroller and Ron had Raegan on his shoulders most of the time.  But, we made it! Great views from up there, nice gardens and of course the playground we had to visit.

there was also a mirror maze at the top we had to check out



This was interesting art at the bottom of Petrin Hill - a memorial of all those impacted by communism



We were never too busy though to enjoy the most popular pastime each day - drinking the beer they are so proud of at the traditional beer halls and taverns! (we of course didn't experience the true night life there as we were home by 8:30/9pm with the kids).

There is a very limited 'traditional Czech' menu that we worked our way through during our trip. i.e. beef goulash, roasted duck, snitzel with dumplings, fried fish, etc... 

Ron loved that the fish I ordered had the head on

When we got tired of Czech cuisine, we found a Hooters just around the corner - it was definitely disappointing, but then again we aren't fans of the place in the US, so we should not have expected an improvement!

Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square were very lively and fun - sort of a festival atmosphere. We went there a couple times to watch all the street performers and of course see the big astronomical clock.

 

 

We took a river cruise while there - it was a nice change from walking around

 

We did also check out the Prague zoo, it was nice but a regular zoo so I will not post any photos there. ...with one exception, this ridiculous photo of Wyatt. He is mad because the tram is really full and he has to share a seat with me. He was literally fuming in his seat for 20 min until we got to the zoo.