july 2004, danmark (denmark)

one fine day anna and i received an invitation from one of my uncle/aunt sets, to come and spend a day eating, drinking and being merry, at their cottage. we both wanted a holiday, and this sounded perfect, as i wanted to see my family, and anna wanted to meet more of my family. so we accepted.

this of course meant that we used anna's billigflieger website to find the cheapest flight for the route. only a month in advance, we managed to book a flight for €150 for all three of us, with easyjet, everything included (except extras, like juice or a meal).

on the way to the airport, we saw a truck with a very friendly sticker attached, please see below. with easyjet, you don't even get a bus to your plane, but have to walk! the flight does include a changing view of the københavn-malmö bridge, however, wingtip and all. the flight ran smoothly, the personnel were friendly (see below, however), and the plane was clean and in good shape.

we met up with my mother, and jana tried on her sunglasses. on the way back to the apartment, we stopped for cash, and jana managed to twist my mother's arm enough that she got a free ride. when we arrived, we had a really great super-relaxing lunch in the garden behind my mother's apartment. we all fought for the warm buns.
even in denmark, where honda civics cost the same as chevy corvettes in canada, people manage to buy reasonable cars, like this porsche 911 here (the 964 model, if that means anything to you). i am continually torn between a '72-'73 911 classic, a 911 carrera 3.2, and one of these. the earlier ones are more charming, but the later ones are better cars, and have much more power. hmm. one day i will own a 911 in this exact colour, arctic silver, unless anna can convince me to get a volvo V70 stationcar instead, which she can't.
we walked through frederiksberg have again (see here), but took a different route this time. the trees were carved into statues when they succombed to some tree disease. the cottage... who knows, but the roof is thatched straw; very nice. then there is a viking burial site, and frederiksberg slot itself, which is now an officers' academy.
we walked dwn strøget again, but time from nørreport, which took us past rundetårnet, the round tower. king christian IV built this to get a view of copenhagen, but he didn't want to walk, so there is a ramp all the way up, high enough that he could ride his horse nearly to the top. king christian IV actually built a lot of the more interesting parts of copenhagen (see here again).
then came the cultural event of the day: thorvaldsen's museum. he was a sculptor, err, some time ago, who lived most of his life in italy, learning and practicing sculpting. his work is plentiful and to a very high standard. jana and i had some fun emulating various poses.
we ended up having lunch at a café just across from the museum, before boarding a double-decker bus home for the day, where jana fished for icecubes.

at the bus stop, i managed to take pictures of both børsen, the old stock exchange, and christiansborg, the current seat of the government. børsen's spire consists of 4 dragon tails entwined, and is capped by three crowns, symbolising the three scandinavian countries denmark, norway and sweden. depending on who you ask, finland and iceland also belong to scandinavia, but in the 1600's this apparently was not the case. i suspect that at this time, they either belonged to denmark, in the case of iceland, or sweden or russia, in the case of finland, but maybe that is not right.

then we headed for rørvig, the town in which my uncle/aunt duo's cottage is located. on the way, we had to take a ferry. we travelled with my sister, her boyfriend, and my nephew. there is a picture there of a sleeping jana.
well, what can i say. family pictures. the third one is my sister, the fourth one your's truly, and the sixth one my sister's boyfriend, a great guy.
the trip back. oliver, my nephew, claims he did not sleep on the way back.
both anna and i are huge fans of modern minimalist design. we visited the louis poulsen showroom in nyhavn, where i snapped these two pictures. there are several lamps we would like to buy, but they cost as much as €1000, so it'll wait. eventually we will probably buy them in denmark, where they are a bit cheaper than here in berlin.
finally, we repeated the boat tour of the first trip, due to popular demand. it wasn't quite so exciting this time, but we still got some nice pictures of nyhavn, the little mermaid, a statue on top of thorvaldsen's museum that was very reminiscent of the one on top of the brandenburger tor here in berlin, and børsen. the end.