Copenhagen: Day 3

This morning we took the metro from Nørreport, the station a couple blocks away, over to Fasanvej St. We walked through the park-like grounds of the Frederickberg castle over to the Copenhagen zoo. It's quite a nice zoo, when it's not killing a giraffe and feeding it to lions in front of schoolchildren. We saw elephants:



And bears:



And kangaroos:



We had hoped to see an anteater, but the anteater was AWOL. This was as close as we got:



Annabelle made a goat friend:



It was all fun and games until he tried to eat her hair:



After the zoo, we stopped in at Krøgers Familiehave for a bite of lunch. We just happen to be in Copenhagen for their annual jazz fest, and there's music happening everywhere. We enjoyed sitting outside listening to a little combo play. It was kind of chilly, so Annabelle wrapped up in a blanket:



My smørrebrød:



After lunch we wandered back to the park across from the zoo and visited the Cisternerne i Søndermarken, a museum in a defunct water reservoir.

Selfie in the park (I told you it was chilly!):



"Only" 17, 021 steps today:

Copenhagen: Day 2

Annabelle had class this morning, so Fred and I were on our own. We started with breakfast at the Lagkagehuset a couple blocks away from our apartment and then set off for the Botanical Garden. We climbed up to the viewing platform in one of the greenhouses, but I was dying of heat and humidity and didn't take any pictures. I did snap a few as we walked through the rest of the gardens:







We strolled around the grounds of the Rosenborg Castle, which dates back to the early 1600s:





Queen Caroline Amalia of Rosenborg in the rose garden:



The Boy on the Swan:



HC Andersen (and Fred):



From the castle, we walked toward the Marble Church and the harbor. We didn't stop here, but Fred took a picture:



I plotted a course that would take us past the Alexander Nevsky Church, the only Russian Orthodox church in Copenhagen. I was very confused when I was sure I was in the right spot but couldn't find it. After a moment or 2, we looked up and saw the onion domes reflected in the building across the street. The church is so tall and the street so narrow that you can't really SEE the church until you're a block or so away:







The Marble Church is a couple blocks away from the Nevsky Church, and it is really impressive:







We walked a couple blocks further to the palaces at Amalienborg:



From there we walked along the harbor until we came to Copenhagen's number one tourist attraction. Wish we could be part of her world:



By this time, Annabelle had gotten out of class. We agreed to meet at a department store in town. We passed by the Gefion Fountain and St. Alban's Church along the way:





We met Annabelle at Magasin du Nord:



There was a very classy "food" truck out front, but we didn't partake:



We wandered down Strøget, which is a very cool shopping street, and did some window shopping:



I insisted that I needed some cake, and Annabelle said that there was a cool looking bakery just around the corner from her apartment, so we went there. It turns out Conditori La Glace is the number 3 rated Copenhagen bakery on TripAdvisor! We split a piece of Black Forest cake as well the Karin Blixen cake.











Annabelle took us to the building where she goes to class and showed us a little Australian bar that she is fond of:



Note the rodents. Remember them from our travels in Germany? They have been documenting their European adventures this summer on Instagram at Copenhamster.

7-Elevens are very fancy here in Copenhagen:



Fred found this plate in an antique shop on Annabelle's street:



We didn't buy it, but we thought it was interesting to see it here.

We ate supper at Ristorante Italiano, another cool place just around the corner from Annabelle's apartment. We went there because the weather is a little chilly, but they have outdoor heaters and blankets at each chair. Very cozy! Another rain shower passed over while we were eating, so everybody under the awning scrunched in even closer. One of the waitresses caught rain as it ran off the awning to keep it from hitting a table:



Everybody stayed cheerful though:

This was a jam-packed day, and I think I might have set a personal record on my FitBit:

Copenhagen: Day 1

Our view this morning:



We landed in Copenhagen ahead of schedule and cleared customs and got downtown crazy-fast. We figured we would have to wait until after Annabelle's class to meet up with her, but she was able to come get us from Starbucks and lead us back to her apartment. We were quite a sight, I'm sure, dragging our luggage through the rain:



We left the bags at Annabelle's room while she was in class and met up with the key delivery service for our Airbnb a half-mile or so away. This was our first Airbnb experience, and it was truly fabulous. The apartment was exactly as it looked in the online ad, but the ad didn't do a good job of showing how spacious it was:





















The apartment is across the street from the Reformed Church in Gothersgade with Rosenborg Castle just beyond that:



Fred and I took a little nap on the couch for a couple hours. After class Annabelle got our phones set up to work in Denmark and took us to Paludan Bog&Café, one of her favorite lunch spots.

We saw these charming birdhouses a couple blocks away from our apartment when we went out for groceries:



I was so happy to fall into bed and so grateful for blackout curtains. This was the view from the bedroom at 10:05 p.m.:



FitBit goal accomplished: