Daines Family Take Scandinavia: Copenhagen

My mom has always had a dream of taking her children on a Scandinavia Cruise.  This past June her dream was realized!!!  It was absolutely an incredible experience.  

We all met and converged in Copenhagen Denmark.  Bret and I arrived one day before boarding the ship and we had so much fun exploring the city together.  When we went there 5 years ago I met him there a few days into his conference, explored the city by myself for a day and then we flew to Sweden.  It was so fun to be there when it was a little warmer and to explore it together.  I absolutely loved Copenhagen and would go back there in a heart beat!

Our plane landed at 7:30 in the morning, so after getting our bags we headed over to the hotel to drop them off and we met up with my Mom and Dad.  

We went with them to Nyhaven and took a river cruise.  Nyhaven street is the most photographed place in all of Copenhagen,  With the colors of these buildings and the sail boats it was easy to see why!  

The face on this bridge cracked me up.  It looked like a face Gavin would make!

On the river cruise we passed by Church of Our Savior which Bret and I had planned to see later in the day and climb to the top of.  It was fun to catch a glimpse of it from the river first.

We then walked with my parents through the pedestrian shopping center to the Church of Our Lady to see the original Christus statue.  

One thing I loved about this church was there were statues of the original 12 apostles leading the to the Christus.  It was beautiful to see how they were each directed in a different and personal way.  

From there we walked down the street to Old Square where we had the most delightful and picturesque lunch.   I loved every moment of it and kept saying how I wanted to pinch myself because I couldn't believe we were just at the beginning amazing experiences.

We said goodbye to my parents, walked along cobblestone streets, tried a few Danish bakery's, (we had a personal mission of finding the best Danish pastry) and made our way to the next mode of transportation we would explore the city.  First time was by boat, second would be by Segway.  

Bret and I did a Segway tour in DC on a date night once and were excited to go again.  It was fabulous!  We learned so much history as we rode around the city and we covered so much ground.  It just made us excited for the seaway tour we would be taking with the entire family in Stockholm!

Bret in the palace square.  I really have no idea what the place is called but all the buildings surrounding this square are the personal residences of the royal family.  

We saw the second most photographed place in Copenhagen, the Little Mermaid statue.  (just a little underwhelming.)

After the Segways we made walked back across the river to Church of our Savior to climb to the top. There were 398 stairs to the top,  many of those outside as you twist your way higher and higher.  It was a little scary but the views were absolutely incredible!

It was a little tricky thing to take a selfie of us from the very top, so we made our way down a little while and snapped one.  Being very careful not to drop our phone!

We made our way back to the hotel by about 6:00 that evening and were exhausted!  I wish we would have had a fit bit to count how many miles we walked each day of the trip, but this one had to have been up there!  

The next day we were boarding the ship, but we had to get up early to enjoy a little more of Copenhagen one last time.  We walked along Nyhaven street again, soaked in more cobblestone streets, taste tested a few more Danish pastries and took in a little shopping at the pedestrian mall before meeting up with the entire family on the cruise boat.  Hands down, the best pastries we discovered came from Lagkaguhuset.  We ate them in airports and were even able to bring some home to our children as we were flying out of the Copenhagen airport back to Dulles.  Absently AMAZING!!!