Saturday, October 27, 2012

Tuesday comes quickly

Our last day with Aase for this trip- the time has gone by quite quickly - lots of walking - did I mention the cobblestones? LOL

On this Tuesday morning we set out for a hike up to see the Little Mermaid and the fortress that she sits near.  Then we planned a stop at the Resistance Museum. As we exited the museum it starts to rain and by only two blocks away it is a downpour!

we make a quick executive decision to stop right there for lunch and go into Boheme Bistro which has a french accent.  Aase orders the croque madame and I  the herb omelet, Phil has the mussels. The place is very nice with good bread and a friendly atmosphere.  while we eat the rain stops and so we head on our way all the way across town to the Jewish Museum.  After our stop there we go to the Palace to see the tapestries that had been woven over a decade to celebrate the queen's birthday (started when she was 50???? and finished when she was 60????) - they are modern but have lots of tales to tell of Danish and world history. 

By the end of the day Phil is not feeling too perky and so we go back to the hotel and agree to call about how things might go for dinner.  After getting a bit of rest he feels somewhat better - I want a more simple meal and suggest we just go over to Nyhavn and check out menus for dinner rather than something more elaborate.  We pick a place and I have the fresh pea soup and then a burger - which were both excellent.  Aase had lamb chops and Phil the burger... given that Nyhavn is touristy we had low expectations but both the lunch and now the dinner we had along the canal were both very good. 

so photos of the day- starting with the stained glass window outside the breakfast room- and continuing along the walk to the little gal by the sea...















 and here she is!



this little guy was grounded by really fierce wind that he couldn't work against- so he sat down for a while-


by now the sky was looking quite ominous...



so we ducked into the Resistance Museum just a it started to sprinkle-











our emergency lunch plans in the face of the downpour- Bistro Boheme on Esplanade...



after we left lunch and on the way to the next museum we saw a bakery window with Phil's two favorite things T- Ber-kass rolls and Snye La pastries (as you can see from the Danish labels I have spelled his pronunciation phonetically - LOL)



after our hike across town we made it to the area of the Biblioteque... isn't that French?  they probably spell it with a "tek" at the end or something...LOL


no photos inside - so this is it for the Jewish Museum- but let me say my favorite exhibit was about the one group disagreeing with the other and forming their own synagogue and then that one having the same thing happen and the next one the same- fractious "group" - still true...


then on to the palace to see the tapestries:









we ended up here for dinner- a cozy place for a dreary evening - our final night together for this trip...






we walked Aase to the Metro and went back to the hotel to pack for our trip to Helsinki on Wednesday.  Boarding passes printed out earlier we only had to take the Metro a couple of stops to get back to the airport and we had saved our last "klips" for the journey....

always good to spend time with Aase and we were lucky enough to get in a dinner with Poul who has made himself quite scarce the last few years- and just made it in time for dinner with Martin and Susan before they headed off to warmer climes with the kids (autumn school holidays in Denmark.)

Monday comes

and we had decided to take a short trip into Sweden.  The only time I had been in Sweden before was a "technical" -  I had arrived at the airport in Malmo Sweden and taken a bus to Copenhagen.  So in my world airport land is not a true visit to another country - it doesn't "count."

my mother and I had "technically" been to Finland in that we had flown to Helsinki on our way to Estonia but we only changed planes there so my first trip to Helsinki will be this one.

but back to Sweden....less than an hour away is a university town with a cathedral from the centuries back- Lund... so we decided to take a day trip there.  back to scary Norreport where this time the train did come - and then out past the CPH airport and on past Malmo and up north to Lund.  When we got off the train there was a market in the square outside the train station parking lot- LOL

LOL because the station parking was thousands of OK maybe a thousand but certainly hundreds and hundreds of bicycles-

as we left the square we passed a small food stand selling the local sausage that they are apparently renown for here in Lund. we almost immediately located to local inn recommended as a lunch place and noted it for later return. we headed into the town in the general direction of everyone else because we didn't yet have maps. 

on the way to the tourist information we saw the cathedral and found a service going on - so it was temporarily closed to visitors of the non religious kind.  the TI was just down the street and so we got all kinds of info there.  the weather is crisp and cool but mostly sunny.

the open air museum was closed on Monday but we walked the neighborhood - we visited the cathedral and the crypt below it - we had a authentically local lunch - not in that order... and we took the train back to CPH. 

we agreed to meet later for dinner at the cute Restaurant l'Alsace off Stroget and I got a nap before hand-LOL- while Phil got caught up on the Cardinals dilemmas in the playoffs. 

here are some photos of the lovely Lund Sweden...



above the bike "lot" and below the sausage stand and an ad for the local sausage



the postman's bike- followed by one of many town bikers-



the sign here caught our attention- interesting value for money....
 something lost in the translation I guess - LOL





the local butcher's window (although I prefer my food not to be quite so cute..)



the town square where the TI was located - not far fromthe cathedral...




the lunch place we spied earlier on and returned to where I had the pancake with bacon and ligonberries-



after lunch we headed back to the cathedral










down into the crypt where there were a number of old graves and a really creepy coffin that was out in the open vampire style - below a window (to tell the fall of darkness? LOL) with a lit candle beside it...







back upstairs they had a really really cool astrological clock:




some more town buildings and a phenomena of Lund- bike seat shower caps for when showers hit - it keeps your seat dry and the bike's as well - LOL

 

 




and then we toured the area around the closed open air museum - which was a very quaint neighborhood with cottages and flower boxes.... the open air museum (shown in the map below)






















and finally as we headed to the train station we saw these adorable kitty slippers in the window of a store- if only I knew the shoe size of our little buddy Alix---she would be wearing a pair of these now!


and my dinner that evening- an astounding duck, after oysters to start and the "all chocolate" dessert- excellent!




excellent day- the next day- more around Copenhagen and a big storm right before lunch!