Last Stop Copenhagen

Copenhagen, oh how we love you. It was a great last destination. We were all a little overwhelmed with the dark history in Berlin, we needed a pick me up. What better place then the happiest place on earth? They even have a #happywall

Seven Reasons to Love Copenhagen and the Danes

1. Hygge (pronounced hooga)

• Translated loosely to coziness
• Often associated with good food and drinks with people you love
• Although the definition of Fika is different, it seems the Swedes and the Danes are striving for the same feeling.
• The number one reason I think Kelly is a true Dane. She is always striving for hygge with the house, with parties, with everything.

Here are a couple of the times in CPH I think we experienced hygge.

At this hygge moment, Kelly and Johan finally had a very much missed IPA. Berlin and CPH are more of lager cities.

2. People

• I mentioned Denmark is the happiest place on earth, so the people are pretty fantastic.

Meet Mike, our CPH bike tour guide. He loved his city and loved his people. And the feeling was very contagious. We all ended the tour with a fond adoration and respect for the Danish people.

For one, the following picture is of Mike encouraging us to take a break to experience the CPH city center.
Yes, I said city center. Geographically, this beautiful park was the center of town. Across the water you should vaguely be able to see a beach. That beach is a part of a little neighborhood called Christiania. We were not allowed to take pictures in it, but it was quite the experience. It is a little hippie sect that has supposedly stayed exactly the same since 1969.
More about the people. Mandy and Johan love to collect a piece of art from every city they visit. In CPH, not only did they find a really cool piece, they were able to meet the artist. It was at a local shop called "Bob Moon."


Danish people value education. They value it to such an extent that they invest in the future of any of their youth that decide to go to college. No tuition fees and living expenses included. Here is one of their university dorms.
Yes, their taxes are very high. But according to our trusty tour guide Mike, over 80% of Danes think what they use it for is worth it. Interesting...

Finally, the Danish people legitimately have half women in government positions. And at this time, both the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court justice are both women. There is a true partnership.

Below is the Parliament building. It is like a combination of the U.S. Capital building and the White House.
Take a close look at the absence of security and fences. We were in the courtyard of this very important building. We could even have entered to have a meal under the clock tower at the second location of the world renowned new Nordic restaurant "noma."
3. Strive for sustainability

This technically could be classified under the "people" category, but it felt to big to not get it's own section.

Thru the trees in the picture below, you can see part of a hotel and one wind turbine. The hotel is totally CO2 and wind energy efficient. Additionally, the guests of the hotel can take their turn on bikes to help return some of the energy they have used. You kind of get to be a mouse on a wheel. The wind turbine is one of many scattered across all of Denmark.

Sustainability Facts from Mike

• 1 of every 4 wind turbines comes from Denmark
• 50% of energy comes from wind
• by 2020, they plan to be 100% wind energy and 100% cars running on CO2
• 60% of the population commutes via bicycle

4. Dessert... Of course. We went to the #1 bakery in Europe. The named translated to "layered cake."

5. Style

Everywhere we went, we were impressed by the architecture of the buildings inside and out.


The buildings really did seem straight from the fairy tale stories.

And, oh the dishes and glassware. They even put Hill Glassware to shame. Kelly was in heaven, oh the possibilities.

They even create their own beach oasis on their city river. This is style...
Have we convinced you that you need to visit yet? Quick book a flight pronto.

Need a couple more reasons.

6. Brunch
- Although it did not include the long awaited and ever evasive æbleskivers. Forrest, you really got our hopes up that they would be on every corner at every restaurant. Now, we are going to need even more at the condo this year to make up for it. And, we might have to plan a Denmark Christmas trip.
7. Dane vs Swede jabs
The Danes took every opportunity to tease the Swede. Everywhere we went: restaurants, bike tour, even the airport. These three Americans thought it was the greatest part of the trip.

But at least our apartment neighbors understood his pain.
But now, all good things must come to an end. It was a fantastic trip with fantastic people.

Thanks everyone for joining us on our adventure. We enjoyed it and hope we were able to make you enjoy it as well.

Tack!

Danka!

Tak!

Thank you!

Till the next adventure...

Riding and Learning Around Berlin

Berlin day two and three brought to you by Kelly (and edited by Malia).......Word of warning, my topic was not uplifting. Berlin has a very dark history. You might want to read this with a stiff cocktail. 

Day 2

We started day two in Berlin with a Fat Tire bike tour.  It was soooo good!  Here we are, with our tour guide Blakely, learning the rules.  They let you drink on the tour, so the rule talk isn't long.

This open field is the grass over Hitler's bunker where he spent his final days.  Until 2006, there was no sign or marker to indicate that this was the site of Hitler's death.  It was very important to the Germans that the focus was placed on the victims rather than the perpetrators. 

Our tour guide Blakely was an amazing teacher.  Here, he is teaching us about the construction of the wall and how Germany and Berlin were sectioned off to America, the Soviet Union,  France, and the UK.

The circle in the middle is Berlin which is where the wall was constructed.  It went around and down the center of the city.  After the separation of the country but prior to the wall, there was a mass exodus of East Germans trying to escape communism by fleeing to the West.   The wall was then constructed around West Berlin prohibiting anyone to enter from East Berlin and East Germany. 

Here we are at Checkpoint Charlie, the American checkpoint that seperated East and West Berlin. 

The Berlin wall was acctually two walls with a section of land between them. The land between them was known as the "death zone."  

In one section of the former death zone, the city built a memorial to murdered Jews.  There is no explanation for the piece, the American-Jewish artist has left it open to interpretation.  

The memorial is  2711 cement blocks, no two cement blocks are the same.  Some people see graves, some see train cars, others enter the memorial and feel the chaos of the Holocaust. 

This is the courtyard between Humboldt Univeristy and The Opera house.  The courtyard is the site of the orignal and most significant book burning while Hilter was in power.  One of the authors Heinrich Heine, whose work was burned, prophetically wrote in 1823, "where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings." There is a window to an art display below the courtyard of empty bookshelves. 

Just in case the wall and memorials didn't illustrate just how much Berlin has endured, there are also remaining scars from the World War ll air raids.  

We stopped for a mid-ride sausage and beer, it was a German bike tour afterall. Meet our new friend Ken.  He is from Ireland and was on an "interview" ride along.  If they know what they are doing, they will hire him.  We have been learning how to cheers in every country and Ken was gracious enough to teach us an Irish cheers.  Put your beer of mug in the air and yell an incoherent, consonant-less word like "uaaa."  Got to love the Irish!

The mid-ride suasage and beer was at an outdoor biergarten, which surprisingly translates in English to  "beer garden."  It was our favorite sausage and beer meal during our stay in Berlin. And, there were ALOT of sausage and beer meals during our stay in Berlin. 

A family from Montana joined in the Fat Tire cruising.  Naturally, they were great. 

Here is the whole bike gang in front of the Reichstag building. 

Here we are with Ken at the Brandenburg Gate.  The statue on top of Brandenburg Gate is The Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by the Roman goddess of Victory.  We reenacted the staute, with Ken, for your viewing pleasure. 

It is a real testament to Blakely's tour guiding skills that we had this much fun on what can only be described as a tour of death.

Thank you Fat Tire and Blakley! 

Day Three

 We had a few hours to take in a little more death and destruction.  The Topgrophy of Terror was constructed in 2010 and captures Berlin's history from 1933-1989.  The site houses both the remnants of the Gastapo's headquarters as well as a portion of The Berlin Wall.  

Many and Johan visited the Jewish Museum.  The first floor had a display of 10,000 unique metal faces representing people who died in the Holocaust.  

The architecture and layout of the museum was intended to show the uniqueness of the poeple who lost their lives and impact on the world.  

Berlin has been making an effort to memorialize all groups victimized during the Holocaust.  The following is a memorial dedicated to the Romas or "gypsies."  In the middle of the pool is a black triangle that the Romas wore on their clothes during the Holocaust.   Each day a fresh purple flower is placed in the center of the pond. Around the edge of the pond is a poem written in both English and German. It says, "Pallid face, dead eyes, cold lips. Silence. A broken heart without breath, without words, no tears."

After a somber tour through history, we headed off to one of the happiest cities in the world, Copenhagen, Denmark.  I mean after all, check out our map of Berlin even it needs a break.

We had a drink, or two, at the airport.

Malia and Johan got themselves oriented to our final city on the train from the airport to Copenhagen.

During our first Danish dinner, Johan and I settled a three year debate.  Here is Lillenmon our all-knowing Danish waitress.  I will spare you the details, the picture says it all. 

Stay tuned for our tour through happiness...