The Simple, The Complicated, & The Continent Part III

I’ve already shared photos from the actual purpose for my visit to Denmark last year, which you can read about in Part I and Part II of this series. These next pictures are a few moments from our sightseeing adventures. Some of excursions were afternoons off during the dance week (we had to get a break in sometimes!) but most of these are from after the dance week ended.

One afternoon during the week, we joined some of the other dance week attendees on a tour of the countryside around the area where we were staying. I was lucky enough to be in a car with a lovely local person who was able to share all sorts of interesting information and answer all of our questions. We stopped at multiple places… historic homes, a bird sanctuary, an estuary, and a deer park, to name a few. This photo was taken near the bird sanctuary. I’m trying to imitate the windmill that is over my left shoulder…

Outside one of the historic homes (built in the style of castle, which was rather fun!) there was a lovely courtyard with gorgeous blooms. I didn’t match quite perfectly, but I was in the same color palette.

It was a quaint place to ‘practice’ one of the more whimsical dance choreographies we learned, especially as the three of us happened to be wearing red and matching the trees above us.

After the dance week we stopped for a very rainy day in Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson. I learned lots of new information about him and his life at the Hans Christian Anderson Museum. It was extensive, containing information about his personal life and upbringing, his clothing, places he lived, his writing, and more.

I was particularly struck by this quote. Thread is so relevant to me in a physical sense, but I also find peace in the idea of a thread that runs through my life and makes sense of each little piece in a way that I can only see when I look behind me.

After our quick stop in Odense it was on to Copenhagen. Soon after our arrival we noticed a Scottish pub near the city center. Two of us, in particular, are very attached to Scotland and Scottish things, so we had to check it out. Plus, it advertised live music! We were hoping for Scottish music… but instead got a guy playing pop songs on his guitar. Still amusing, just not what we were hoping for.

One evening we took a sunset boat tour and caught this lovely view of Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Danish royal family.

Our accommodations were quite close to Tivoli Gardens, so it was easy to spend multiple evenings there. Tivoli Gardens was Walt Disney’s inspiration for the creation of Disneyland. We rode some rides, watched some shows and fireworks, and enjoyed the decadent lights.

Another stop was Christiansborg Palace, which is an extensive collection of buildings serving a variety of purposes for the Danish government, the royal family, and for sharing history. I wanted to get this picture just for the perspective of how large these doors were!

To go inside, we were required to don shoe covers. Here we are, ready to go!

The architectural details were beautiful, as you would expect for a building with this much national significance. I would be happy to hang out in rooms like these!

I’m always a fan of gorgeous libraries. This one has a balcony. So fun!

Also, a Mirror of Erised? What do you see when you look in the mirror?

The Theatre Museum at The Court Theatre is right near Christiansborg Palace. We enjoyed looking around the audience boxes, the backstage areas, the displays, and showing off some of our Danish minuet dancing on stage.

After a few days spent in museums and palaces we wanted a little something different and decided to go to the zoo. I enjoyed the penguins and bears (no surprise!), including a polar bear! Sadly, Mr. Polar Bear seemed pretty bored by himself in his enclosure. I watched him swim back and forth, back and forth, pushing off the walls in the exact same place every time he passed. Maybe (hopefully) he was quite happy and enjoying his swim.

There was one obviously happy polar bear, though. I enjoyed this one as well!

Well, that’s the end of the trip. Thanks for sharing the memories with me!

SaveSave