Mariebjerg Kirkegård

Sunday as we were on our way home from the gym we couldn't help but notice that the weather was, oh so pleasent. It was quite cold but absolutely lovely. The air felt fresh and there was a beautiful thin layer of fog and the clouds were hanging low in the sky. We decided it was the perfect day to go for a walk.

Oddly we decided to walk to "Mariebjerg Kirkegård". It is a big and beautiful cemetery in Gentofte about a 20 minute walk from our place. (Gentofte is one of the two towns we lived in our 1st time around) Now I must say we don't often walk to and around cemetery's for fun, but from time to time, we love to search them out while we are outside of the US. This one in particular was very peaceful and quiet.

The Entrance
The trees were SOOO tall. I should have gotten a picture with one of us standing next to them. The pictures doesn't do the height justice.

One area of the cemetery had these cool unmarked plots. There was a map showing who was buried where. Each octagon had I believe 12 people each buried in them! The plot with all of the flowers on it only had 2 people.

A pretty pathway in the cemetery

We walked around a bit looking at all the marked plots and found some as old as 1889 and some as recent as last month. The four that stuck at the most for us were a husband and wife who both lived well into their 90's. They were buried with who we guessed was their son who died when he was only in his 30s. There were 2 plots we saw for babies. One was 3 months old, the other was 1 month old. The gravestones on both were so simple and beautiful. As we were making our way out, our eyes caught a flickering. There were 5 freshly lit candles inside little lanterns next to a glass box of stuffed animals and a Christmas wreath. The child buried there was only 10 years old. The area the family had decorated was precious.

We then stumbled into an area with big crypts in a almost jungle looking area! (I know, there are no jungles in Denmark) I took pictures of the crypts but it was so dark because of all the tall trees surrounding them, they didn't come out well.

Bad Crypt Picture

We left and enjoyed on our walk back home with our fresh reminder of how precious life is and how the small things we were worried about at the time (What can we do to rent a car for 10 days so Michael can stay in the highest level of membership in Avis), don't matter that much after all. :)

Trains and Farms

Michael made it home safe and sound and recovered very quickly from his trip. It appeared he wasn't gone long enough to get use to Japan time.

I had a fun journey to the airport to get him. There are a few commuter rails here. The Regional trains, the S-tog and the metro. The metro opened up while we were living here the first time, so it is still new. Friday, a few new stations on one of the Metro lines were opening with the final destination being the airport. I thought I would take it for a change from taking the Regional Train. I got off at Nørreport station where I needed to run to a store for something and change from the S-tog to the metro line. When I got down into the track area I got a free ticket to ride half of the lines all day long and a cup of coffee given to me by people dressed in airport clothes, advertising the new line to the airport. I got as far as the end of the line before the new stations opened. So, I got off, and then had to wait a bit (about 40 minutes)for the metro train to come. I did not realize it at first, but I quickly figured out I was going to be on the very first public passenger car on this line to the airport ever! I just figured the line opened in the morning, I didn't realize it wasn't going to open till, right then! So, I was lucky enough to get on on of the cars and it was a lot of fun. While the train was above ground the streets were lined with people taking pictures of the metro passing, there were cameras flashing and people waving. I could see in many buildings lots of people were looking out their windows waving as well. Needless to say, the car I was in was jammed packed crowded! When we reached the airport, there was a band playing and lots of food and champagne. The crown prince had opened the line just moments earlier. If I hadn't have already seen him, I would have been bummed that I missed him, but since I already crossed off "see the royal family" from my list, it was no big deal! Oh, and I got a free key chain too!

A couple and their dog watching the new Metro pass by.
They took some pictures and waved as we drove off. It was the only picture I had enough wiggle room to actually take in the Metro car.

Waffle and Pancake breakfast was fun, and after Daniel and Jason left we went for a big long walk. The weather was lovely. It was overcast, but not rainy. It was cool, but not cold and the air was fresh. We wondered through the local Lyngby flea market that happens every Sunday and headed into the forest. We stopped for a bit in Brede Park.

Michael walking in the forest

We sat and rested here for a bit

An old factory

We then wondered back and hopped into Frilandsmuseet (Open air Museum). It is a pretty interesting museum. It sits on 86 acres and contains a bunch of old houses from around Denmark, Southern Sweden, and even Northern Germany from as early as 1650. Most of the houses are farms, cottages, and mills. I had been back in 2002, but Michael had not. It is not very far from us and I had been telling Michael we needed to go. When we walked though the entrance and back outside and his eyes saw some sheep grazing, I saw a smile pop on his face. The farmer in him will for the rest of his life, light up when something reminds him of his farming life. It's cute.

Sheep

Then, when we saw a bunch of old farm houses, he got a little more interested, but when we stumbled upon the blacksmith area, and walked away after spending a little time there, he said, ok, that made this whole thing worth it...and even suggested coming back sometime and spending more time there. He insists the things I see that I know he will love are crazy, but he really does always enjoy then. Silly man. ;)

This is an old farm house from Germany. All of the buildings you can go into. This was one of the few we actually went inside.

This was the basement. It was so tiny, and made Michael look like a giant!Cute truck

Michael watching wood get cut in half

If you look you can see Michael sitting on a bench

Michael

Oh and we saw pigs too!

Holy cow, that was long. I probably should have made that two separate posts. Oh well, too late now! if you made it to the end...CONGRATS! and thanks :)

Lazy Pate's

We have been nothing but lazy(besides the gym of course) the past couple weekends. Which is a nice change from our regularly scheduled busy weekends. Saturday after the gym there was "Health Day" in Lyngby,and I am sure no one shocked that we went and checked it out. We walked around for a bit to see what there was to see, nothing terribly exciting, but a cool concept. It was really windy so we didn't feel like staying outside longer then we had to (we have obviously been away from Lubbock far to long) Then came back home opened a bottle of wine and did absolutely nothing the rest of the day. it was great.

Sunday turned out to be quite a nice day. A little breezy but the sun was out and shining, so we went for a walk in the forest. This picture really isn't all that great, but it'll have to do. We walked around here. It was a nice pleasant 2 hour stroll. (in case you didn't get the hints from Mary, Jason and Myra, we like to walk!)


Then again, came home opened a bottle of wine and did nothing!

Perhaps soon, I'll have more to report from this end of the earth.

Enjoying Copenhagen and Lyngby

I love rain. I love fall. Most years I could do without summer. But what "they" say, seems true, when all you get is rain, you get tired of it, when all you get is cloudy days, you long for the sun. I don't know who "they" are, but "they" knew what they were talking about.

This weekend was nothing short of gorgeous days of sun, sun and more sun with a slight cool breeze that made the weekend simply perfect! The air feels like fall though, but one of those beautiful warm, fall days. So we took advantage of the weekend and played tourists in our own home!

First thing we did was head to Copenhagen climb the "Rundetaarn" (Round Tower) for a view of Copenhagen. We figured, we've seen Oslo,Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Istanbul and even a couple small German villages from way up high on towers and mountain/hilltop, it was probably about time we saw Copenhagen as well. The entrance was pretty cheap (for Copenhagen standards) at 25DKK a person (about $4.50) so we thought, why not!

"Rundetaarn"
Apparently the tower part of the Trinitatis complex, and included an astronomical observatory, a student church and a university library. It was built between 1588-1648We saw the church and the library which were a decent size and quite nice. It is also the oldest observatory in Europe and is still used! At night in the winter (which is practically all day long haha) people can go up and use the telescope to see the sky.

Climbing the tower was pretty simple. The entire climb looked like this until the very end where there were about 15 steps. Not too bad. Easiest tower climb we have ever done (worst one was in Freiburg Germany where we climbed just short of 1,000 stairs in the narrowest little stairwell, in a Cathedral to get to the top of a bell tower) I was actually a little surprised to see many people huffing and puffing on their way up.

Once at the top we had an amazing 360 degree view. Knowing so many of the buildings and streets made looking at wonderful Copenhagen that much better. We could see pretty far and could even see some really tall buildings in the distance which we immediately recognized as "Høj Gladsax" , which is basically where we lived last time we lived here.


After the tower we wondered around Copenhagen. Stopped at Nyhavn grabbed some soft ice, then hopped on a boat (one that is tied up and doesn't go anywhere) for a micro-brew style beer. The city was so very full of tourists, not many Americans though. Seemed like the streets were filled with Swedes and Brits. We both have an " Årskort" (year card) for Tivoli, so as long as we were in the city we hopped in there for another beer and sat right next to the little lake in there and had a really good time. After all this, we were starving so came home and ate and rested our feet. (We actually do tire ourselves out from walking, but no one has been brave enough to stick it out long enough to see that actually happen!)

Copenhagen Street

Tivoli

Tivoli

Sunday was just as lovely if not more so then Saturday. We hit the gym in the AM which was pretty much like an old abandon town. We were the only ones in there for about 45 minutes until 4 people came and hopped on treadmills. Then there were 6 of us. Danes love the sun, I'm sure they didn't want to waste any of the weather on being indoors. I can't blame them. We were doing abs and I told Michael that at that moment, I envied their freedom of not being so ridiculously dedicated. We got out of there as fast as we could and headed for a little walk. We stopped at a bakery on the way to grab some bread (and it was the first time Michael had ever witnessed me doing everything in Danish). We headed towards something called, "Lyngby Fort" I had seen it on a map and was just a little curious what it was, so we went. To be quite honest, I'm still not exactly sure what it is, but I know it was built in 1887 -1892. It was, "interesting" to say the least. Kinda hidden behind houses, and very overgrown with growth. We climbed up to the top and ate up there.

It once read, "LYNGBYFORTET" but now, there are letters missing

Along the side

Stairs to top
View From the Top

Top of the Fort

Walking back to our place we stumbled upon a hidden treasure. A "Møntvask"!!! It is a Laundromat!! For those of you who remember months and months ago I had to start doing our laundry by hand....again.... well. I am STILL doing it that way. Long story short...our landlord sucks and we do not want to spend the money to buy a washer that we can't take back with us because they are quite pricey. ANYWAYS, so we have searched every corner of Lyngby (or so we thought) looking for one and never could find one. On our way home, somehow we ended up on a hidden curve of a street, not too far from our place, and staring me in the face was the word, "Møntvask". I grabbed Michaels arm and pulled him across the street as he was laughing knowing my pleasure in seeing this word. I haven't minded doing our laundry by hand but the sheets and towels are quite the chore, because they are so big. I think that was the highlight of the day! Today, I'll be heading down there with towels and sheets to get those all washed and I am very excited about it, as I am sure my mom and a few of my close friends are very excited for me as well!! haha.

We got back to our place about 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening on our balcony. Reading, drinking some wine, doing Danish homework, eating dinner....etc.

Today looks just as wonderful as the past couple days. Perhaps August will turn out to be ok after all. I'm not holding my breath just yet, but I'm closing my eyes and wishing really really hard that it keeps this nice.

Our Weekend

Saturday we went to see the new Harry Potter movie and I must say we both LOVED it. I thought it was the best one yet. Now, we are just DAYS away from the book being released and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

We finally had some nice weather this weekend. Saturday it finally got sunny but it was humid and felt yucky but Sunday and today were BEAUTIFUL! Its about time too. We were starting to really be sad by the weather as we know everyday is bringing us closer and closer to the cold dark winter again. We had a nice 2 hour walk on Sunday from our place through the forest to a town called Brede and back again. It was nice. Here's a few pic's from our walk.

and a pretty sunset because it was finally not too cloudy to actually see it :)