T&W Party and CPH

Sunday was another holiday in Denmark. Our Gym Friend Matt invited all four of us over to his house for a traditional Danish lunch. We knew this would be something really cool for T&W to get to do. Some of our favorite memories on trips are being invited into the locals home's for traditional meals. As I mentioned before, Matt is a gym friend. We started talking one day and realized we were all Americans. He is from California but has lived in Denmark about 24 years with his Danish wife and kiddos. We all had a fantastic and fun time. We even got to play "Garden Games". They were Bocce ball and a viking stick throwing game. T&W have already found where they can order them online so they can play them after Denmark!

Eating

Playing

New Friends and a Bottle of Schnapps

Monday we went back to Copenhagen for another tour of the city. This time we visited the little mermaid, Kastellet, Amalianborg, Rosenborg, and the Botanical Gardens. Sometimes while we are in Copenhagen we see some really beautiful and big boats and yachts. We ran across one on this day. It was the most gorgeous yacht. I got the name of the yacht (Pelorus) and looked it up when I got home. The only reason I knew the mans name that it belongs to is a few weeks one of our friends was talking about him. Anyways, It belongs to Roman Abramovich. AKA, A Russian Billionaire,and Pelorus is said to be the 11th largest yacht in the world.

Windmill

Me with the Pelorus

Pelorus

People enjoying the weather in Rosenborg

Baby Duck!
We have seen about 2,504 of then in the past 2 weeks and Tanya has a picture of every single one!

Hillerød

After my previous post I felt likeI skimped a lot because those three days were filled with a ton of fun and loads of pictures, so starting now I'm going to go day by day! Plus I think the rest of the family back home may like to see more pictures of T&W's visit. :)

We are still super duper busy over here in Denmark! Our days have been really filled, but we are having fun and I can't believe it is passing so quickly. The weather has stayed absolutely beautiful, warm and sunny. It feels like the middle of summer. The flowers are all in full bloom and every area we have been to in Denmark this past week has been simply beautiful with all the colors of the flowers. All the Danes keep telling T&W that this isn't "real" Denmark and they couldn't have picked a better time. I agree with them completely. Last year while Mary and Jason were visiting at this exact same time, we were still in warm jackets and there were lots of days of rain. I don't know how T&W planned this trip so perfectly!

Saturday we went Hillerød so T&W could see their very first castle. Frederiksborg Slot has always been our favorite in Denmark and had to share it with them. We have been inside the castle several times and have taken visitors as well. All of the visitors we have taken through the castle have said that they could have done without it and it got long and boring besides the chapel, so, we opted not to go inside this time but I think they enjoyed seeing only the outside. :)

I was thrilled to see the Fruit Stands starting to sell cherries.
As soon as we got off the train, I bought a bag of them. YUM!
Flowers in Cemetery in Hillerød

The beautiful Frederiksborg Slot

Waiting for everyone to catch up to me

Denmark seems to also be filled with baby ducks!
It is making Tanya very happy!

Michael with Flowers

Me at the castle

Me at the same spot back in 2003
I was dressed much warmer...it was Christmas Time
The Castle

Michael about to sneeze

T&W
Grrrr
Gardens

Pretty Flower

The Wayne and Tanya Tour

Michaels mom and stepdad, we will call them, "Tanya and Wayne" got here on Tuesday and we have been busy having fun since. As each day passes we are all quickly getting more and more red. The weather has been more than beautifully perfect. It's mind boggling. Today the high was 70 degrees, tomorrow 72. Last year while Mary and Jason were here at about the exact same time, in fact, actually it was a few days later, we were still in warm jackets and it was quite cold. brrr...

Day 1: They arrived and we took it easy. :)

Day 2: "Lyngby Fest" (as Mary called it)
We gave T&W the grandtour of "Our Lyngby". It mostly included the main street that we walk on daily and the things we see and do around town. We got to visit inside the Church, which Michael hadn't done before, and we took a little tour of Michaels office. They got to meet several of the Danish students that did the DTU/TTU program that lived in Lubbock and Dallas for a while. After that we went and showed them some of the forest and the older area of Lyngby. While we were walking around town these loud strange sounding sirens started going off. Michael and I mentioned to each other that it sounded like something from WWII warning of an attack that you might hear in the movies. We asked one of the Danes at work about it and sure enough, they test these sirens every year at this time to make sure they are still working. They were put in to say, "The Germans are Coming!!" For me, that was something pretty cool to hear.

The forest in Lyngby

Forest

Day 3: Copenhagen
We spent Thursday showing them what I call, the city section of Copenhagen. They saw the main train station, The Town Hall, Strøget, Kgs. Nytorv and Nyhavn. We drank coffee at one of our favorite cafes, ate lunch at Nyhavn and stuck them on a canal tour while Michael and I baked in the sun on the canal ledge. We finished the day with a nice cold, "Soft Ice".

Tanya found a new favorite chair at "Illums Bolighus"

Flowers at Kgs. Nytorv

Tuborg Man and horses

T&W on the Canal Tour Boat

Sun-Burning

The Must Have Shot at Nyhavn

Day 3: Beach, Bakken and Dyrehaven
Anyone that knows Tanya knows she loves, loves, LOVES deer. The first time we lived in Denmark we knew she would love "Dyrehaven". We were lucky enough that today the deer were out in full force and we were able to get quite close to them. We spend much walking through the park and a lot of time watching the deer walk about.

At Bakken

Stopping for Lunch

Michael and the statue

This Picture is for Mr. Jason Graduated from Law School today loves the hunting lodge Partney!
Congrats from the Hunting Lodge Jason!

Chillin' with the Deer

Still Chillin with the Deer

Michael pretending he is on Safari

We have a ton planned for the rest of their trip. I'll try to get stuff up here more often especially for Nana and the rest of the Family in Lubbock! :)

Pictures of Kiev

I have all the pictures in my Picasa web album so you can check them all out there. I don't have very descriptive captions on them, because I find writing captions really boring.

A play by play of our days there would be boring. Basically, we walked...and walked and walked...and walked some more. For everyone we have walked to the brink of exhaustion, you can't even imagine how far we have to walk to make ourselves exhausted. Basically our full day was an 8.5 hour walk with a few stops to sit and rest, or to eat along the way.

We happened to be there on May Day which was a lot of fun, because all the locals were out enjoying themselves and there were concerts and all sorts of hoopla going on. It was a lot of fun.

Our Cute Room

Michael with Cool Architecture

St. Sophia

St. Michaels

St. Michaels
In the midsts of the May Day Celebrations
This pathway stretched for a long time, and most of the gates you can see were covered with artwork. These were not though.
In Kiev cars often pop up and drive on the sidewalks and park as well.

Hanging out with the GIANT Rodina Mat. She is 62 meters tall

After a looooooong day of exploring

To see all of our pictures, visit the link below. :)

Kiev, Ukraine

It Was Love at First Sight

Before leaving for Kiev, I was confident I would enjoy this city and almost certain that Michael would as well. But I was completely caught off guard that the moment we exited the customs terminal I was already head over heels in love with the city, and my feelings grew stronger and stronger with each new thing I laid my eyes on. Don't let me fool you though, the airport wasn't the best, the cleanest, the newest or even the nicest airport I have been in. In fact, it was probably closer to the ugliest, darkest, depressing one. It was a big concrete cold feeling building, packed with travelers and those waiting for them and a hoard of people outside smoking. But this gave me peace and a overall sense of familiarity, which I loved. Finally, I was back in Eastern Europe.

We immediately saw my name on a sign held by our private driver to take us to the hotel. The ride to town was great. We drove through the tall trees in the forest, the high rise apartment buildings that were so run down and old, we crossed the big bridge with a great view of the river and the hills of Kiev, we passed through areas of big houses, cemeteries selling bright colored flowers, and fancy well kept apartment buildings.

"Hotel Sonya" called to me when I ran across it online. It was more of an apartment rental run like a hotel. We booked an apartment called "Lora", which after looking at online looked cute and big, but nothing special. We were surprised when they let us in our apartment and we saw that it had been completely remodeled since the pictures were taken that were on the website. It was beautiful and renamed, "Yoshiko". I'm sure you can guess that it was a Japanese inspired apartment that was so nicely done. After our little tour of our apartment by the lady that checked us in our mouths hung open for about 10 minutes by how nice this apartment was. On top of the amazing room, they brought us breakfast each morning to as part of the price. We got to pick what we wanted to eat each day and they showed up on the minute that we requested it. nice! We will definitely be staying here again.

As for the city, I am totally enamored by Kiev. No words, descriptions, pictures, thoughts or reflections could possibly start to explain this city. I think my "bible" (Lonely Planet) said it best; "It (Kiev) puts the foreign back into European travel and acts as an antidote to an increasingly over explored, identikit world." I couldn't agree more or say it any better. You nailed it Lonely Planet.

The most shocking part of this trip for me, was that Kiev easily became my second favorite city to date and we didn't even get a chance to scratch the surface. The second most shocking thing to me, was that Michael was just as taken with this city as I was. We'll be back here again, I have no doubt.

A few pictures to wet your palette until I get the rest online

Pretty Tulips

Street Scene

Former Soviet Leaders and Ukrainian Supporters of the Communist Party
celebrating Labor Day on May Day
In the news photo 1
In the news photo 2

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