TRAVELS WITH FAMILY, part one: Denmark

My Christmas came a little late this year, January 17th, to be precise. Since I flew home for the holidays last year my mother and brother agreed to make the trip this year, but to make it off-season (I heart off-season travel). They also graciously allowed me to make the itinerary.

We met up in Copenhagen and set up camp in a charming and very old airbnb flat in the center of the city. Over the next few days I treated my jet lagged charges to a tour of My Favorite Places: parks, museums, scenic vistas, the LEGO store.

The botanical garden is pretty even in January

On the way to the King's Gardens we were surprised by the royal guard

Photo op!

 

 

Best pharmacy mascot ever

View from the rundtårn

clowning

 

 

Our LEGO avatars

The introduction to Danish cuisine met with positive reviews. At Schønnemann's we stuffed ourselves silly with world class smorrebrod and Nick ordered cardamom-flavored snaps.

As someone who swore off shrimp after writing an undergraduate paper about how overfishing was destroying tropic mangrove forests I was really really really really excited to find out you could catch shrimp in the North Sea. And also that they are delicious.

The best smoked salmon I have ever eaten

Sadly the pictures from "Restaurant Puk" where my mother hit, as I have come to know it, the 'herring ceiling', did not turn out.  

From Copenhagen we traveled to Odense, where the family saw such thrilling things as Hans Christian Anderson's house, 1,000 year old saint's bones, a snaps emporium, and my office.

While Nick pondered snaps and mom eyed Rieslings I discovered "Goths & Vandals" ale. Too bad its $10. Oh Denmark.

[If you want to see proper pictures of the city of Odense you can refer to my 2013 post]

We exchanged presents under a near-dead poinsettia plant in my hyggelig home - hooray for presents! The stand-out gift of the year was probably this hand-knitted creation from my mother to me.

"Do you know what it is?" she asked me as I held it up for Nick's inspection. We had no idea. Mom chuckled wickedly as we brainstormed, offering only that it was for wearing and for something that I had two of. We did an inventory. Ears? Not pointy enough. Hands? But why would you want them attached? We left it sitting on the table as we opened the rest of the presents.

Do you know what it is? No peeking! While you're thinking, please enjoy this picture of Zelda trying to sleep on a jet-lagged Nick. 

Ta-da! It is a helmet strap cozy! I NEVER would have guessed it. It's actually great.

After one more sleepy day in my sleepy city.

We were off to our next destination...