The Church of Our Saviour

I'd like to think that I regained myself for the "excitement" factor in our itinerary today, after a pretty uneventful day yesterday... We started the day with a nice brunch at a restaurant called Sult located in the Danish Film Institute building. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere with modern and clean interior. The weekend buffet brunch here is considered to be one of the best in town, and very popular among the locals, too. They had really great salads as well as a lot of warm dishes, pancakes and smoothies! 

   

After the brunch, we took the metro to the Christianshavn area to climb up this magnificent Vor Frelsers Kirke, or the Church of Our Saviour. The church is most famous for its corkscrew spire with an exterior golden staircase winding up to the spire. The staircase allows you to climb to the top of the church’s 95 meter (311 foot) high spire. It's not an easy climb - 400 steps to the top, of which 150 being outside. But once you reach the top, you get an amazing 360 degree view of Copenhagen.  And we picked a perfect day for that - sunny and clear sky! 

I was surprised that all the stairs inside were made of wood (not stone), and some parts were quite narrow and steep, which made a bit of a traffic jam of people trying to go up and trying to come down. Mio impressed us by climbing up all the 400 steps to the top by herself and down.  And "good job!" to Daddy for climbing up and down the steps carrying Yuto, except for some parts on the outside where he walked on his own. 

The Church and the golden staircase. 

Climbing up the steep steps!

The view from the top. 

Yuto with Daddy.

After the church, we took a stroll around the Chistianshavn area. And when we got to the bridge going over the canal, Yuto discovered the fun of waving to the people on the "Canal Tour" boats passing by. And of course those boats come pretty frequently, so we had to stay for "more!", and "more!" and "more!" until we finally had to drag him off the bridge before we saw the next boat, which of course ended up in a crying fit... 

Jonathan left for a week-long trip to Norway and Sweden this afternoon, so we ended the day by seeing him off at Frue Plads where he and his students boarded the bus. Overall, a very fun day.

A Day in - a Department Store...

My mom arrived yesterday from Japan for a one week visit. Even though we were with her in Japan just over two weeks ago, Mio and Yuto (and of course Jonathan and I) were super excited to see her again. So much so that since she got here, they have not touched the iPad (that they have been addicted to since we got here...)  
            
Because this is my mom's third trip to Copenhagen, she has seen most of the must-see sights. So she was not so anxious to go sight-seeing especially on a rainy day like today, and especially when we have two small kids to consider. We decided to take a stroll down to Stroget (the main pedestrian shopping street - the longest in Europe), and then we decided to go into Illums Bolighus. This is one of my favorite stores in Copenhagen. It is a beautiful store of modern, top of the line Scandinavian and Danish design. They sell furniture, lamps, glassware, kitchenware and so much more. The first floor has a lot of glassware and china, so it was a pretty stressful browsing experience with two active kids who like to check out everything. We did manage to get out of the store without breaking anything though. Whew. There were so many things I wanted to get, but I simply couldn't make up my mind, so I came out empty handed. I need to go back again soon while the sale is still on!  

It was still raining when we got out of the store, and of course the kids started to complain that they are hungry. So, we went to Illum (a department store) around the corner to have some lunch. The cafe is conveniently (or inconveniently?) located next to the toy department, and the kids were already in there playing before we could decide what we wanted to do next.  It was still raining outside, so we let the kids play for a bit, but that turned into a pretty long playing session - we must have stayed there for almost two hours...       

            

When we got home, Jonathan couldn't believe that we actually spent the whole day in a "department store." (but it rained all day!) He himself had been teaching in the classroom all day, so after we had dinner at home, and the rained had stopped, we needed to get outside! So we decided to go out for an ice cream at our favorite ice cream shop in Nyhavn.    It was a nice way to end our somewhat uneventful day...

Lunch at Illum cafe.

These are some fruits and vegetable baskets I saw at the outdoor market today. They almost don't look real, but they are all real fruits and vegetables that they were selling. So beautiful! 


In Denmark, you can find most fruits and vegetables available in America or in Japan, but fruits especially are so fresh and sweet I can't get enough of them. For example, you can get freshly picked strawberries every day in fruit stands that are found all over central Copenhagen. They smell so good, and are so juicy and sweet. The Danes must love their strawberries (and eat a lot of them) because there are strawberries everywhere.  Also, I have noticed that Danish people love smoothies! There are a lot of smoothie shops in town, and there are also a lot of smoothie drinks available at supermarkets. I have seen a lot of kids to eat their lunch with a pack of smoothie instead of juice. I also saw a few people drinking coffee at a cafe, but also had a glass of smoothie as well... hmm.  The smoothies made with these sweet and fresh fruits sure taste wonderful.  


I always like to try anything new I see when I am in a different country. Here in Denmark, you don't find too many "exotic" things, but here are a few of the new vegetables I have tried so far. 


Tomberry
It says on the package, "World's Smallest Tomatoes". They sure are the smallest tomatoes I have ever seen. They are about the size of blueberries, and also exactly the size of an iphone earphones (sorry, that was the only thing I had around me to compare sizes.) The taste is, well, nothing special to write about, just a nice sweet tomato taste, but the size makes these tomatoes perfect for snacking. I would never think of bringing cherry tomatoes for a snack to take for the kids, but today, I put these tomatoes in our little snack jar and took it to the park with us. The kids loved them. 

 Pointed Cabbage
The most common type of cabbage I see here are these pointed cabbages. They have softer leaves and sweeter taste than the regular American cabbage, so it can be used for many things. Today I used it in pasta with some salt-cured pork. 

White Asparagus
There is nothing new about these white asparagus, but they looked very good so I bought them. Actually this was the very first time I ever cooked them myself. First you have to trim the hard part on the bottom, and unlike the regular asparagus, you have to peel the outer skin for the whole length using a peeler, as it is tough and bitter. The most simple way to cook them is to boil them with a little salt and lemon. It also takes longer to cook than the green-skin counterpart - about 7-8 minutes. My first white asparagus came out really well. It's a little bit more time consuming than the green ones, but they have a very delicate flavor and I really enjoyed them. I would definitely buy them again. 

National Museum (National Museet)

I am starting to run out of things to do within walking distance other than going back to the same park again and again, which is fine with the kids but not so fine with me as I would like to see more of Copenhagen that I haven't seen!  So I was tempted to be adventurous this morning and ride the bike with the kids in the trailer, and go somewhere. But my ambition quickly dissolved after reconciling a few fights and negotiating with them on what we are going to do today, on top of getting ourselves ready.  

So instead, back to walking. No, not to the park. It was sunny but breezy, and it felt cold to go to a park. So we went to the National Museum, which we tried to go but was closed this Monday.  The museum offers an extensive collection of artifacts related to cultural and national history of Denmark from prehistoric times to the present. 

But our main purpose was to go to the children's museum section. There you could explore how the Danish people lived, played, or dressed in the old days - you could dress up as a knight, ride the viking ship, or try to cook like in the medieval ages. The kids enjoyed playing a little bit in each section, but the place we spent the longest time at was the drawing area. We drew pictures of flowers and trains, and practiced hiraganas (Japanese alphabet) which are totally things we could do at home... But nonetheless, it was just ourselves in this quite beautiful space, so I guess it was worth the trip?? 

Kids in an old classroom.

Mini Towers of Copenhagen

Our plan today was to go to the "Traffic Playground" at Fælledparken. The playground has driving lanes and traffic signs, where you can ride one of their non-motorized go-karts. We went there once last year, and we liked the uniqueness of the playground, so we decided to revisit. 

We took a short bus ride to get there, only to find that the playground is under renovation and closed until October this year. Bummer! Now what do we do? Luckily, I had done a little research before we left, and marked on my map another playground that is located on the other side of Fælledparken, the largest park in Copenhagen by the way. But the playground seemed worth checking out, so we walked across the park, having picnic lunch on our way. 

The playground, so-called the "Tower Playground" turned out to be a big hit. The playground is built around five of Copenhagen's most famous towers - Round Tower, City Hall, Our Savior's Church, the Exchange Tower, and the Marble Church (or Frederiks Church). Below are pictures of the park and pictures of the actual towers. Can you match them?? I was quite proud of myself for being able to recognize all the towers by myself. But then again, they are all really famous towers in Copenhagen, so if you lived  or spent some time here, you will most likely be able to name them all, too. 

Clockwise from top left: the Marble Church, City Hall,
Our Savior's Church, Round Tower, and the Exchange Tower.

At the park I also had an interesting sighting. There was this group of about 10-12 moms with their strollers (or should I call them prams?) parked under the tree (of course with their babies in them), jogging and exercising.  As you may have seen in my last year's blog, people in Denmark (or in Scandinavia in general) use really big prams compared to what we are used to seeing in the US or in Japan (see my post here). In the US, some people (not me!) go jogging with their strollers, but they usually use a special "jogging stroller". Here, I saw all these moms jogging with their big prams! That is hard-core! And there were a lot of them. So that was my Danish moment of the day...

Don't trust the blue sky in Denmark...

The weather in Denmark is really unpredictable. It is almost pointless to check the weather forecast, because you just have to assume that you will get rained at some point during the day. Even if it looks sunny in the morning, chances are, there will be an afternoon shower, or worse, the blue sky could turn grey in just minutes bringing you your morning shower. No wonder a lot of Danes wear light raincoat type outerwears - you always need to be prepared for an unexpected (or expected in a way?) shower! Rain does not stop the Danes. 

Today was a typical of such weather. The weather forecast (yes, I admit I still check it...) said it was going to rain all day. It rained a bit in the morning, but by the time we got out of the house (it takes forever to get out of the house by the time you figure out who's going to bring which toy and who's sitting on which side of the double stroller, etc, which totally wears me out!), the rain had stopped, and in fact, the sky was looking amazingly blue. I had planned to go to the National Museum in preparation for the rain, but because the weather turned out to be so nice, I decided to stop by at the Christianborg Slot (Palace) which is located near the museum. 

Christianborg Palace is located on a small island called Slotsholmen, which is connected to the main city center by small moat-like canals. The Palace houses the Danish parliament and other government offices as well as royal reception rooms. We didn't go inside to see the tour of the whole island, although some of the rooms and the tapestries they have are supposed to be pretty amazing. Just walked around the grounds and admired the magnificent building.  And look how blue the sky is! 

We then headed to the museum only to find out that it was closed on Mondays. It was starting to get cloudy, but we decided to head to our favorite Orstedparken (park), about a twenty minute walk. The weather really started to change. It would rain for literally a few minutes, then it's back to sunny again. A few minutes later, rain again for a few minutes, and then stop. The rain doesn't even stop the Danish kids from playing, and our kids followed. 


I don't know how many times it rained and stopped and rained and stopped while we were there. At one point it rained pretty hard that we all had to take shelter. I thought it was time to go, but it wasn't. Mr. Sun came back yet again! But then came the final rain. It poured. We all went under the shade for about five minutes. It finally stopped, but at that point, it was time to go home for everybody who was there at the park. 

All the fun rides at the park. 

Waiting for the rain to stop.

First Rainy Day

Yesterday was the first really rainy day since we got here. What do you do on a rainy day with kids? Museum. Fortunately, we live very close to a museum called Post & Tele Museum. It is a national museum of Denmark's post and telecommunications, and of course we visited the museum a few times last year. I was expecting it to be packed with kids, but to my surprise, the museum was not busy at all. 

The "museum" part of the museum is quite interesting with displays on the history of Denmark's  post delivery and telecommunications. But the great thing about this museum is the floor dedicated for kids to play. They have several slides, and an area where kids get to play"postman". Kids can wear postman uniforms and deliver letters to mailboxes in the houses in the "mini town". The kids loved playing in this area. They usually hate putting on costumes or hats at museums like this, but this time they voluntarily put them on, and they seem to enjoy it.

            

Another great thing about this museum is the beautiful cafe on the top floor. As it calls itself "cafe with a view", you get a fantastic view of the city, and when the weather is nice, you can sit out in the balcony as well. Unfortunately, on a rainy day like this, we did't get much of a view, but the food and service at the cafe are excellent.  The kids shared a kids lunch, and I had a salmon sandwich. It was quite good but way too big... Yuto has been going crazy for butter since we got here. He would put a big lump of butter on his bread, and then he would just lick of the butter, then repeat the same process. The butter sure tastes good here, but it is an annoying habit. Of course he was doing that during our lunch here. 

We actually spent almost five hours at the museum. That includes lunch but I can't believe we were there for that long. I was quite worn out by the end of it, but the kids sure had a good time. And did I tell you it is free to get in? I know we will be back again, and again...

                  

Kids lunch.

My ginormous sandwich. 

Cooking in Denmark...

Because we are not just visiting for a week, but for two months, we try to eat at home when we can or it will be too costly, besides eating at a restaurant every night could get tiring. But because we are only here for two months, I hate to buy all the ingredients and spices that I will only get to use a little bit of each. So right now, I only have the minimal, the really key ingredients - salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil, soy sauce, and cooking sake. That's it. No vinegar, no flour, no thyme or cumin . Okay, I did bring a few dashi packs (to make dashi stock) and a little bit of miso from home because I knew I will be needing them once in a while, and again I did't want to spend a fortune to get them here (you can get them).  

So far, I can seem to get by with the above ingredients. Of course, you are definitely limited to a certain type of cooking, or you may not quite achieve the "depth" in your flavor, but so far I am quite happy with what I have, and am thinking perhaps my kitchen back home is over stocked with unnecessary "stuff". 

Pictured above was our dinner tonight. Bought a bag of mussels at the fish market at Toverhallerne I mentioned yesterday, and made this pasta. The mussels were very fresh and tasted very good. I only used a half of the bag since it was a huge bag, but I regretted not using the whole bag - we couldn't get enough of them! 

It was one the most beautiful day today since we got here, and because the kids had a long late afternoon nap, we decided to take a walk after dinner. We walked to the Nyhaven area to get some ice cream for dessert. Yuto must have said "aisu? aisu?" about thirty times before we finally got to the ice cream shop, just to make sure we are really getting ice cream. Nyhavn was packed with people enjoying one of the longest days of the year. I couldn't believe how blue the sky was and how high the sun was even at 9 pm!

He actually finished this whole thing...

Toverhallerne - A food market

I was quite happy to discover Toverhallerne at the nearby Israels Plads (Square) the other day. It is a pretty new (opened last fall) indoor food market that is open everyday (except for Mondays), and is considered the new culinary hotspot in Copenhagen for their high quality and standards of food you can find there. There are about 80 shops inside, and you can find fresh and local vegetables, fruit, meat and fish, as well as Danish delicacies like chocolate, tea, cheese, and bread. there are also venders selling flowers and fresh herbs in pots, gourmet frozen food, and they even have an Asian store selling a good selection of Asian ingredients. 

You can also go there to grab a quick bite. For example, you could get a sandwich from one of the bakeries, or fish and chips from the fishery, or even sushi or middle eastern food. And what's great is that you could pair it with a nice glass of wine or beer from the microbrewery stand. There are lots of picnic tables outside as well - if it's not raining. We decided to try the duck sandwich for lunch because we couldn't resist trying it when we saw the guy cooking the duck meat in this big iron wok-like pan. The sandwich is made quite simple with the duck meat with a little mustard and lettuce on a chewy baguette. It was quite delicious though we all thought it was a touch salty for our taste.

 

So we had lunch at the market, bought some fruits and fish for the home, and also bought one flødebolle from one of the chocolatiers. It's a chocolate treat made with a dollop of whipped marshmallow on top of a round wafer base with a thin layer of marzipan, then covered in dark chocolate - think a very fancy Whippet! It is a traditional Danish specialty you see it all over Denmark. Unfortunately we only bought one, and we woofed it down I don't have a picture to show. But I am sure we will get it again (because it's so good!), and I will report back. 

Oh, Mio is not covering her nose (in the picture above) because she detected some smell. The place is clean, spotless, and the only thing you will smell is the smell of the wonderful food each vender is offering. :)