First Beach Day of the Summer

Jonathan came back last night from his week-long trip to Norway and Sweden. And today, we had the most perfect weather to go out and do something as a family on his first day back. There was a building he wanted to check out on Amager Island, which is about a 30 minute bike ride from the city center. So we got on our bikes, put the kids in the trailer, and headed to Amager Island, which is where we stayed last year when we were here. 

Riding the bike out to Amager Island.

The building he wanted to see was call the Maritime Youth House designed by Bjarke Ingels, a super-star Danish architect. The structure made of curved wooden deck was pretty cool. The building is shared by a sail club and a youth house. The kids had fun climbing up and down the curved surface. 

We were right off the Amager Strand (Amager Beach), which is a very popular beach in the summer, so we decided to head to the beach. I had been to the same beach with the kids last year, and at that time, even though it was a pretty warm day, the water was still really really cold. So I thought that is how the beaches are here in Denmark, and I never braved to visit the beach again (of course Yuto was little, and it was a rough trip getting to the beach...).  But today, on an equally warm and beautiful day, I was ready to scream how cold the water was when I dipped my feet into the water, but to my surprise, it was not cold at all! In fact it was quite refreshing.

I don't know why we didn't think of bringing our bathing suits when we were going so close to the beach, and we knew we would go to the beach. But we didn't bring them. So Mio had to get undressed and play in her underwear. But we were not too concerned as in Denmark, you see so many kids running around in just underwear or even naked (little kids that is) at the beach. Yuto was not into the beach AT ALL, and he didn't even want to take his shoes off let alone his clothes. But he was probably pretty tired by then.   

We were so unprepared for the beach...

A cool diving structure and the nice grassy area. 

They were so tired they fell asleep even before we got out of the beach area. 

When we got back to the city center, we caught a performance at one of the main squares as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. The Festival just started this Friday, and it is a really fun and exciting summer event in Copenhagen. We are really fortunate to be here when the Festival takes place, and I hope to catch as many shows as possible.