Friday, February 24, 2012

to copenhagen and back

william and greg waiting at the bus stop.

today we decided it was time to try out the train (and, incidentally, the bus), and that copenhagen would be a nice destination. so, we did it.

rather than walk the 2+ miles to the train station with the guys on our backs, we decided to take the bus there since greg still had some "clips" left on a bus pass from when he was here in november interviewing. we spent about an hour looking online trying to figure out bus and train schedules. there are a few buses that we can take to town and each come once an hour. the trains to copenhagen seem to leave every 10 minutes, so after arriving at the central bus station, we decided to take a short detour to the borgerservice (remember?) and check on the status of our CPR numbers. though the wait was not long, william still found time to bite his brother on the the finger (probably because we are spending so much time looking up train schedules and toting him around on our mundane, yet important, administrative errands, not to mention moving him to denmark). the good news was that they had our cpr numbers (although it will take many more weeks to get our actual cards in the mail). this means we can open a bank account and do things like obtain our bikes, now scheduled to arrive at our door on tuesday. after the borgerservice, we stopped at a free-standing "bagles-t0-g0" near the train station. sort of like a subway, only bagels instead of bread. then to the train station to buy our tickets. about $34 for us, one-way.
william enjoyed the 20 or so minute train ride, as did henry for about the first two minutes. then he was only happy if he was standing on top of the table in between our seats or banging the lid of our water bottle on it, or pulling down the shades to the window we shared with the woman behind us. i think it's going to be awhile before we take the overnight train anywhere.

on the train...
the central train station in copenhagen is nice-- you notice that it's very clean. one thing to mention-- bring 5 kroners (~$1) along with you if you want to use the bathrooms. unless you are a kid. i was able to change henry's diaper for free and i have to say, it was about the nicest changing area i've ever seen. i should have taken a picture of it, but with henry, you have to hang onto him for dear life with your one free hand if you don't want him ending up on the floor.

after leaving the train station, another truism about denmark materialized before our eyes (add this to the fact that people do really light candles in their windows and really do leave their children to sleep in prams as they go about their business in shops or their homes)--

bikes. everywhere. that is just some of them. i couldn't fit all of the bikes into the frame and didn't take pictures of all of the other bikes parked around the outside of the station (which we walked all around, not really knowing where we were going). we had a vague notion that tivoli gardens would be a fun place for kids, and that it was right across from the station, but it turns out to be closed until april. so, we picked a direction and walked. we passed by probably some really famous building that we know nothing about. i wondered if possibly it might be the queen's residence, but there wasn't enough pomp and circumstance surrounding it.

however, there was an unveiling of sorts, which got a bit of attention. i hesitated to take a picture and when i finally decided that i should, the subjects were on their way out. we had a much better view than this, but here you go:

william only asked, "what about their privates?"

after this we got to a pedestrian shopping street.





and there was a toy store:

which makes william happy.

we walked along and down some side streets for an hour or two, until we decided our backs had had enough. we stopped at a bakery where william's treat was a hot chocolate and to share in the chocolate croissants we bought. as occasionally happens, something in this entire transaction upset william to the point where we needed to engage in multiple tactics to try to cheer him up. finally greg tickled him and this worked, but the poor guy also ended up peeing in his pants, so there we stood, behind a dumpster along a side street, changing him into dry clothes and that's when i decided that someday we are going to come back to europe without small children in tow. because i really think you must have a different experience traveling through europe with children and traveling through europe without.

we made our way back to the train station, bought our tickets and found our train. miraculously, or because he is a little sick, henry slept almost the entire time we were in copenhagen, the entire train ride back to roskilde, and the bus ride home. off the bus, we walked the remaining way to our place, rounding the corner to pass the now familiar church we live next door to--



sweet william was tired...


and we had our salmon for dinner...


all in all, a successful day.

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