Met the family whose house we are staying in last night. There are the parents, Benni and Ann, and two kids, Willas and Olivia. They are very sweet. Gave us a tour of their apartment (living room, study, kitchen, bath, and bedroom with 2 connected rooms which they all share). Then they have a separate room for us with our own door to the hallway. To use the bathroom, we have to enter their apartment. They have given us free reign in the kitchen, but you know me, I wouldn't know what to do there anyway. They also gave us access to their Internet - my email does not work on my PDA, but we have been able to access other sites to get information. Outside the window was a clothesline, so I was able to wash a dry my clothes from the airplane. The apartment is right next to a theatre and has lots of restaurants around. The only negative was the five flights up we had to carry our luggage. Thank god I have backpack straps on mine and pack light! Especially after the long hike around the city yesterday.
After we settled in last night, we went out for dinner. I kept nodding off and imagined conversations with Cathy that were not happening. I know a few times I answered a question never asked - luckily Cathy is used to me by now. After a while, I got good at figuring out which conversations were real and which were imagined (at least I think so; I should probably ask Cathy to be sure). The service was typical European - meals are meant to be relaxing and once you buy something, you can have the table for the day/night. We sat outside, where they had heaters (Heather, a lot like the one you and George used the other night) and blankets on the chairs. Needless to say, we were wanting a short night.
Day two was more relaxing. I woke up at 5:30 to sunshine outside (it's dark from 11 am to 4:30 am right now). I could not get to sleep for a while, but eventually got another 2 hrs. Grabbed breakfast at a 7-11 (they have fresh baked pastries, donuts, coffee, everything you could want). Then we went to the main square to eat, figure out what we were going to do, and watch people.
Our first stop was the National Museum, and we ended up staying the whole afternoon and not doing anything else. Once again the politeness of the Danes came through. Everyone in the museum whispered or talked in low voices, if they spoke at all. When you passed someone, you might smile or nod, but that was it. It does not come across as cold, just respectful.
The museum had just opened a wing regarding the Danish prehistoric era - ice age, bronze age, etc. The had found many bones of animals and people and artifacts in some peat bogs. It seems that, during this era, when people died they often through them in these bogs, and sometimes their favored possessions as well. They had the bones of an intact elk and aurochs. Boy were they big. The back reached higher than my head.
They also had skeletons from later with information about burials and how they evolved.
I skimmed through a few other wings on "peoples of the world" and "Danish middle ages", then spent the rest of the day in the "stories of Denmark" wing. This gave the history from mid-1600's to 2000. I learned a lot more about the history of Denmark and the land they picked up (Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and parts of Germany and Sweden), and then later lost. I liked the story of right after they lost all the land in the war with Sweden, and were basically bankrupt, they had to figure out what to do from there. Historically the kings had been elected by one of the noble groups upon the previous kings death. This gave them a lot of power. Well after the war, everyone except the noble voted to have a king that was based on ancestry. Then they went about trying to create a constitution, but the different parties could not agree, so they decided to leave it in the king's hand - he made it an absolute monarchy. Ah, if only they had learned the art of compromise. Instead of everyone getting a little, all except the king got nothing!
Heading to Tivoli Gardens now. Supposed to be an amusement park, Danish style, with the prerequisite rides, but also puppet shows, acrobats, pantomime shows, concerts, etc.
Tomorrow we leave for Helsinki. Will only have the day in Helsinki, so I am guessing the earliest I will be able to email will be late at night for me (just before dinner for you). So mom, don't make dad look every few minutes during the day.
More tomorrow...
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