Copenhagen Part 2

We were a little tired today but overall have adjusted pretty well to the time change. We had gone to sleep early the previous night, so we rose early this morning. Most of the attractions we were interested in seeing didn't open until 10:00 a.m., so we could have slept in and not missed a thing!

We enjoyed the hotel breakfast, in particular the Danish pastries and croissants with that wonderfully flaky pastry dough.

We noticed when we woke up that it was raining hard; fortunately that stopped by the time we went outside.

We set out walking and immediately encountered all sorts of beautiful parks, fountains, gardens, and open spaces. Note the fountain behind us:

We came across Amalienborg Palace but did not go in. Our first destination was the Danish Design Museum.

This interesting piece is made of plastic straws:

This fascinating museum was arranged in a square, with a courtyard in the middle. It was a large museum, there was a lot to see, and we walked all the way around the square. This really wore Brock out:

Next, we walked to Rosenborg Castle, not far from our hotel. Here is an image from the outside of the castle:

Note the moat. When we walked over the moat's bridge, we were enchanted by a mother duck and her 11 ducklings who were darting about quickly in the water. She was really having a hard time containing those tiny ducklings!

The inside of the castle was very dark and full of paintings of the various members of the ancient royal family. Brock was most interested in this painting on one of the ceilings (he wants to know where the man in the foreground's hands are):

I enjoyed the third floor, a vast room which featured a single throne on one side of the room, and two thrones on the other side, guarded by lions:

After touring the castle, we found some lunch after three tries. We are finding that, regardless of how busy the restaurant, service in Copenhagen restaurants is slow, you get ignored for long periods of time, and you'd better not be in a hurry! This is not fun when you're thirsty. The food is delicious, though.

Our next stop after lunch was for ice cream! We went to an amazing place that made their own waffle cones, and as a special treat, I got chocolate sprinkles on top of my cone! Brock just went for plain ice cream. Yum, yum!

We will meet up with our friends, John and Becca Simonson from Tucson, Arizona, later today for dinner. They got in late last night and couldn't muster up as early as we did.