Copenhagen

For my birthday we went to Copenhagen for the weekend. I'm still amazed that we could just hop in the car and drive to another major European city in 3 hours on a Friday evening. I'm even more amazed that it's taken us a year and a half to actually do it.

To get to Denmark from Gothenburg you can either drive down to Malmö (Sweden's 3rd largest city after Stockholm and Gothenburg in case you were wondering) and cross the very long and very expensive bridge ($70 toll -- and you thought the Golden Gate Bridge was expensive!) or you can take the ferry from Helsingborg and poodle down to Copenhagen from there. We took the bridge on the way over and the ferry back, thus ensuring that we paid large tolls in both directions.

Similar to when we were in Rome, our strategy was to aim low and just get a feel for the city and not try to see everything. Luckily for us, Copenhagen is charming and compact, so that you can walk around most of it in a day or two. The canal tour was a hit with Julian:
He especially liked standing right by the side of the boat and jumping up and down on his seat so that we thought he was going to fall into the (apparently very clean) canals. Happily, we all survived AND got to see some of the amazing modern architecture that city can boast about. The new opera house (behind Julian in the picture above) is terrific, as is the new modern theater building across the water and the huge state library (I think that's what it was) that people refer to as the Black Diamond.

Our hotel was a hit with the kids because of the huge indoor pool, the cool outdoor area in front of the hotel that had kid-friendly sculpture and climbing equipment, and the Danish breakfast spread (nope, no Danish pastries to speak of). Here's Ava enjoying a sculpture:

Before we left the U.S. I would have said that the U.S. is pretty kid friendly, but it's got nothin' on the Scandinavians. In the pool in Copenhagen, there are:

• Bumbo seats for babies to use while moms shower
• Playpens in the changing rooms for toddlers
• Free strollers sitting around so you can push your baby from the changing room to the exit
• Multiple changing stations
  
• Ridiculous numbers of floaties and toys in the pool area
• Roped off areas of the pool just for little babies so they don't get splashed
  

Almost makes me want to have another baby. Not! But I do think it's great.

My friend Gen came to Copenhagen on Saturday with her 2 girls, mom and aunt, and we all ate at Wagamama, the fabulous Asian-inspired chain restaurant that I fell in love with years ago in London. I had a new appreciation for it this time because no one seemed to notice/mind the insanity that was occurring at our end of the table with 4 kids running all around and throwing noodles and moms chasing them down one after the other.

Now that we saw how easy it was to visit Copenhagen for the weekend, I think we'll head back pretty soon. Next time we might just aim for a sunny weekend.