Copenhagen Trip - Day Six

11 pm last night – looking toward downtown under clouds. Copenhagen – the city of steeples.

We decided not to go to Malmo this morning, as we hadn’t really finished our souvenir shopping in Copenhagen. The stores in Sweden weren’t opening until noon, and we would have had to buy both roundtrip tickets to cross the Oresund Bridge, as well as transit passes in Malmo, since the places we were most interested in weren’t easily connected on foot. And we would’ve needed to convert more money, since neither Sweden nor Denmark use the Euro, and neither country wants to use the other’s currency. By the time we got back to Denmark, the stores that were open here today would have closed...

The weather was cloudy and sunny with gusty winds and occasional sudden drenching downpours, or, as it goes, another typical day. Ann remarked we’d be huddling under an awning in Sweden, too, if we’d gone over there.

Instead, we headed back downtown and worked our way from Central Station out through the shopping streets and back.

These polser trailers are EVERYWHERE - you can get your sausage fix at pretty much any public square in the entire country. There's even one set up at baggage claim at the airport...

Wynn found several more elephants to pose with:

Posing with some kind of royal elephant-dragon-griffin critter in front of City Hall.

The Stroget after a nice stiff rainshower. Not nearly as many tourists out on a Sunday morning; it was a good idea to come back here as we could really take the time to look instead of just get pushed along by the crowd.

We went into Tivoli Gardens again (the Copenhagen Card gives free admission, so why not?) and had a very nice Scandinavian lunch. The music stages all over Tivoli were featuring high-school and college bands and singing groups – a very Glee-kind-of-vibe going on, including the songs being performed (“Forget You” – but since this is Denmark, the uncensored version… yes, with little kids walking all over the place… no, nobody got fired or even seemed concerned… the adults and teenagers seemed to be enjoying it…)

After returning to the hotel, I picked up a few last-minute items for dinner and treats to take back to the States, and then we went for a swim in the hotel pool. Ann & Wynn took a nap afterward while I worked through the leftovers in the fridge.

Tonight we’re running one last load of laundry and have the suitcases opened up on the floor, figuring out what gets packed where. We’ll head out bright and early to the train station – leaving the hotel about 7 am; our flight leaves at 10 for Amsterdam, where we have about 2 hours to connect, and then a 9-hour flight back to Minneapolis.

We still have Danish cash to blow at the airport – here’s 91,50 DKK just in coins to burn (that’s almost US$20). They don’t make 5 Kr coins for some reason, just 50 ore, 1 Kr, 2, 10, and 20. At 50 Kr (US$10) they switch over to bills – under that it’s only coins. And they won't convert Danish coins back into US$ at the Travelex at MSP...

Here's one last photo from downtown

This will be the last posting until we get back to the States. Happy Fathers Day, Happy Gotcha Day, and wish us good luck on our travels tomorrow!

Copenhagen Trip - Day Five, Part Two

Everyone needed more rest after naptime, so I popped down to Netto for some ground beef, pasta sauce, and rotini, and put together dinner here at the hotel.

Afterward, no one was up for another train ride, so instead we walked over to the harborfront to see today’s cruise ships pull out of port. The rain really started coming down hard so we took cover under a tree. The gals were wearing hoods, but I had the umbrella, so I ventured out to take some shots...

Several reproduction sailing ships puttered by with dinner parties going on

We found a few more statues along the cruise ship dock, including a pair of elephants. The shops here are open every day so perhaps we’ll visit tomorrow night to buy grownup-size T-shirts and other souvenirs. Remember I said earlier that most shops are closed on Sundays - these cater to the international travelers. Prices that we could see through the windows (everyone was closed by the time we were there) weren't too bad compared to downtown.

Our neighborhood after a rainburst, with the sun coming out brilliantly. The condo buidling attached to our hotel is hosting a midsummers' eve party tonight - the families there have put up a party tent and bouncy house for the kids, have a couple big grills going, and are having a cosy, neighborly good time together.

Kung Fu Panda 2 opened here on Thursday and the movie posters are everywhere. Wynn's thrilled of course - she saw it a couple weeks ago in the States - and can't help but show off her kung-fu moves...

Tomorrow is our last full day here. In the morning we think we’ll be going over to Malmo, Sweden for a look-around. Tomorrow night we'll pack our bags and get to sleep early...

Also, we’ll be celebrating not only Fathers Day, but this will also mark four years since Wynn joined our family!

Copenhagen Trip - Day Five

Afternoon post!

Another slow start this morning, but we weren’t too ambitious today. Took the train down one station to Norreport and walked a block over to the Kongens Have park and Rosenborg Palace. Yes, Wynn got to walk around a castle today!

Copenhageners like to spend their Saturdays hanging out with family and friends, and the scene in the park this morning was fun and peaceful despite the occasional short spatters of rain. We saw some of the Royal Guard get ready to march from Rosenborg (the “old palace”) to Amalienborg (the “new palace” out by the open water.)

The palace was built 1606-1634 and used as the main residence until 1710. It was re-purposed into a royal museum for the public’s enjoyment as early as 1838. We walked through the main two floors – saw artwork, thrones, decorations, and armor - and down in the basement, where the crown jewels and other priceless treasures are displayed.
Afterward, we walked back to Norreport and had lunch at a very slow McDonald’s, then, strolled around the pedestrian streets a bit more. Time to start shopping for souvenirs…

Norreport station entrance; shops along either side of the street. Car and bike parking right down the middle of the street.

Here's the value menu - divide Kroner by 5 to roughly get US$ prices - so a hamburger is US$2 - a Coke is $3

More painted elephants!

Here's a Chinese-run Danish gift shop on the Stroget - where we decided to drop some change for a T-shirt and pencil set for Wynn. Keepin' it in the extended family, you know... She got real chummy with the lady running the shop, of course. Didn't get any freebies, but she did tell us the shirts shrink a lot & recommended the bigger size...

Radhusplasen - Copenhagen's city hall

This is a Netto supermarket. The sign in the window says, "open daily 8am- 10pm" which is a big deal as shops here have only recently been permitted to even be open on Sundays.

A bus ride back home put us here a bit before 3 pm; Ann’s taking a nap and Wynn’s watching TV quietly. We’ll probably go out to dinner tonight.

Hong Kong Has Its Ups & Downs

One of the things we've noticed about Hong Kong is the unbelievable number of escalators you end up riding every day. All the buildings are tall, so you're always going up a floor or down a floor, and most of the subway access points involve getting on at least two escalators.

Today we decided to keep count of the number of escalators we rode. The answer is written under the pictures. Formulate your best guess before taking a look!

sixty-four!

Tuesday: Jet Lag Eases Its Grip

As I looked over our last few postings, I realized that we talked about sleep a LOT and only posted pictures of Wynn passed out. Well, we've gotten our internal clocks more or less synced up with the time zone, so we can talk about experiences beyond who got how many hours of sleep. And we can post and actual picture of Wynn in fully-awake mode:

See? There she is, with Hong Kong Island in the background.

We took the train to the south end of Kowloon this morning and had dim sum at a lovely little restaurant that Scott had read about. VERY different from yesterday morning's experience at the hole-in-the-wall congee shop. Today was all fine china and linen table cloths. The entire meal was only about $25 for the whole family, and they even made the food into cute little shapes: tiny hedgehogs filled with egg custard and homemade coconut/marshmallow desserts shaped like bunnies (the most sophisticated take on a Peep you'll ever find). We had bao, spring rolls, jasmine tea that tasted like flowers, and a steamed flour roll with pork (basically, thick-cut bacon wrapped in a thin layer of gluten - yummy!).

The "grass" by the bunnies is actually cotton candy

formed into tiny little filaments.

After dim sum, we rode the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. Wynn liked riding on the ferry but started to complain that her stomach hurt; we soon found out why as we stood in an extremely ritzy shopping center and she proclaimed, "I really need to poop." Scott whisked her off to the restroom, and business was attended to. She felt perfectly fine after that.

We rode the tram across Central Hong Kong - a cheap and efficient way to get a look at all the little shops and neighborhoods. (We were on the tram for almost an hour, and it cost about $1.50 for the whole family.) It's funny to see how the streets are arranged by the products they sell; one whole block will be dried seafood products, the next will be nothing but tires, then a block of cooking oil shops, and finally a street filled with pet products. Even the top-notch malls are arranged this way: Clinique is across from Origins and next door to Shisedo and L'Occitane.

The view from the tram was fascinating!

After resting back at the hotel for a bit, we went across the street to the Langham Place Shopping Center. It has about twenty different restaurants in it; tonight we chose MOS Burger (a Japanese chain - really tasty with thick-cut fries) and Haagen-Dazs for dessert.

We'd heard so much about the night markets, and since we finally reached the point where we can stay awake past dinner, we strolled over to the Ladies Market. It's kind of like the most crowded day you've ever spent at the State Fair. A lot of people love shopping at these markets, but we agreed that it was mostly stuff we weren't interested in... knock-off designer hand bags, souvenir t-shirts, etc. We didn't buy anything there. We did, however, walk up to Pioneer Centre, which Scott had read about on the internet. They had three shops specializing in (surprise!) airplane models and other merchandise. We settled into one little mom and son shop; they were extremely helpful, and Scott was completely knowledgeable about what he was and wasn't interested in - and what constituted a fair price. Let's just say Scott was elated with the things he found, and the mom & son probably high-fived each other when we walked out the door.

The City That Never Sits Down

Today's big news is that it's after 8 PM, and we're all still awake! Wynn did crash when we were walking to dinner, but we managed to revive her, and now we're hopeful that we can avoid waking up before 4 AM tomorrow.

Our morning expedition was to the Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park. It was originally built in 1920, destroyed during World War II, and painstakingly rebuilt in the 1950's. The grounds (about 175 acres) are completely serene, even though the entrance sits next to a busy subway stop and rail station. We strolled up a wide gravel path, stopped at the fountain to purify our hands and mouths, and then went to visit the main temple. It amazed us that in the middle of such a busy city you can find yourself in this oasis. In the park, everyone walked a bit slower, people stopped to admire trees and small streams, and voices were hushed. The other people in the park were, for the most part, not tourists; they were folks on their way to work, walking through the grounds and stopping to offer a prayer. It was a beautiful and tranquil way to start our day - and the first time in Tokyo that we've heard birds calling.

After visiting the shrine, we entered the Harajuku neighborhood, which is famous as being the home of outrageous teenage fashion. It was filled with the familiar combination of people, traffic, and noise which characterizes so much of Tokyo - and it is literally across the street from the temple grounds. Quite a contrast.

The Trees in the Background Are Yoyogi Park

The Clothes Are a Bit Over the Top

Even the Dogs Get Stylish Clothes in Harajuku

We then spent some time strolling down Omotesando-Dori, another street famous for it's shopping, most of which is extremely upscale. My favorite odd combination of stores in a row went: Chanel, Bulgari, Shakey's Pizza, and Kiddie Land. Guess which one we bought stuff in.

Taking Wynn to Kiddie Land was a bit of an adventure. It's five-stories worth of cuteness - and so popular that we ended up waiting with a good-sized crowd to walk in when the store opened. Now, we don't take Wynn to toy stores back home because it's just too much, so here we are in Tokyo, taking her into these dens of sensory overload. To her credit, she was very well-behaved. She did not like being carried on Baba's back, however, and let us know with a whiny, "I can't see! I can't see!" Scott and I took turns holding her hand and guiding her around the store so the other one of us could actually browse a bit. She ended up with a bento box with Winnie the Pooh on it and a game where you practice using chopsticks to pick up little toy ducks.

We hopped on the Metro and headed down to Shibuya, which was craaa-zy crowded, hot, and noisy. We grabbed a quick lunch at an amazing food court in the basement of a department store but were soon faced with one of the biggest challenges we've found in Tokyo - there is no place to sit down. Most restaurants ask if you'd like to dine in or take out, and we see most people doing take-out, but we have no idea where they go to actually eat the food. The food court we visited had no seating at all, so we headed back up to the street to find a spot. The best we could manage was leaning against some rails by a statue of a dog while committing the social gaffe which is eating on the street. After gobbling our lunch, we were all pretty wiped out, so we headed back to the hotel to rest a bit.

Wal-Mart, Chinese Style

Our trek for the day was to the Wal-Mart and a department store in downtown Nanning. We were happy to have Hannah with as our guide to explain the shopping procedure to us: you pick what you like, give it to the clerk, the clerk writes up a ticket for the item, you take all your tickets to the cashier and pay, then you go back to the department where you found each item and give them the slip to say you've paid. Only then are you given the merchandise. Pretty cumbersome system, but that's how they do it.

We picked up a pair of squeaky shoes for her at the department store, along with a couple little outfits and some LEGO's.

The Wal-Mart has several floors, escalators, and even its own parking ramp underneath it. This is where we bought a stroller - which she, so far, refuses to ride in - and stocked up on some diapers, bottled water, etc. Sometimes kids regress a bit after the trauma of being placed with their family, and Wynn has lost a bit of her toilet training. She's peed on the floor of our hotel room twice and pooped once. At least it was solid. And not on the marble floor in the lobby.

Wynn is still clinging to Scott; I am generally tolerated, but not who she wants to be with. Hannah explained that it is normal for the child to bond with one parent first; bonding with two at once would be too much for her. It's hard on me to not have my affection for her returned, and Scott's getting worn down by being constantly needed. He finally managed to get a bit of a nap this afternoon, "With twenty pounds of toddler on me," he says. She will take food from me and will let me join in playing with her toys. She also spent about an hour in the tub with me yesterday afternoon. She was pitching a fit, and I needed a bath anyway. I got in, and then Scott brought her in to "visit". I lured her in with some tub toys we'd brought. She and I got to spend some time together, and we got her cleaned up too.

We've noticed that she is very clever at figuring out how things go together. As we were stuggling to figure out how to connect the handles to her sippy cup, she reached out and took it, showing us how to put it together with this look on her face that said, "It goes like THIS." Her favorite games involve putting things together and taking them apart again. When she doesn't want a toy or is done playing with it, she puts the pieces back in the box and puts it aside.

We're still getting some crying out of her - not the blind rage that we had at first - but still quite a bit. It's a comfort to us to be on the ninth floor of the hotel; they put ALL the new adoptive families here together. Their reasoning is that it's the non-smoking floor, but it has the unintentional bonus of letting us hear everybody else's precious new child screaming their heads off, and we get to see the other drool-encrusted, exhausted-looking parents walking the halls in a daze. We're missing our families and friends at home SO much, but there is a sort of Band of Brothers thing going on here.

I have noticed that sometimes her crying is intentional. Last night she had a couple picture books she was flipping through rather nicely; then, she quietly closed both of them back to the front covers and set them beside her gently. She even nudged them away from her like, "I don't want those getting in my way." Sure enough, she started bellowing. Didn't want to get any tears on those books, I guess.

Hannah has arranged for a van to take us on a tour to see some of the countryside of Guangxi tomorrow. She figured out that we Americans wither in the heat and humidity pretty quickly, so she's promised that we can mostly just ride in the air conditioned van, getting out at a few sites to take pictures of the mountains and scenery. Sounds perfect to us.

We bought our airline tickets for our trip to Guangzhou. We fly out of Nanning on Saturday afternoon at 12:45. It's only an hour from here, so our first attempt at flying with a toddler will be brief. Our SECOND flight with her will be a little over 7,ooo miles, though. At least we'll be home at the end of it. :-)

Wynn just polished off her second bowl of congee for the day. They really should just keep a tureen of the stuff by the elevator bay on the ninth floor; ALL the babies are fanatical about it. Hopefully, a full belly and another day of getting used to us will translate to a more peaceful evening and a good night's sleep.

Ann