The Taylors in Europe

As part of our ongoing quest to kill time while seeing as much of Europe as possible, the kids and I journeyed north last week to Denmark. We have friends from Texas who moved to Copenhagen the same time we moved here, and for almost 2 years now we have been talking about getting together. I'm glad we finally did, because it was the most relaxing, laid back trip we've done thus far.

The kids all got along wonderfully. We spent most of Sunday, our first full day there, just hanging out at home. Mike and Christian went down to the World Health Organization to skateboard in their parking lot, and Annabelle and Avery talked American Girl stuff. Finally, as the afternoon wore on, Leah and I took Mike, Annabelle, and Avery and ran out to the statue of the little mermaid, which was the one item on my "must do" list:



On Monday, Christian and Avery went to school, and Leah took me and my kids into town on the train. We walked up the main shopping street and were unexpectedly treated to a small parade, as the soldiers made their way to the palace for the changing of the guard. If you click on the photo, you can watch a short Windows Media file of the action:



After the parade, we hurried on to have lunch at Restaurant Ida Davidsen, which is world famous for its smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open faced sandwiches. Nothing on the menu appealed to Annabelle, but Mike, Leah, and I enjoyed our sandwiches. So did the rodents:



The waitress was so charmed by the rodents that she called THE Ida Davidsen from the kitchen to come admire them. We all got our picture made with Mrs. Davidsen, and were positively starstruck.



On our way home, we walked through the square in the middle of the palace grounds, and the kids (and rodents) got their picture taken with a guard:



We went with Leah to pick up Christian and Avery from school, and then we dropped all the kids off at their house so that Leah and I could go grocery shopping unencumbered. I found this rodent cousin in the dairy case:



On Tuesday, we took the train across the bridge to Sweden to the town of Lund so the kids could add a sixteenth country to their list. We wandered around town and changed just enough money to feast on Thai food for lunch and do a little souvenir shopping afterwards.

One of the main attractions in Lund is the cathedral. There is a wooden model of it inside, so here is a picture of the rodents in Sweden:



The most amazing thing about the cathedral is the astronomical clock (click on the picture to see the full-size image; the detail is incredible):



When we left the cathedral, we found that our beautiful weather had turned ugly on us, so we made an early return to Copenhagen so the kids could have more time to play with Avery and Christian.

Wednesday morning, Leah and I went shopping, and I found the all-time coolest boots on planet Earth:



Admit it, those are indeed the coolest boots in the entire universe. I thought about them for the rest of the day, and Thursday morning Leah and I raced out so that I could get them. As it turns out, they're magical boots--we haven't had a drop of rain ever since I bought them.

After Christian and Avery got out of school for the day, Leah and I took the kids to the Experimentarium, which is a marvelous science center. On our way to the Experimentarium, Mike noticed the Microsoft building and asked Christian, "Dude, what sort of job opportunities are there at Microsoft here in Copenhagen?" For some reason, that really cracked me up.

For supper that night, we headed for the Hard Rock Cafe. Here are the kids modeling the bunny masks that came with their menus:



As we were getting ready to leave Thursday morning, it occurred to me that I didn't have one single photo of all the kids together WITHOUT bunny masks, so everybody (including Doc the dachshund) piled onto the couch for a farewell portrait:



Our ride home on the train was uneventful. Mike and Annabelle keep talking about how much fun they had with Avery and Christian, and we're all looking forward to having them come visit us in May.

• The rest of our Denmark (and Sweden) photos are here.


• Here is what our map of Europe now looks like, with visited countries colored in red. Sixteen countries sounds like so much, but at the same time I feel like there's so much left to do: