To Scandinavia we go...

We spent a long weekend last weekend MOSTLY driving to-and-from Denmark & Sweden...and a little time in each of these countries :o)  We had been wanting to make a trip north for awhile now and decided a Christmas market in Copenhagen sounded like the perfect excuse (that and the fact that we are seriously running out of time!)  So we split the drive there and back and headed out last Thursday evening.  The total trip was supposed to take approximately 10 hours, but due to heavy traffic on the way out of Brussels and a serious snow storm in Denmark on our way home, it was extended by several hours on each end...ugh!  And poor Jacob had to drive the whole way! He said he's tracking all these miles and is going to have me pay him back when we're back in the states and have a car I can drive...guess we should start planning some road trips :o)

In Copenhagen we stayed in an awesome little hotel just around the corner from Tivoli Gardens.  It was called Ascot Apartments and we loved it mostly because it had a separate sitting room and bedroom...which meant we didn't have to go to bed at 8 PM with Autumn for a change.  We got there just before dark (4 PM) on Friday and walked around the area exploring what we could in the dark.  There was an awesome shopping street just around the corner from us that had street musicians, a Christmas market, street vendors, and lots and lots of shops!  It was awesome! And went on forever...

There were lots of Lego shops...since Legos were created in Denmark

It was fun window shopping, but the whole getting dark at 4 PM thing was really throwing me off. It felt like it should be dinner time/bed time way earlier than it was...and between that and the chilly temperatures we didn't venture too terribly far from our hotel.

The next morning we were on a mission!  Sweden was only about a 30 minute drive away so we figured we might as well venture over so we could add another country to our checklist...I think we are up to 20 now.  So we found a landmark in Southern Sweden, The Malmohus Slott Castle in Malmo, Sweden...said to be the oldest standing Renaissance castle in all of Scandinavia...and headed out.  The castle itself was honestly kind of a let down...it doesn't even look that old...

And since we had paid a ridiculously high sum of money to cross the bridge to get over here (over $100 roundtrip in tolls...ya, wish we had known that ahead of time) we decided to continue on to the town of Lund.  We walked around, checked out the cathedral at the center of town, watched a performance of baton twirlers as a band played Christmas carols, and had some lunch.  It was a cute little town and had a lot more charm than we found in Malmo...so the extra bit of time in the car was definitely worth it!

After lunch we headed back to Copenhagen to visit the famous Tivoli Gardens before it got too dark.  Tivoli is the second oldest amusement park in the world and is a great place for a family visit.  We didn't ride any of the rides because it was freezing...and also because you had to purchase separate tickets for the rides in addition to your admission to the park...um, no thank you!  We walked around, took it all in and then headed back to our hotel to try and warm up! Autumn's favorite part was definitely the playground...mine was definitely the Christmas market :o)  I wish we had more time there, but we didn't want to pay to be able to come back later, so it was short and sweet.

The next morning it was time to head home, but not without a quick visit to The Little Mermaid...a famous tourist attraction in Copenhagen.  It was freezing so I literally jumped out of the car, snapped a few shots of it and jumped back in.

As I mentioned before, our drive home was extended by a snow storm which made for an extra long trip!!  I know we were all super excited to be pulling in to the garage Christmas Eve afternoon...just in time to get ready for Santa to visit.