My 2 Favourite Lucky Charms

 See what I did there?   

                                  The last time I was in California, it was in March.  I went to visit Sabrina and Declan in their new home in Oceanside.  Sabrina and Declan had recently moved from Cork, Ireland to San Diego.   Well..... it was supposed to be San Diego but because the job offer didn't go thru - or something like that - Declan ended up getting a job in Irvine.  So Oceanside turned out to be much closer to work.  

Anyway, when I got to their place, they ended up telling me that they were going to go back to Ireland come this August.  They were going to be going to 2 weddings.  Declan's older bother was getting married and one of his best friends was also getting married.  It ended up being a long "vacation" for them.  6 weeks of which 4 of them was on-line work.  

I got excited to hear that they were going to be going back to Ireland for part of the summer and I said to them that I would love to come and visit.  But as we got closer to August, Sabrina said that she would love to come to Copenhagen.  Oh, I was so excited about that.  I think it was going to be Sabrina's 5th time here in Copenhagen and it would be the first time for Declan.

I kept an eye on the flight plan and as they were landing, I was getting into my car.  It's just a 13 minute drive to the airport.  They only had carry-on luggage so we should be, in theory, able to meet in front of the airport at the same time.  But as I am cruising along the motorway to the airport, traffic is stopped and backed up in the opposite direction - at 11:40 at night.  What the heck!  When I got off of the motorway, the traffic on the surface street was so packed, no cars were moving even an inch.  It was like a movie.  It was impossible for me to get to the parking lot. So I pulled into the hotel just across the street from the terminal.  

What was taking them so long to come out - I wondered.  "We're almost there", was the text message on Whatsapp.  I wrote: I am across the street parked smack in front of the hotel door.  Walk this way - and I sent Sabrina a video pointing the way to get to where I was waiting.  I keep laughing at my video.  But it was just seconds after I hit the "send" button that Sabrina and Declan came walking out of the hotel lobby.  Somebody had told them where the shortcut was at.  You can actually walk to the hotel lobby from the airport without having to step 1 foot outside.

What took so long was that I had totally forgotten that Sabrina was traveling on an US passport. By the time we got to my apartment, it was around 1:00 in the morning.  I made some soup and served it with toasted bread roll and butter.  

Since they were here for only 2 full days, we got a lot of walking and boating packed in. Luckily the weather was amazing.... the first day.  Here now are a few photos that I snapped on our walk along the harbor.

The Royal Library

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Taking a cool break on a hot day.

The Plads (square) was used primarily as a wharf for ships in 1735.  In 1747 the area was used by The Royal Greenland Trade Department.  Eventually the area was named Greenlandic Merchant Plads.  In 1802 the area became acquired by the captain and merchant named Hans Krøyer and is now named after him.

From our resting spot we could see this:

 a ship sailing thru the open bridge.

And this:

The Kissing bridge takes about 1½ minutes to close. 

I captured most of the closing 

and sped it up to just a few seconds.

Once we were ready to get up and continue our walk, we crossed over the Kissing bridge.  I snapped a few pix of Sabrina and Declan on the bridge.

The Royal Play House in the background.

Way in the back is the Royal Opera House.
To the right is Denmark's most expensive real-estate.
Private apartments -
they don't actually seem to have that Wow! effect

Once we cross the bridge, 

Nyhavn is there to welcome us with bright 

colours (oops, I did it again)

Once we past Nyhavn, I lead the way via part of Europe's longest walking street to the canal boats located just beyond Højbro Plads (High Bridge Square) and Gammel Strand (Old Beach) and across the street from the parliament building.  Here are a few pix from our boat ride. 

Sailing by the Church of Our Savior.
These photos were supposed to be video 
but silly me had the lens on "photo".

At the end of a very busy day full of sight-seeing, 

 we walked back to my place for a BBQ dinner.

The next day was a bit gloomy in the sky.  Sabrina wanted to hit up Christiania.  I don't really know it because Jens preferred me not to go there. Christiania is an intentional community/socialistic and anarchist commune in the Christianshavn neighbourhood (Oops - i did it yet again).  It began in 1971 as a squatted military base.  Its main selling street, Pusher Street, was famous for its open illegal trade of cannabis - hens Jens not wanting me to spend time there.  According to wikipedia, Chrisitania is considered to be the fourth largest tourist attraction in Copenhagen.  You can read more about it here.

Instead of walking all the way there, 

we sailed half the way via the harbor water bus.

They weren't into standing in front of the

camera so much so I had to act quick.

Here we are leaving.

I crack up at the sign.

But I don't think it is meant to be a joke.

There was a lot more walking so 

a refreshing break was in need.

Then we made a long walk to the Kings summer castle.  At the time when it was built in the early 1600s by King Christian IV, it was outside of the city walls.  Now it's considered the center of town.  This is where the royal crown and royal jewels are kept.  Click here to read more.

Our last big event was visiting Tivoli Gardens.  It was Declan's first time so you kind of have to go to Tivoli when visiting Copenhagen.  We walked around the gardens, ate dinner, and then we went on the roller coaster and tossed our cookies.

Thanks Sabrina and Declan for coming to town to visit this old man.  

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.