A Museum and a Castle

One of our day trips from Copenhagen was going north to visit a museum and then afterwards to a castle in Helsingør. It was the only day of the whole week that is rained and I mean it really rained.

First we visited the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art which is situated in Humlebæk around 35km from Copenhagen. The main exhibition was by Yoko Ono Half- A-Show, I do not know so much about her and it was interesting to see what was on show, but it was still somewhat strange.

For kids they have all whole section for them which is great, Alessio really liked the lego and stayed for at least 30mins building things. On offer as well was painting, playdough and making lots of craft, there were people to help the children if necessary.

We then headed off to Kronborg Castle which is the setting for Shakespeare`s Hamlet known as Elsinore Castle throughout the world. The castle was transformed into an important Renassiance Castle in Northern Europe by King Frederick II from 1577 to 1585. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2000, it looks absolutely magnificent and we only saw from outside, the courtyards and the underground area.

Once we had seen enough we wandered into the town of Helsingør, since it was raining pretty hard we went for coffee and cake. Then we had a look at the shops, it is a nice enough town to visit,  then decided it was time to head back to Copenhagen.

Photo of the Week - Bright Orange

This was taken in Copenhagen on our first evening in the city, we had been walking around exploring, had eaten dinner and decided to continue to the port area Nyhavn. It is a 17th century waterfront, canal and entertainment district in Copenhagen, and it is famous for the buildings along the waterfront. We were crossing a bridge and I saw this beautiful orange in the sky. It just looked wonderful and hopefully the photo looks good.

Diamond League Meeting Zurich

On Thursday 29th August Alessio and I had tickets for the athletics diamond meeting in Zurich, this was the first time I had ever been to a sporting event. We were really lucky to have front row seats and were able to see the athletes very close.

The events we saw were the pole vault, long jump, high jump, javelin, shot put and of course many races. Just before the races started it went deadly silent which was quite amazing to witness, and then the cheering started. The highlight being the men`s 100m race which had of course Usain Bolt, among other well known runners.

He won and since we were seated near the tv crews, he gave lots of interviews for the telly and we saw him up close. He did the lap of honor, much to the delight of the crowd, his race was nearly the last of the evening. A few more races and then we had the end ceremony, which was rather spectacular, wonderful fireworks and then lots of balls were let loose for the crowd to catch and pass on. Alessio really wanted to get one, as you can imagine, but sadly they did not come to us.

We headed off home, with a very sleepy boy, but he did say he had had a wonderful time, and it was a really great experience and brilliant atmosphere. If you are able to get tickets for next year so, I would recommend it. Also next year is European Athletics Championship in Zurich from 12 to 17th August, tickets are now available.

Postcards from Stockholm

Back in July I went for a weekend to Stockhom, the main reason was to see Calvin Harris, (who was brilliant by the way) and I already posted about it. The Saturday was spent wondering around the old part of Stockholm called Gamla Stan, which is a beautiful part of the city to explore.

Here you can see Stockholm Cathedral, the Royal Palace, lots of museums, Ridderholmen Church and lots of other grand buildings. It is one of the best preserved medieval city centres in Europe, it has the oldest square in Stockholm called Stortorget.

We wondered around most the streets looking at the shops, which of course has lots of lovely design shops. It took us ages to decide on a restaurant and when we did, we both had a delicious salad, then we decided to head back to the hostel. Our feet were killing us, but we still took a long journey back walking via the sea. We stopped off at the town hall, I think where we saw lots of weddings going on, they certainly had perfect weather and views.

The following day we only had the morning to explore so we stayed again by the sea and walked further out. It seemed like most Swedes were out and about doing sport and sunbathing, we sat for a while watching some people kayaking, it was certainly quite popular that Sunday.

Then it was back to the hostel to grab our stuff and head to the airport, and another great weekend was finished.

Copenhagen, Osterbro

For our week in Copenhagen we decided to rent an apartment from the website Air b&b, on this site people let you stay in there places. It took us a while to get the right one and finally we chose an apartment in the area of Osterbro. Not that far from the city centre and very near to some nice parks, there were lots of lovely small houses and apartments to look at. We ate in a restaurant on the last evening, had a drink in one of the bars in the neighbour and get our shopping in a small supermarket.

The actual apartment we stayed was lovely, I guess normal sort of Danish design and it made me want to change my apartment or get some new things. There was a communal courtyard which we did not use but it did look lovely.