Copenhagen

I took the most incredible trip to Denmark back in June. My pregnancy brain is struggling to remember details, but let's see what I can come up with. I went with my parents and my sisters Rachel and Abby. They'd had the trip planned for a while and I joined in last minute about a month before. I was a little nervous being pregnant and already super tired, but it really was the funnest trip! It was loosely a family history trip. My dad had just finished transcribing his great-grandfather Jens Nielson's journal. He grew up in Bornholm, Denmark and then eventually joined the church and immigrated to the US. He went back to Denmark a few times in his life to serve missions and converted many others who joined the church too.

And pictures in reverse order:

My cute parents at dinner in Malmo, Sweden. We passed through on our way to and from Bornholm.

We spent a night in Bornholm, an island that's part of Denmark but is located off Sweden. This is where our ancestors are from. My great-great grandfather Jens Nielsen painted a lot there and this is a spot where he painted; his painting in this spot is in my parents' home.

Bornholm is famous for all these circular churches. They date back to the Knights Templar; there are several around the island.

Walking around the streets of Bornholm! We had so much fun exploring this island. So beautiful, so well-kept.

We found the church in Ronne, Bornholm where Jen Nielsen (and we're assuming many other ancestors) were christened.

Inside of the Ronne church.

We stayed in a beautiful airbnb on the outskirts of Copenhagen for most the trip. We finally got brave near the end of the trip and started cycling into the city to explore. Wayyyy better than walking. And Copenhagen is a major biking city. I think I had the worst bike of the group and looked like the Wicked Witch of the West riding around.

Our first day there we did one of those open bus tours to see the highlights of Copenhagen. We kept playing a joke on each other--pulling out each other's headphones from the tour guide and then re-plugging them into our phones and then playing weird music, etc. And then we got brave and did it to this old, English couple who was sitting in front of us. First Adele (Hello) then a Harry Potter audiobook.  We could NOT stop laughing. 

Rosenborg Castle

Rosenborg Selfie

There are the most amazing crown jewels in the basement of the Rosenborg!

On the northern coast! We spent a day driving around trying to visit some of the cities Jens did missionary work in.

Fredericksburg Castle was amazing.

Very into our audio guides.

All these amazing Carl Bloch paintings are in Fredericksburg Castle in the chapel. No one else even thought they were cool or recognized them, but because we use them in our church so much we loved seeing the originals!

The chapel in Fredericksburg Castle.

On our way into Fredericksburg Castle!

The original Christus.

View from Church of Our Savior in Copenhagen. You had to climb up a million stairs to get there! Tough work for a pregnant lady.

The famous Nyhavn. We ate the worst (and most expensive) meal of our whole trip here--ha. 

Outside the Amalienborg in Copenhagen. We didn't go in, but we rode our bikes around.