after we had breakfast in a little cafe ( egg and cheese on toast for me, sub bacon for cheese for ryan), which i forgot to get pictures of, and really, i can't photograph every single thing, we went for a walk through the shopping district for a little window shopping, and stumbled upon the grand opening of this doozy: 

yes, this is a store that sells products to enhance your bathroom experience, as well as renting out toilets by the minute. 

view from our hotel (second to last one before the apartment, oy...)

we went for a canal boat ride. this is a really fun thing to do on a rainy day, because you don't get rained on. plus, they're narrated in about 4 languages, including english, so you can learn a little bit too. 

houseboats. housing is short in amsterdam and has been for a long time, so many, many people live on houseboats. i will do a whole post on this later. 

if it weren't rainy, you'd see that this is 6 bridges. but it is rainy, so just believe me. 

this goose flew into the window. 

this was across the street from the brown cafe where we had a beer, which i also forgot to take a picture of. but i like the three graces in the balcony here. 

we went back to the indian restaurant we'd stumbled (literally, stumbled) upon our first week here: gandhi. so, so good. that's a samosa and some lamb kebab. 

cobra, mmmm

lentil soup. 

my dinner

ryan's. 

the best naan you will ever, ever eat. 

and dessert, which was rice pudding. they brought us these glasses of liquor with them. i tried some. he asked me what flavor i thought it was. i figured, "it tastes like christmas burning my esophagus", i guessed  cinnamon. close. ginger. 

you have to, i'm telling you. 

awww...

and another day bites the dust. tomorrow, i will show you our apartment, and then we can watch the tourists outside together. also, get ready for a commentary on dutch fashion. yes. 

wonders of european transportation-- for josh.

we woke up delighted to be done with expensive, spread out, cold, not yummy copenhagen. this is not the first danish ryan ate in denmark, but it's the only one we photographed. we didn't take my picture. 

we got onto the train, which was just as easy as when we'd gone to roskilde, and settled in for another 11 hour travel day. 

danish forests. 

we got a free drink and snack with our ticket. i got these thinking ryan would eat them, but we doesn't like peanut m&m's. i like the fact that they are the BIG pack, when really, they seem like a regular pack. 

look at the shore line. it's frozen. 

OKAY! this is the part that we didn't photograph on the way in because it was dark and you couldn't seen much.  but this was really cool. when we go to the southern tip of denmark, the train rolls onto a ferry, and then you have to get off the train, but you stay on the ferry, as it sails across to germany. then you get back on your same train, and it rolls off the ferry. 

we are beginning to pull onto the boat. 

and here we are. we had to get off the train, and go up to the top of the ferry, but it was worth it, because there are better pictures that way. 

the frozen ocean. 

ryan's on a ferry! he took a train onto a ferry!

see where the ice breaker boat went through??

likewise ryan. 

these were our seats on the train. the tables fold down so you can set your stuff down, but still get in and out. ingenious. 

ryan's 2nd favorite beer: carlsberg. the only good things in copenhagen, he says, are the beer and the hotdogs. but they're not good enough to come here. trust me. 

humble. (it says "probably the best beer in the world"). we got into centraal station, and had no internet until we checked into the apartment where i am currently writing this. from now on, the blogs will be shorter, and more focused around a particular subject, instead of day to day life. mostly. anything you'd really like to know??

danish palaces... but alas, no hamlet!

after another hotel breakfast (you've seen it, it's boring), we went palace hunting. i was told that's the thing to do here, because denmark is europe's oldest monarchy, and the ancient danes loved them some palaces. 

but first, we had to ride the driver-less subway. this was awesome; you sit right up front and feel like you're on space mountain, though of course, it's not THAT thrilling. we have a video too. 

then we got to frederiksberg palace. this is a maze, but the idea of getting lost in shrubbery loses it's appeal at 20 degrees. so we're just next to it. 

and here's the back. they call this the danish versailles, and it's on all the maps of the city, and highly recommended. on saturdays. the other days, the palace is closed because it, like most of the palaces in denmark, is a military academy. good to know. 

but we did get to walk through the grounds. this is what it looked like when we were there...

and this is an artist's rendition of what it looked like in the spring 400 years ago. 

danish swans. remember the ugly duckling? yeah, the author was h.c. andersen, who lived in denmark. i'd been told swans were a big deal around here. ryan refused to believe there would be any because no logical bird would like in denmark in the winter. but he forgot: logic doesn't apply to the winter in denmark. 

back of the palace from a hike away. 

i'm filming widlife. 

cute bridge today...

and the view 400.5 years ago. 

my store. 

coleslaw a la wild west. awesome. 

here is rosenborg castle, which was our second stop on our 2 stop tour of danish castles. they all close at 3 in the winter. not a lot of time. 

me in the alley. this is how you stand to conserve warmth. 

the throne in this castle is made out of narwahl tusks, then the rarest and most expensive material known. they believed the narwahl was a sea unicorn, and that its' existence proved that there must therefore be a land-equivalent: a regular unicorn. 

throne with silver lions to guard. 

the queen only gets a throne made out of silver. rip off. 

ryan said this picture is arguably extremely racist, and i said, no, i'm pretty sure you can't argue with it; it's racist. and he said, no, the argument is whether or not it's EXTREMELY racist. ahh...

here i am with the queen's throne, and also demonstrating while castles weren't really all that much better to live in; it's very cold inside! this castle tour, like every other stupid thing in copenhagen, was more expensive than we'd hoped. that sticker i'm wearing cost an extra 45 kroner, and it allows me to take photos. with flash. man. 

ryan and the king's throne

ryan liked the jumping danish kings. 

 he barely fits on the stairs, though!

we are in the mirror room, which, guess what? has mirrors all over it. 

this is papier-mâché.

and this is inlaid with intricate shells. 

ryan outside the castle, with the lions. that's the moat in front. 

but it's frozen over now. the ducks have found this warm bit though. 

after this castle, we walked back to the hotel, stopping at one of the 86704 7-11's we'd seen so far. actually, ryan stopped at a hot dog stand first and got 2 hot dogs. i got 7-11 pizza: 

we also had blueberries, carrots, chocolate muffins (those were for ryan), a tuborg (ryan's new favorite beer), and a hard cider. ryan says they were the best hot dogs ever, but it's still not worth coming to copenhagen for them. i think nothing is worth it. but i hate herring. 

we also say these gummies at the grocery store. i enjoy the "truly salty" brand on top. and the "blue jeans" at the bottom right. 

crisps. 

and this was my favorite. four kinds of sliced white cheese, looking completely the same, and named after a different norse god. awesome. 

tomorrow, we're going back to amsterdam, 2 days early. but before you think it'll just be ryan's pictures from the train, think again: this train went onto a ferry. the train rode onto a ferry, and then we took the ferry across the ocean. and now we have photos. stay tuned.