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.