Hello Hans!

We woke up at 5:30 and got ready to go. We were running late because we stopped to grab some free breakfast, ate with our backpacks on grazing at the table. Walked as fast as we could to the metro station, couldn't run cause the sidewalks were all snowy and slippery. Hopped on the train, had to wait 8 minutes for it first. But we made it. Got on the bus one minute late, though we were not the last ones. Fullest bus we'd been on so far. Cute little girl on the bus with her mom. It was practically white-out conditions out so not much to see, but the ferry was amazing. Like a mini-cruise ship, sans cabins, and it had duty free shopping and resturaunts and all kinds of neat stuff. Then back on the bus, we arrived in Copenhagen in the afternoon and set out walking towards the hotel. Passed Tivoli garden on our way, it was so cool, even covered in snow. All the playground toys were so awesome and the giant ship, and I just wanted to go in and play. Unfortunatly, we saw a sign that said it was all closed until April. WE were so sad. WE both wanted to go play. WE cried and cried and cried over it. Then WE got to the hostel and checked in, WE both found it to be massivly huge. Dropped off our stuff and went wandering. Stumbled upon the National Museum, which has free admission every day! Went in and whoa Mama it is the best museum ever!!!!!!!!! WE loved it. Got there quite close to closing, so we had to practically run through it. First part we checked out was the children's section. WOWOWOWOWOWOW, there were life sized house and school and store and ship models to play in and all kinds of costumes to put on and there were store windows where kids could design their own displays and an area where they could constuct things the old fashioned way with pulleys and arts and crafts and, and, and, and..... it was sooooocool. The grown up parts were really cool too, they had recreated houses from all different eras and all these realistic manequins in various costume. The maybe coolest part, however, was the toy section. They had a huge collection of dollhouses inside. The dollhouses were set up so you could go around to the back and see inside and I have always wanted a dollhouse but after that I wanted like, 5 million of them. They had the royal families dollhouse on display, it had authentic little marble busts and statues and mini oriental rugs and all this stuff. Went back to the hotel and Cook said she wanted to eat at the cafeteria in the hotel. We had no clue what the echange rate was, and the price was based on weight, which was confusing as we don't know metric, so I told her I thought it was expensive. She said she didn't care, she was hungry and wanted something hot, so we ate it, well it sucked and wasn't actually all that hot. Found out when we checked the exchange raty online that our nasty little meal cost us 26 dollars! Most expensive meal on the trip!

30th- So the bad thing is that all the sights are closed on Monday, so we can't go see anything! Instead we went to the bus station to get our tickets then on the way back checked out this really neat building that is painted technicolor, very bright and cool. Looked longingly at the main entrance to Tivoli and went into a tourist information office. Went to a market and then to the Town Hall. It is a recent construction but it is so elabotate and beautiful. You can look around it for free. They were setting up for some sort of convention inside. There are tons of gorgeous decorative touches all over. Went to the main shopping street, 2 H&M's but neither had anything that terrific. What is interesting is that stuff that was on sale at the others was full price at this one. Went into a accessories store that reminded us of Claire's and I bought a pair of earrings. Cook bought these clips for her hair (she is growing the sides of her bangs out and they stick out like the flying nun) and when she put them in she looked like she was 12. So now that is what I am calling her. Found out that their sales tax is a whopping 25%! We will never again complain about 7 or 8%. Wandered around for hours, just cruising then back to the hotel. There are tons of baby prams here, the old-fashioned kind that Gigi likes. Back at the hotel we cut up our German veggies and ate them with the hummus we'd bought, shockingly it is not as tasty as the stuff we had had in the ME.

Why does your town roll up on Mondays?

31st- We bought the hop on hop off sightseeing tour for today, but what nobody tells you is it hardly runs in Winter. We had the schedule from the flyers but the bus was 45 minutes late, and we waited in the cold for it to show, then took it to the Treasury. The stuff they had was amazing, lots of kinda gaudy jewellery but also tons of these intricatly carved ivory things that were really cool and facsinating. Took the bus again and saw the famous Little Mermaid statue, which was ok. I thought she'd be prettier and "12" thought she'd be bigger. Then bused to Amielenborg Castle (actually the bus just stops at the Little Mermaid for 5 minutes, photo opp) wher the driver told us that his was the last bus for the day. It was half past Noon! He said, sorry they don't run as much in winter. Well ya know what, if somebody had told us that we would NEVER have bought the tickets. Anyway the Castle was beautiful, it had the Prince's baptismal gown they had used just a week before. Also had the studies of various Kings and Queens exactly as they had left them, which was really interesting. Like peering into their lives. Lots of cute family photos. Went to the Marble church, round, which was neat. Above the alter was the most adorable statue of a little girl angel. Wandered around town for hours then back to the hotel for a late dinner and bed. It think this is an excellent city to take kids, though I'd wait to Spring so Tivoli is open.