Day 175: A Free Day to Explore — Canal Ride — Tivoli Park — Grandparents’ Last Night
After breakfast we took advantage of the empty schedule to tend to our hair. I had booked a 9:45 am appointment to have some small highlights (I’ve just been doing a few foils in the front of my hair per my NYC guy’s rec), and James had a 10 am appt elsewhere for a….trim!
We’ve been growing his hair since January and I in particular love it so much long, but we now both agree it should get trimmed so it’s not in his eyes, and maybe “shaped up” a little so it grows long in a neat way and not scraggly.
The salon had a hairwashing machine — something we’ve never seen before. James laid his head back into a bowl that got sealed up and it rinsed and scrubbed him. Ha!
The result of the cut was decent, though it might veer more into bowl territory. We’ll see.
His verdict: “I can see up now.”
We all went to a nearby park again to enjoy the morning sunshine. It was Saturday and day three of the high school graduation party buses were in full effect. One that hadn’t gotten completely wasted yet went by kind of tame, and Willa picked up on its calm:
“That one isn’t as alive yet,” she remarked.
We opted to eat lunch at our hotel’s restaurant, Marechal. For the second time, the “new nordic” type food was served as appetizer-sized dishes where you’re supposed to get 2-3 per person. I like that style. Smaller plates but no sharing. Most of the time one or two appetizers is all I want anyway, especially at lunch.
The kids swam in the indoor pool with Lobsy and Beepaw while Teddy and I went out and walked around.
He was in need of a handkerchief or two and I was on a mission to check out some Copenhagen designers Emma Rooke had told me about — and both of us were interested to visit home goods stores.
We combined all of it into one trip to Magasin du Nord, which is like a giant Bloomingdales-type department store near our hotel.
No hankies in sight, but I bought a fabulous Stine Goya colorful wrap dress, Teddy got some replacement clothes and then we spent a bunch of time up on the home goods level drooling over all the design-y options.
We’ve laughed because Scandinavian design might be our couple compromise on home — I love things to look good, Teddy loves things that are well made and up to the task. It’s often hard to find both in one object.
(Back at the vineyard in St. Cibard, after eating a cozy breakfast with our hosts around an old farm table, seated on rickety 100-year-old wood chairs, Teddy was like, “Those chairs were so you — looked cool but completely uncomfortable. If we had those in our apartment they wouldn’t be allowed to stay one day. They’d be gone. Firewood.” Ha!)
So, Scandinavian kitchen at least will be on the list for our return. First item: Set of these Royal Copenhagen mugs (the colored part is rubber!).
We bought the NYT bestseller “Hygge” book as a goodbye gift for the grandparents, and headed back to meet them by 4 pm in our lobby.
Sine picked us up and we walked to the waterfront to catch our late afternoon canal cruise.
The waterfront is all “urban beaches” with hundreds (thousands?) of 20- and 30-something beautiful young people (no kids) in skimpy bathing suits hanging out, sunbathing, drinking, jumping in the water.
Quite a scene (difficult to gauge who liked it best, Beepaw, Teddy or James).
Our captain was a Scottish/Danish guy named Cam who let the kids steer and told us some fun facts — that Sine had already shared the day before, so we know them well by now — as we puttered along.
Turns out the Amsterdam-ish canals weren’t a coincidence. Several hundred years ago, in a ploy to lure more Dutch engineers and other smart people away from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, the king built all these little canals and added houseboats, etc.
The Dutch didn’t like Copenhagen, though, never came, but now the city has these pretty little areas mostly used for recreation.
We docked near Tivoli Gardens and said farewell to Cam and to Sine.
Tivoli Gardens is a small, old-timey children’s amusement park right in the middle of the city. It was built in 1849 and it’s the second-oldest amusement park in the world (the oldest is also in Denmark apparently).
It’s painfully charming. Everything is small and cute and rickety. Loved it so much.
It was hot and crowded but the lines weren’t that long for some rides so the kids jumped on a few.
This scenario is Beepaw Brendan’s idea of absolute hell. To his credit he went with the flow and let the kids have their fun.
James came running up after this ride below and yelled: “THAT! WAS! AWWWWESOME!!!”
Our dinner reservation was at a restaurant located inside the park, strangely, so we walked over by 7 pm.
Nimb Brasserie is a 100-year-old French restuarant inside a giant old building designed to look like a Middle Eastern palace, but slightly smaller scale. It made me think of a world’s fair-type structure like those described in that popular book I’m blanking on now about the Chicago World’s Fair.
We ate outside overlooking the gardens, amusement park and a giant bandshell. There was a jazz concert happening so we ate to the sounds of the Danish Youth Orchestra playing big band music. Very cool!
Aperol Spritzes were so popular in the US the last few summers but have jumped the shark (probably thanks to a big NYT article about its popularity) — but they’re EVERYWHERE in Europe this summer. You can’t pass a cafe at happy hour without seeing a sea of orange on the tables.
So we decided to have one on our last night here. Beepaw thought it was delicious and told Lila she should make some in Annapolis (she told him she and her sisters had been drinking them there for years).
Willa had gotten scolded for being a little petulent on the canal ride, and didn’t recover from the scolding — so there was a certain amount of pouting and drama during dinner, compounded by a lengthy wait for our food. It wasn’t our most relaxing meal despite the spritzes and live music.
Beepaw had a great idea: Let’s cap the evening with a glass of port back at the hotel!
The idea called for a rare pull-out-the-phone-at-the-restaurant move on our part to tranquilize our nerds. It worked, and we settled into a cozy — hygge! — banquet table for four glasses of delicious port wine poured from the most enormous bottle I’ve ever seen.
A lady walked by and complimented the kids for being so well behaved, but it didn’t feel like we’d really earned it!
