Copenhag-in' it up!

Today we took the bus and saw more of lovely Copenhagen! Such a beautiful city. So clean and green. Bicycles everywhere.
The photos are: Vor Frue Kirke, where the original Christus statue is (no it is NOT in Salt Lake!!) along with twelve equally magnificent statues of the twelve apostles. Next is from the top of Rundetårn (round tower). Next is a beautiful park, Rosenborg garden, and the Rosenborg palace. The next is the moat of Kastellet, a former military fort thing, and then the next two are a beautiful nearby church. The last is of the AMAZING caviar we had, very fresh, from Tommy's fisherman friend. It was a great day!
Well I am having technical difficulties again tonight, so I will add the photos when I can! Hopefully soon! Only some of them will publish, sooo yeah!

København Harbor and Christiania

This morning around 10 we took out Tommy's boat to Copenhagen harbor! We saw classics such a the royal palace, the Little Mermaid statue, and Nyhavn!

Beautiful Copenhagen!

Then we docked the boat and got off and saw Christiania, a hippie/druggie commune in the middle of the city! There were lots of people with dreadlocks, acoustic guitarists and other assorted minstrels, outdoor toilets, handmade houses, a certain green plant growing by the sides of the paths, brightly colored urban art, and dirt paths. Though "hash" is illegal in Denmark, Christiania seems to be out if the law's reach, as the bustling "green light district" can attest. The district was on Pusher Street and signs were posted enumerating its 3 rules: "Have fun, don't run, no photos."

Scenes from the boat ride back home. The bridge goes to Sweden!

Danmark Dag 1 (Denmark day 1)

This morgen (morning) vi var søvnig (we were sleepy) so we had a nice morning relaxing in the have (garden). I talked to Randi for a while and asked her how to say things in dansk (Danish). It's language that uses the back of your throat a lot, kinda like French. I eftermiddagen (In the afternoon) we walked to the havet (sea). The sol (sun) was hot so the vand (water) felt very nice. There also was this little pier type thing and at the end was some stairs up to landings to jump off of. This evening more relatives, Maria and Joaquim and their son Matty came for dinner. Also my uncle and cousin from Utah got here today too! 

It gets light before 5 am and doesn't get dark til past 10!

I'm baaaack!

Back in Europe! I flew from San Diego to London Heathrow with J and E, where I met up with my mom and other two brothers! My dad is coming later this week when he can get off work.
Then we flew here to Copenhagen, Denmark! After finding out that the car seat we brought for Eli was still in London, we got on the bus headed for our relatives' house. That's where my bus-navigating skills (learned in Spain) kicked in haha.  We got off the bus from the airport at like 11:15 but as you can see in one of these photos, the sun hadn't gone down too long ago. We're staying with some relatives, Randi and Tommy in Kastrup, near København (Copenhagen). I met them when we stayed here just over three years ago.
I love Denmark so much! I'm so excited that I get to spend a week here on our trip. I'm going to take lots of photos.

Toro y Tordesillas

Checked out of the hotel in Ávila this morning and drove to nearby-ish lil town of Toro.

Ooh a church

 But what a view on the other side!!

Same church, other side

The (only) interesting thing about this cathedral is that it has a colored fachada (I'm not sure how that translates. It's like the decorations around the main door of a cathedral) 

All fachadas are originally colorful but fade with the centuries til it's just the stone gray.

In this one, they added another room onto the front so the fachada was protected from the elements and the colors didn't completely fade.

Also the whole town (pretty much) was helping with this wedding going on there! They rang the bells and everything. We felt like wedding crashers. Here's the bride.

Then we stopped in the town of Tordesillas for lunch:

We ate at this lil restaurant.

After we got back to Alcala de Henares, I went over to Kjerstie and Rachel's and we walked down to the river (Rio Henares). There's this concrete part sloping part you can kinda slide down, but it was too covered in moss/slime for me to get all the way in the water. I don't have pictures yet but when I do I will add them!

Ávila y Salamanca

This morning we set out on our last journey!

I can't believe it...

We first drove to the city of Ávila.

This city is famous for its walls, which were built (or started to be built) in the 11th century or something like that. They surround the city with a total perimeter of about 2.5 km (about 1.5 mi).

 Oooh so medieval!

 This is Kjerstie on the walls.

 The other reason for which Ávila is known is that it's the birthplace of Santa Teresa (not the same as Mother Teresa). Santa Teresa was famous for her reforms to the Carmelita order of nuns and her writing (books, poetry).

This is me and Emily in a historically significant plaza (don't ask me why it is significant- when it's that hot, things just start to blend together...)

Here's Rachel with the church that has Santa Teresa's right ring finger! (Unfortunately/fortunately they didn't let us take pictures of that one)

Here's a little farmer's market in the main plaza.

I went to buy a peach and they gave it to me for freeeee! Nothing makes me more excited than free food, just look at that smile.

Then we got back on the bus and went to the city of Salamanca! First we visited the Plaza Mayor-

Anddd various other historically significant sites. Salamanca is famous for its university, which is the oldest in Spain (founded in like 1216?? or something like that) and the 4th oldest in Europe).

Then for dinner we went back to the Plaza Mayor! There were TVs everywhere playing the world cup matches.

Then poor Kjerstie got her purse stolen as we were eating dinner here!! So we got ice cream and Oreos and went back to the hotel room to watch the World Cup game against the Netherlands, and Spain got CREAMED... 1-5... Better luck next time.

Madrid, Parque del Retiro

Well well folks, my days are numbered here and that number is 9! So this afternoon we took what very well may be one of our final trips to the city. (*wipes tears*)

Virginia and I went to the Museo del Prado and spent over an hour and a half just in one part of the museum! No wonder we've had to take like 4 trips to this museum. Today we were exploring the late 19th century- early 19th century.

We ran into another kid from our group there, and then we met up with a few other people at the Parque del Retiro, which is basically the Central Park of Madrid. It's just absolutely LOVELY there and so I made sure to snap some photos. 

They have a big "lake" in the middle of it and you can rent little rowboats. The reflection of the sky on the water was just incredible.

Then it started to rain so we sought refugio near a flock of peacocks!There were actually a lot more but they jumped up into trees and under bushes to get out of the rain too.

Eventually we realized it wasn't going to let up any time soon so we just kept walking! We found the Rosaleda, the rose garden,

Then we took the train back to Alcala de Henares and got some hot chocolate (we've talked about this so-called "hot chocolate" before, right? The stuff that's just melted chocolate/hot chocolate pudding) and churros. I wish I had taken a picture, but I unfortunately did not!