Downtown CPH

Having learned a lesson the first day, I decided to leave Tessie's stroller at the hotel. Carrying her, when necessary, was actually less trying than pushing the stroller had been, and we made quick enough progress that we had time to kill before the Danish National Museum, our intended first stop, would open.

So we found ourselves outside the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum with a wide range of works, from ancient to modern. As this one wasn't open yet, either, Tessie had to content herself with climbing on the lion statues out front:
The Nationalmuseet (National Museum of Denmark) was just a few blocks away, so we followed a crowd of schoolchildren in through the front doors to discover, firstly, that the museum was free, and secondly, that there was an armada of strollers nicer than the one we'd brought, and these were also free. We stashed our extra items in one of the museums lockers (also free, just a 20DKk deposit) and set off for the Children's Museum on the first floor.

Tessie loved the Children's Museum. It was a series of rooms, each with a different set of hands-on items to play with. Old clothes to dress up, a stuffed horse (not real) to ride, an Indian bazaar with a balance on which to weigh produce, a sailing ship with a wheel to turn, an art room with paper and crayons (Tessie left a few original works taped up in the "gallery"), a Viking longboat in which to sail, and a 1920s-era Danish classroom with slates and chalk:


Eventually, Tessie wore herself out enough to want to climb into the free stroller, which allowed me to go explore the major exhibition on the first floor of Danish prehistory. That series of galleries takes up a lot of square footage and displays thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of artifacts recovered from archaeological sites around the country. Animal bones, weapons, hoards of gold, and even preserved human bodies from the Danish bogs were on display in a very modern and well-designed exhibit.

Tessie interrupted my tour at a convenient time when she requested a snack while we were in a gallery adjacent to a covered walkway leading to an interior courtyard. The air was still cool from the morning, and we sat outside snacking until she decided it was time to head back in:

Tessie fell asleep in the stroller soon after that, so I was able to explore more of the museum while she slept, including the gallery of toys and dollhouses, the ethnographic collection, and modern Danish history (which, as an indication of how old this country is, began with the year 1660) before Tessie woke up again and wanted to leave.

She was hungry again, it turned out, and when I asked her what she wanted, the answer was unequivocal: french fries.

Loath as I am to patronize fast food mega-chains, I simply couldn't resist Tessie's request. Besides, given the cost of food in Copenhagen, I expected that the Burger King just off the Rådhuspladsen would be one of our less expensive options. Tessie and I ended up splitting a double cheeseburger combo, plus a small container of milk, for around ten bucks, or roughly double what the same meal would have cost in California.

Of to the tourist office we went, making a brief detour into the Rådhus (City Hall) for a diaper change. Normally, I wouldn't comment on the whole diaper thing, but if not for that we wouldn't have gone into the Rådhus at all, and we would have missed out. Firstly, we would have missed out on an excellent changing facility (spacious, no line, comfortable for both of us), and secondly, we would have missed the Verdensur, also known as Jens Olsen's World Clock, an impressive piece of timekeeping mechanics.

Needs addressed, we continued on to the tourist office, just opposite the train station. We took a number and looked at the displays while we waited for service. The tourist office is a busy place, so we waited for a while, but then our number was called and I asked our question: where could we find a public playground?

This totally stumped the attendant. It seems no one had ever asked before, and there were no references on her desk or her computer that could provide the answer. We stood there for at least twenty minutes while she worked the phones and eventually found three locations and marked them on a map for us, none of them near our present location at the city center.

By that time, though, it was too late for us to head toward one; it didn't seem likely that we'd get to a playground before dark. So we dashed back to the Nationalmuseet, ducked in just before closing, and made a beeline for the The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, one of the world's foremost numismatic collections. Alas, we had only half an hour to peruse the displays before closing time, so we were soon back out on the street.

From the numismatic gallery, though, I had noticed that we were very close to Slotsholmen Island, just across the Frederiksholm Kanal. Slotholmen is the location of the Christiansborg Palace, itself the home of all three branches (executive, legislative & judicial) of the Danish government. From there we walked a short distance to the grounds of the Royal Library, where Tessie fed goldfish (crackers) to goldfish (koi):

After that, we headed back to the hotel, this time to meet Tessie's Mom for dinner. We initially tried the Vesterbro Bryghus, a microbrewery on the Vesterbrogade right by the train station, but - alas - they had no high chairs, so we went to our fall-back plan - Jensen's Bøfhus (again, albeit at a different location). Tessie's Mom hadn't been there yet, and it's hard to argue against a good meal, followed by Jensen's special dessert: all-you-can-eat soft serve ice cream.

Tessie even got a helium balloon, and then we called it a night: