Well, we are still travelling. We've been to Geneva where Rob had meetings. This year they were a little more stressful than usual and so he was glad to get away to Copenhagen for a few days. It's a place I always wanted to show him. I haven't been there since I was four years old. It was nice to have the time for ourselves and just relax. We saw so many different things, including a day trip to Odense to visit the museum dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen, the famous storyteller.
It was a two hour trip by train from Copenhagen each way, but it was a nice way to see some of the countryside. I have a treasured collection of his stories and I think most of us remember such classics as 'The Little Match Girl', 'The Ugly Duckling', 'The Tin Soldier' as well as 'Thumbelina'. Part of the museum incorporated the tiny house where H.C. Andersen was born. It was really neat to see a place so full of history, where this beloved author actually lived for part of his life.
Afterward, we wandered around the modern part of Odense before heading back to the train station. To our eyes, new locations that we discover usually seem like really nice places to live. That's part of travelling. Places we visit and don't have a chance to know intimately as the locals do, always seem more charming because we see only the surface of everyday life. I'm sure the locals would offer other viewpoints of what it's like to actually live there.
The next day we visited the Copenhagen Zoo in the morning. I have very fond memories of visiting the zoo 
when I was a little girl. My favourite memory is of me riding an elephant along the pathways through the animal park, right alongside people who walked. It's something I'll never forget and I still love elephants today. There was a wonderful display of the elephant compound as it was in previous years. One of the items on display was a photo and description of elephants giving rides to children through the zoo. When Rob saw that, he could better visualize how much fun it was for me all those years ago.
Now, many years later, the zoo has been modernized, renovated and expanded. The elephant compound is incredible and positively huge! It is justifiably the main attraction of the whole zoo. We had a look to see if any of the older elephants were still there, but all of the pachyderms were born within the last 20 years. I wondered what happens to zoo elephants and other animals when they die? It's not something we usually think of.
Later that afternoon, Rob and I decided to take a canal tour on one of the open boats. It's a great 
way to see the city and many of its landmarks. We saw church steeples, the Royal Library, the opera house, official residences and offices in stately buildings and of course the Little Mermaid. We saw her from the water and so she was slightly turned away from us, looking towards the shore and the multitude of her admirers. She's quite a bit smaller than you might think she is.
In the evening, our last night in Copenhagen, we decided to walk around Tivoli 
Gardens. There are fantastic 'palaces' that are actually posh hotels, there are casinos, many restaurants and cafes, and one area is an amusement park with daredevil rides. With my leg in a brace, I skipped that section of the gardens, although we heard delighted shrieks of children and adults alike who were having fun! At one point there was a brief thunder shower, so we took refuge in one of the restaurants and had dinner while listening to the rain beat down on the glass panes of the roof. It was nice that we chose to go at night when all the lights were lit and the gardens had a charming - almost a fairy tale like atmosphere.
