We left miniatur wunderland to get the Puttgarden-Rødby ferry and arrived in Denmark! Found a cracking camping spot by the sea on the island of Faro and Eddie immediately made friends with some random German kids at the playpark so we decided to call it a day.
Next stop: Copenhagen to see Emilie, Kris & Lea! We rocked up at their new apartment right in town to stay for a couple of nights. We kicked off with a wander to a local park and Eddie and Lea took about 30 seconds warming up to each other before an enthusiastic game of hide and seek ensued.
We left the family to nap (having not stayed up until 3am at a wedding the previous night we were in a better state!) And headed to the beach, along with what felt like the rest of the city! We pitched up for a picnic lunch and took turns to have a quick dip while Sammy napped under the trees.
The evening was spent with Eddie and Lea tearing around the flat fuelled by bolognaise while the grownups had a good catch up 🙂 Apologies to the family living below who must have had a fair bit of ceiling plaster come down with all the running and jumping!
Day 2 we headed to the seaside town of Helsingør on Emilie’s recommendation. Eddie got right into his new hobby of castle exploration by bike as we explored the multiple sets of ramparts working up a good appetite for a smørrebrød lunch in the old town. We’ve sold rye bread to Eddie as cake bread, and it’s a new firm favourite! We followed it up with the best ive cream EVER (with homemade waffle cones fresh off the press and nougat ice cream and homemade whippy ice cream on the top… delicious!). We returned to Emilie & Kris place for a takeaway and a final night of chaos before tearing the kids apart to continue our travels and finally give Emilie and Kris a bit of peace (or as much as you get with a toddler around anyway)
Day 3. After an unpromising rainy start turned into another glorious sunny day, Adam had the perfect excuse to hire an electric boat for the day. We all hopped on bikes to ride to the harbor, where we were met by Katrine and baby Magnus. We roved around the canals of Copenhagen, passing the opera house and central palaces before a nice cruise through Christianshavn while looking out for likely lunch spots, then getting back only a little bit late to return the boat.
We found a cracking little cafe by the canal for some massive paninis for lunch and couldn’t resist using the adjacent swimming platform to hop in for a dip, as it seems in good weather everyone in the entire city is doing the same! Eddie counted us in for some jumps despite declining to come in himself (he still harbors a great fear of getting his face wet- maybe an aversion to actually getting clean that vanlife is not helping to dispel…), and we just about resisted the temptation to bomb in right next to the packed tour boats and splashing all the other tourists, an attitude not entirely reflected by the other group of lads at the platform!
After post-lunch dip we headed to the main square for what turned out to be the tail end of Copenhagen pride! We ate exciting ice creams (turns out Sea Buckthorn flavour is AWESOME!) while watching some interesting choreography from the rådhus steps.
We were just contemplating heading back to the van when Katrine tells us her mum has a season card and can take us all into Tivoli, Copenhagen’s Central Gardens and theme park! We wandered the gardens with Katrine, Magnus and Helen before we could put Eddie off going on the vintage cars ride for no longer. Katrine & family headed back while we managed to entertain ourselves watching pantomimes, eating Danish fast food, exploring the gardens some more and running around the epic playground until well past Eddie’s bedtime.
We finally left Copenhagen late that night, to find a seaside spot to crash out after a very exciting day!
Parenting Responsibly 