europe 2013: day eight

This was our first full day in Bornholm and it was definitely one to remember. We had breakfast together in the hotel and then hopped in our cars and drove to Bodilsker, which has a small church (Bodils Kirke) that my 3rd-great-grandfather, Peter Nielson, was christened (we think).

The church itself was built in the 1100s (which still blows my mind that things are that old there) and there was also a bell tower which was built in 1610 with a bell in it that the caretaker still rings every day. He was so nice and let us all go up there and talked with us and answered our questions. It was really interesting.

taken by Stephen.

We were the only people in the church that day and my dad had brought some excerpts of his great-great grandfather, Peter's, diary. We each took turns reading a bit. I've never been a big "family history" buff, even though my parents have always told us interesting stories about our ancestors, but being where he lived and where he immigrated from made him very real to me. It was really special to have this experience.

taken by Stephen.

Something he said in his journal really made an impression on me. He wrote about how he and another man had made a business deal involving Peter owing this man his cart in a few months time. The man came to Peter several weeks before he was required to give him his cart per their agreement but the man was angry and "told him off". Peter wrote that after thinking about it, he decided that "it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong" and gave the man his cart. Just this simple story tells me so much about the kind of man he was and I am proud to be a descendant of his.

Then we drove to some of the beach towns and ended up at Dueodde Beach (the largest beach on Bornholm). The sand is bright white and is so fine (they use it for hourglasses) that it squeaks when you walk on it. It was really cold and windy, but sunny, so we hung out there a while and took pictures (I'm borrowing several that my brother, Stephen, took as well as my own).

taken by Stephen

taken by Stephen.

Dueodde has a few little shops and stands at the parking area that are probably really busy in the summer but we were some of the only people there. David got some nougat ice cream from Bornholmer Soft Ice and I thought their colors and logo were cute, so I took a picture.

I also took this picture of David in front of the Baltic Sea (which he later "polar plunged" into with my brother and brothers-in-law) and I love it so much that it is my iPhone wallpaper. I really love this guy and his cute, happy smile.

Then we all headed back to the hotel to change for dinner at Restaurant le Port in Hasle. I had found this restaurant on Trip Advisor and wrote to the owner, who wrote back with a delicious prix fixe menu. It was a lovely restaurant and we had a beautiful sunset with delicious food and the best company.

on the patio of the restaurant before sunset.

For those who care (and for me to remember), the menu was Norwegian lobster soufflé in a creamy turbot soup, veal served with morel sauce, new potatoes and vegetables (we also had some fish-eating vegetarians that got halibut and they said it was delicious) and white chocolate cake served with marinated rhubarbs and rhubarb sorbet.

europe 2013: day seven

Our last day in Copenhagen we spent enjoying Stroget some more. David and I walked around the streets and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and stopped at the Royal Copenhagen shop to buy some gifts. I saw this adorable ice cream cart and just had to take a picture. I wanted to hop on the bike and peddle as fast as I could away with it! Isn't it dreamy?

And I enjoyed another crepe with Nutella. Yum! By the way, this post is going to include a LOT of pictures of food! Oh, let's get real! Almost half of the 400 pictures I took on this trip were of food. I'm not ashamed (very much)!

Then, of course, we had to stop at the Lego store. Did you know that legos were created by a Danish carpenter? It only seemed fitting to get William his first set of real legos in Denmark! I'm so glad we did! 

The coolest part was that this entire wall was made of legos and this lady and her motorcycle were also made of legos. It was pretty awesome and everyone wanted a picture on it so I had to smile awkwardly while everyone waiting, looked on. 

I also loved this lego display of the Nyhavn buildings. It was so beautiful!

We met the rest of the family back at the train station with all our luggage to go to Ystad so we could catch the boat to Bornholm. Unfortunately, we had a bit of an issue with our train schedule so we ended up having an hour or so to kill. Fortunately, Sarah bought a pack of cards and we played game after game of Kemps to pass the time. I really love hanging out with my family. 

taken by Stephen.

Also, while we were waiting for our train, there was this adorable bakery across the street next to Tivoli Gardens called Andersen Bakery. We each took turns with the luggage and ran over there for some treats. I asked the lady behind the counter which was the "most Danish" and she said this one - tebirkes (flaky puff pastries filled with marzipan and sprinkled with poppy seeds). It was soooooo good but I had to brush off about 3/4 of the poppy seeds. It was a lot!

Once we arrived on the island of Bornholm, we picked up our rental cars and each went our own ways for dinner. Funny side story: when my brother Stephen made the reservations for my dad, he had the lady book six cars (two couples to a car). Before we left on the trip, he called to confirm and the lady said that she had cancelled five of the reservations. Stephen asked why and she said very frankly, "One person cannot drive six cars. It's just not possible." We laughed and laughed at that! I guess she's right!

We had no plans for dinner so everyone was on their own. Most of the family had dinner at the hotel (which they said was very good) but Stephen, Leone, David and I were in one car and we found Restaurant Poul P on Trip Advisor so we stopped there. We sat down at the table and just as we were ordering, my brother Peter and his wife, Darin and my sister, Heidi and her husband, Josh, walked in! It must have been kismet because it was one of the most tasty, fun dinners I've ever had. 

As we sat there eating our delicious food, laughing and talking, I couldn't help but think "You know. I really love my family but I also just really like them." I know a lot of people don't feel that way about their siblings and I feel really blessed to have them in my life. 

David's hamburger - with black hummus and amazing roasted potatoes.

my delicious salmon with house made pasta and saffron sauce.

As we were eating our dinner in this very tiny and artsy restaurant, this big guy kept coming over and saying unusual things to us in a very excited, boisterous manner. I was fully convinced he was totally sauced but as we talked to him more and more, I figured out that this was just his friendly personality. Turns out he is the owner/artist of the restaurant and had his art studio next door. After we ate our dinner, Poul had asked us to come check out his art studio so we walked over there and browsed around. When he was telling us about his artwork, he mentioned that Pamela Anderson and Lindsey Lohan were really fond of his work. I thought that was funny. He was a nice guy and had some really sweet sayings on his art work. Later, I found this picture on Pinterest and turns out - he wasn't exaggerating about Pamela!

The best thing Poul said that night was when he was telling us about dessert. He mentioned that they had something called a "bleeding cake" (which turned out to be a molten chocolate cake). When he described it, he said, "Your right eye will cry when you see it and your left eye will cry when you eat it." We laughed at that but he had the last laugh, because it was epic! It was so cool because the cake crackled and popped as we were eating it. We were so full from our dinner that we got it two to share and it was gone in 60 seconds. And yes, that is apple ice cream if you were wondering!

It was a sweet way to end the night . . . 

europe 2013: day six

On Sunday morning we had another great breakfast before heading to church. It was a wonderful meeting and they provided us with headsets so we could understand. After church, we walked down the street to the Copenhagen LDS Temple. David I matched on accident and he was miffed about it all day. Ha! We were a lot of red.

My parents have a Danish friend who lives in Copenhagen named Torbin. He met us at the temple and we talked there for about an hour about some interesting Danish things and other stories about his life. It was really fun listening to him talk! Then we all hopped on the bus and headed to Thorvaldsen Museum.

waiting for the bus.

Going to the Thorvaldsen Museum was important for us because it has the original Christus statue. My church uses this statue in a lot of our buildings, including the Mesa Temple (which is the temple I grew up going to). The statue is beautiful in real life and we were told by the church curator that the gold behind the statue symbolizes eternity and we have to go through Jesus Christ to attain eternal life. That was really meaningful for me and I liked that a lot.

It was time for lunch after that so we walked over to Torvehallerne Market. Let me just interject that if you ever go to Copenhagen, go to this market. It was sooooo cool! We walked around for a while (and I was kind of camera happy - sorry!) and then we all got something to eat.

David stopped at a stand that was selling shredded duck sandwiches on a baguette. I had a bite of it and it was delicious but I was too excited to settle on something.

I ended up going to Gorm's Pizza and Sarah and I shared a delicious Margherita pizza with tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil oil and arugula.

I also got this delicious salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, mozzarella, toasted pine nuts, balsamic reduction and basil dressing. It was yummy!

Denmark is known for their black licorice. They sell it everywhere! All of my siblings like black licorice (except one that I know of) - it must be in our blood. The black licorice was soooo good! Really warm and fresh and they also had the most delicious black licorice ice cream! The Danes also really love their salted black licorice which I didn't love quite as much but it was still tasty.

packages of fresh black licorice.

Then we walked around the city for a while longer and saw a few things before we went back to the hotel to change for dinner at Halifax Burger. We had a bit of a snafu getting there because our group was separated and there were a few different locations in Copenhagen, but when all was said and done, we all ate and had a great time.

Clint (BIL), Debbie (sister), my parents and Anette and Torbin.