Mine Forældre Besøger!!! (my parents visit)

I miss you already!

We took the train from Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden. It was only a thirty minute train ride. Here we are pictured in the main square in Malmo. While there we walked around, saw some sights and did some shopping at H&M, a Swedish company!

We spent a lot of time sitting, eating and relaxing at the cafes by the water at Nyhavn. 

Mummy and I enjoyed a boat tour of the harbor around Copenhagen, while Daddy worked through my Corporate Finance case study - even he was stumped! Above and to the right is a picture from the boat in Christianshavn, a section of Copenhagen. 

A Day in the Life of a Viking

We spent all day last Saturday experiencing life as a Viking. We started at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. It was a misty foggy day in the Viking harbor!

From here, we drove to a remote field in the middle of no where and walked through the fields until we reached a larch mound in the earth. We walked around the mound to find a stone entrance inside. This was a Stone Age Burial Mound. 

 Bellow is a replica of an old Viking temple

In the middle of the Viking fort off to the right of the photo above, we enjoyed some Scaldic Mead. Scaldic Mead is translated as "the mead of poetry". Scaldic Mead came from an old Nordic Myth about the war between the Aeisr and Vanir gods. At the end of the war, they came to a truce. The truce involved spitting and from the spit came the man Kvassir. He was extremely wise and there was no question that he could not answer. On his travels, though, he encountered two dwarves. They were not very nice and subsequently killed him. They poured his blood into two vats and a pot. Then they mixed his blood with honey, thus creating a mead. When the gods inquired as to what had happened to Kvassir, the dwarves said that he had suffocated in his own intelligence. It is now believed that whoever drinks the Scaldic Mead will become a scholar and poet. 

Below is one of my Nordic Mythology professors, Morten. Morten here is standing next to a Viking Runic Stone. These were what the Vikings used to write on. They had their own alphabet called Runes. The stone was not here originally but placed in the 1100's when the church behind it was built. 

   The picture below and to the right is of the small church gardens...  the scenery kind of reminded me of Vermont.

 

Study Tour: Brussels & Paris

We left for our week-long study tour last Sunday at 5:15 AM. We arrived in Brussels amidst a raging snow storm. From the airport we checked into our hotel and then went to lunch in the main square pictured below.

After lunch we went on a bike tour. At this point the snow had turned to freezing rain, which wasn't much better. Brussels is not nearly as bike friendly a city as Copenhagen so it was also a rather dangerous ride. We made it through and stopped for french fries and beer, which apparently is a winning combo in Belgium. 

The next day we went to Bruegel, an economic think tank in Brussels. Then we went to a Belgian chocolate store and we made our own chocolates and ate lots too! 

From here we went to the EU Parliament. We got a tour and then attended different receptions throughout the parliament. I even met the former Danish Prime Minister!

The next morning we got up early to catch our train to Paris. 

Paris train station

 Montmartre 

 Sacre Coeur

In Paris we heard someone speak from the French National Bank, visited the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the Paris School of Economics. The more fun things involved seeing the Eiffel Tower and going to the top at night, visiting the Pompidou museum of modern art, the Louvre, walking down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumphe, walking through the catacombs and the Luxemburg Gardens and eating lots of crepes! 

The catacombs 

 The Pompidou

 Eating crepes outside the Pompidou

I think you know this one

 A stroll down the Champs Elysees