Haven’t found everything in Denmark yet, but did find most of them!
23 by the official count.
But at the Museum exhibit that they counted as 1 there were actually 7, so I’m saying 29 🙂
For most of them I shot a video of the beautiful surroundings. And maybe simulated the “hunt” a little bit for those who are watching. 🙂
22 August
Started off my day with Big Thunder Mountain twice. The early morning hour included in Disney hotel stays is very nice since the line for this was always long
Great ride! Cool fast and dark sections going below the river at the beginning and the end.
Alice’s Curious Labyrinth…
Small World there includes a North America room. No special Disney characters though 😦
Churros and hot chocolate for breakfast! Not as good as the Spaniards do it, but hot bad haha
Rode the Molly Brown. Not a steamship like the Mark Twain but pretty cool.
I talked to a couple of the cast members and they invited me up to the wheelhouse! 🙂
And gave me a free premium pass for Big Thunder so I got to go for a third time!
Got some more Phantom Manor videos. It’s definitely spookier…
Mickey-shaped pizza at Bella Notte was delicious 🙂 But I don’t think worth the 30 minute line…
Discovered a cool section back behind the stores on Main Street. Strongly themed with cool museum-like stuff. There’s a Statue of Liberty one on the other side.
This one is about the Ferris Wheel and comparing the two fairs, Paris and Chicago.
Futuristic view of Los Angeles makes me laugh hehe
Spent a little time at the pool. Delightful.
After my nap, went to the Lion King show at Disneyland. It was incredible!
Grabbed some falafel at Colonel Haiti’s and then headed to Adventure World
Mickey and the Magician was a fantastic show
Got dinner at Hollywood Gardens. Buzz Lightyear eclair. I had really high hopes for the food there, but it was a bit of a let-down. I didn’t think any of it was really high-quality. Seems like they don’t take it as seriously there?
Finished the day at Disneyland. Explored around Adventure Isle some.
Did Pirates again 🙂
Got a spooky nighttime shot of Phantom Manor
And thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks show!
Finale!!!
Made my way to the gazebo and chilled while the park emptied out.
I love spending a few quiet moments at the end of the day, saying farewell to the park…
Walked a lot this trip! My activity trends went up those last 5 days 🙂 Copenhagen, Paris, and Disneyland Paris so not surprising!
21 August
Ubered to my hotel, Sequoia Lodge. Dropped off my bags. Headed to the parks. Nice short walk through Disney Village. 🙂
Yay! Disneyland Paris!
Space Mountain! It’s a much faster ride here…with full twisty upside-down moments! The shoulder restraints were incredibly uncomfortable and tore some hair out both on the way in and out. So I won’t be doing that one again!
They have a dragon under their castle 🙂
Fantasyland spin
Pirates is awesome here!
I ate at Captain Jack’s, the restaurant that they have inside the ride.
Caribbean fish soup, mahi-mahi, and a delicious pineapple shortbread dessert 🙂
When I came out, Jack himself was waving from the balcony
Their Indy ride is a roller coaster and has practically zero theming. This was basically it haha
Frontierland includes their Haunted Mansion…Phantom Manor
The stretching room 🙂
This attraction features the creepy bride all throughout…
Fun graveyard!
Did the castle walk-through which has these awesome stained glass windows!
Here’s the view from the balcony
Grabbed a yummy blueberry confection on my way out for my afternoon rest
And found a packable souvenir 🙂
Super weird to see policeman with submachine guns walking through Disney Village
Sequoia Village is super pretty. They planted all of these trees, imported from North America.
Room is a mixed bag…comfy bed and plenty big. Everything is pretty old and dinged up. Shower leaked and sprayed me with freezing cold water. Only one place in the whole room to charge and it didn’t work most of the time. No Wi-Fi in the room at all. And when I pulled the sheets back, there were crumbs and a piece of trash. Ew. I called them and housekeeping came to take care of that.
After my nap, hit Disney Adventure World
The Ratatouille area had lots of fun food. Grabbed fresh dark chocolate covered strawberries for the queue 🙂
Posed with my bosses hehe
It rained most of the afternoon which was totally fine by me! I had a hoodie. Plus…rainbow!
Stark Flight Force is a really fun ride. Very fast! Reminds me of Rockin Roller Coaster. And I thought the Iron Man animatronic was cool!
Tower of Terror, my love
Rain scares people away too so that’s awesome.
Love the Land of Arendelle!
Ate at the Nordic restaurant. Delicious calamari and mashed potatoes
Scoped out the viewing areas for the nighttime show
Rode the Rapunzel ride. Basically tea cups with a different theme 🙂
Did single rider on the Frozen ride. Pretty much the same as Florida but the Anna and Elsa animatronics at the end are WAY better!
Disney Cascade of Lights…so cool!
After the finale, I went down to the waterfront when people had left and watched some of the last song. It was really beautiful.
The way they pulled all of the lights and fountains off the lake in a chain was really cool too.
Thursday, 20 August
Flew in from Copenhagen in the morning. Finally got to my hotel after a long battle with Charles De Gaulle, buses, and Uber. Whew. I uncharacteristically just chilled in my hotel room for a while before I set out. Incredibly nice place, especially after my recent shoebox stay haha.
Took the train to the heart of the city. The lines for Notre Dame were pretty insane so I opted to come back later when they had died down.
Got a baguette, hot and fresh. Needed something though so I found a grocery store and bought some butter and that helped things immensely.
I decided to skip the Louvre and hit the Rodin museum instead…
It was a good move. Stunning sculptures in a beautiful setting.
The Gates of Hell in bronze. So intricate and cool!
Hey Rodin! 🙂
I super love this one…so cute!
Turns out they have a Van Gogh there that I had never seen!
And Edward Munch did a painting of The Thinker!
I decided that I would love to see the Musee d’Orsay again so I headed there next.
Hangin with my besties…
The Starry Night. Stunning.
My new favorite Monet. I super love the colors
Hey girl
I found the cutest polar bear sculpture…
Went back to Notre Dame and waited just 15 minutes. The bells went off while I was in line so that was awesome 🙂
What an incredible building!
They had the center section roped off for worshippers (which is awesome), but I did really want to see this section up close. Had to zoom way in…
I walked around the outside and looked at photos of the damage from the fire and some of the restoration work
Ceiling just gone
So much damage!
The whole back section is cordoned off and huge cranes are fixing things up so I couldn’t get a look at the coolest part of the building.
Oh well…there are still some amazing parts that aren’t covered up.
Went back to my hotel as the sun was setting. I wanted to see the city at night, go visit the Arc and the Tower, but my feet hurt and I really needed to rest for 2 upcoming days at Disneyland Paris.
Wednesday, 19 August
Happy to be back on foot and on public transit 🙂
Started the day with my first actual Danish pastries. Mmmmm.
Climbed up the tower in the Church of Our Savior…also called the Stairway to Heaven. Unfortunately, the construction hides most of it.
Lots of stairs haha
HUGE bells! It was a little nerve-wracking walking past them 🙂
I would love to see someone working this at some point. So cool!
It was very windy at the top!
It narrowed more and more until at the top, my back was against the tower and my belly against the railing. It was honestly terrifying.
That’s a crazy long way down!
The Museum of Danish Resistance was really well done. Dark with dramatic lighting to emphasize the gravity. Great audio-visual presentations. Touching stories. And all underground 🙂
People wore Danish flag symbols or these lapel pins with British colors. Copper coins were withdrawn from circulation so people secretly kept them and made trinkets.
Some people in the resistance had to balance home life with secret meetings. This story of one mother whose daughter swallowed a bullet cartridge had to figure out if she could take her to the emergency room and risk getting discovered. She used the pram to deliver leaflets.
Many operated underground printing operations when the occupation took control of the press.
Huge crowds of people would stand in the streets and sing traditional Danish songs. There were also mass riots and strikes at certain points.
Many people lost their lives. Posts from a mass execution site north of Copenhagen where resistors were tied.
Mass celebration in the streets with liberation
Good job staying strong, Denmark!
On my way to the Little Mermaid, I passed Gefion fountain and St Alban’s church. Beautiful even on a cloudy, drizzly day.
There she is! There were roughly a million people there so I just did a quick treatment. I don’t really prefer crowds…
Frederik’s church. Gorgeous.
My out-of-control frizzy hair, less so haha
Sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet for a few minutes.
Toured the Christianborg Slot. Incredible place!
These are intricately woven tapestries called gobelins. They are stunning!
I love this room. I pictured it being used for a ball 🙂
No king on the throne right now, but he does in fact sit here and entertain foreign dignitaries and such.
Toured the ruins under the palace. There was first a bishop’s fort, then various castles, and then the 3 iterations of the palace.
Well…
Water pipes made of hollowed logs bound together with copper I think?
The Palace Church is also stunning!
Round Tower…most people go for the great view but I went to learn more about an awesome scientist Ole Roemer.
He discovered by observing Jupiter’s moons that light is not instantaneous like people believed but that it had a speed. An incredible discovery! He did a million other things too like designed a water system for the Versailles fountains. Just an incredibly brilliant guy!
He was in charge of the Round Tower and Observatory and the attached Trinitatis church
He worked with Tycho Brahe at his observatory on the island Hven. I did not get to go out there (and I really wanted to!) so this picture is as close as I will get for now. But the Round Tower observatory was built to resemble this one.
Original privy. Just a really long long tube down to the streets 🙂
Yay! The top!! Rainy but beautiful out there.
A few more stairs to the observatory complete with amazing telescope. They only open her up a few times a month so alas…
There’s a long shaft down the middle of the tower. You can stand on the clear glass. Terrifying.
The entire building is just this huge winding paved ramp with lots of windows. Super neat!
Found some aeblesvivers 🙂
I also found Moses. Although I wasn’t looking for him.
The Copenhagen Cathedral. The organ was playing when I went in. So beautiful.
The original Christus statue by Bertel Thorvaldsen. In my experience, what makes it unique among depictions of Christ in churches and cathedrals is that rarely is He shown not on the cross. I like to think of Him this way. Resurrected and living.
National Museum of Denmark. Went through there pretty fast. I’m not really a huge fan of anthrological shtuff. But the Viking Sorceress exhibit was trippy.
And an actual recreation of what a Viking woman might have been like.
Plus some gold. 🙂
The Renaissance rooms were pretty interesting.
Gorgeous building, though!
Walked out to Victor Borge square
My Dad loved watching Victor do his comedy music routines. I grew up with them and love them too!
Went by the Niels Bohr Institute even though it’s not a site you can really visit. So much incredible physics has been and is being done here
They did have a cool relief mural.
There’s Niels in front of the Institute.
Also visited his grave.
And Hans Christian Andersen since I was already there 🙂 Lots of pens and some other rando stuff left there…
Then I went out to visit the temple.
Did some baptisms. It was really cool. They created the temple from a previous church building and they didn’t have the ability to dig down for a font, so this is the skylight over the font here sticking out in the fountain! There is an incredible mural inside that has famous Danes on it. I need to look it up.
Last stop for the day…
Stunning!
Pirate ship
Don’t know if this inspired Monstro, but if it was around when Walt visited, then it’s a definite possibility haha
The inspiration for including a mountain (the Matterhorn) at Disneyland.
Small World facade-esque
Tivoli Illuminations, a night-time show on the water there. Super neat 🙂
Then I dragged my tired self and aching feet back to the hotel. Uber scheduled for 4:45 am. Flying at 6 to Paris.
I’ll be back, Denmark!
Tuesday, 18 August 2026
Left the apartment early and headed out for a long day on the road…
Dalum Kirke… Great great great grandfather Jens Christensen Lamp is from here. I just really dig his name 🙂
Fraugde Kirke…really interesting stone work.
Interested in why there’s a model ship on the ceiling 🙂
Roskilde Cathedral…UNESCO heritage site
Started out as a Gothic Catholic structure…switched to Protestant during the Reformation. Some things were removed.
One of the most beautiful organs in the world apparently. Wish I could have heard it…
Walked to the Viking Ship Museum
Crazy that some of that wood has held on that long!
I tried to lift this chain mail and it’s crazy heavy
I sail!
Fun viking ship replica complete with “viking” giving the orders to the “crew”
So cool to see them actually making boats the old way. This one they are planning to sail to Florida
The ARKEN museum
Funky installation simulating climate change and being underwater…
The reason I came…The Thomas Dambo exhibit!
They had this awesome little staircase in a tunnel to the top of this heap!
I love these trolls so much 🙂
They had a spot where people could build trolls as suggestions for what Thomas could do next. So cool!
Such a good question…
Hilltop Trine didn’t have a plaque that I could see. She was being restored…
Dropped my rental car off at the airport and then took a bus and walked to my hotel. The crazy smallest place I have ever stayed and that includes on cruise ships!
Decent view though
And the WiFi is pretty good. Much better than at the place in Odense. Dinner of PBJ spread with a coffee stirrer haha
Monday, 17 August
Drove out to Aarhus today and also found 4 more trolls 🙂
Yay, the ocean!
Crazy round boardwalk called The Infinite Bridge
This California girl is happy to be back at a beach 🙂
Cool bonus waterfall nearby
Next, to ARoS art museum. From above. What is the big round thing on top?
Approaching…something rainbow-y?
From the 9th floor. Decidedly colorful.
Ooohhhh.
So cool!!!!
Or the longer version 🙂
Very cool Chagall-esque paintings by Jens Sandergaard
Gotta love a Warhol
This thing is so cool! By Olafur Eliasson
My favorite pieces from the Svend Wiig Hansen exhibit
Super fun installation called
As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell. Very cool echo-y dome. I got a spot on the floor looking up at the hole in the ceiling…
…which closed up…
…and then went through a series of slow color changes. I wish I could have gotten a video of it but my phone battery was at 2% and I still needed to be able to find where I parked haha. So stills are as good as it gets. But it was so neat!
More trolls!
That one was by this beautiful lake
This one in a forest of tall trees 🙂
That’s pretty much my name haha
Picked up my rental car (took FOREVER!!) and drove to the place I rented in Odense. Cute place. Terrible WiFi but I’m just being patient while doing these blog updates. Couldn’t get the washer to work at first but figured it out. No fan, but I left the windows open so that I could sleep.
Went shopping for food the next morning and had an amazing lunch of a tuna salad sandwich on brown bread, potato salad, and pickles. Yum.
Drove out to some troll spots on Fyn…
I visited some churches were my ancestors would have attended, been christened, been buried. Never was able to find any gravestones, but that’s not surprising since most of them died or left Denmark by 1900.
Tved Kirke
Saint Nicolai Kirke in Svendborg
I drove to Egeskov Castle but didn’t want to pay $25 so here’s as close as I got haha
Sonderso cemetery
Drove back to the place I’m stayed, parked the car, and walked into downtown Odense.
Hans Christian Andersen’s childhood home
Sankt Knuds church
They were having a flower festival in the main square
Hans Christian Andersen Hus – activity place for kids…cool architecture
HCA’s enormous mug. He’s a big deal here 🙂
Vor Frue Kirke
Statue of the Steadfast Tin Soldier from the Andersen tale
St Alban’s church
On Sunday, I ventured a bit farther afield for more trolls and churches…
Folding Kirke
House of Lego – Billund – The birthplace of Lego
An incredible place! I didn’t go all the way through because it was late in the day and it’s really intended for kids, but the store was awesome, the building and play things outside were super fun, and so much cool Lego art!
One of the fun things about the troll hunt is that most of them are out in very wild places and require hikes to get to. This one required going all the way around a lake!
I moved my trip north to get away from the heat and it was the right decision. So much nicer in the north!
First thing I got a City Pass that’s good on all public transport for 24 hours. Cost me about $15 compared to the $4 in Warsaw. But I was expecting everything to be more expensive here 🙂
Went to my hotel. Small-ish with a strange shower, but it’ll do. At least there was a fan. AC is definitely not a thing in Denmark.
After a good night sleep and a late-ish morning I headed out. I decided to do some troll chasing while in Denmark. They are these awesome recycled sculptures by Thomas Dambo. First one I found is Green George.
He was randomly in this really fun sassy skatepark alternative, love-everyone spot called Christiania. Fun murals, interesting food, people sunbathing in bikinis and enjoying themselves. 🙂
Next the Vor Freisers Kirke attached to this cool spirally tower called the Stairway to Heaven. Tickets were sold out for the morning so I didn’t climb but the church was cool.
Super awesome archangels
Huge organ “held up” by these elephants (a royal symbol I guess!)
So many bikes here! And no one locks them up. Honest folk the Danes.
Walked along the canal
Took a bus to the downtown area and briefly saw the Christianborg Palace. Might come back for a tour later.
Birthplace of the famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr. He came up with an atom model with discrete orbits which still holds today.
Cool fountain with a spouting frog 🙂
Many many vendors…sprung for the strawberries. Wise choice. 🙂
Hellingaandskirken
Couldn’t skip the Lego store in the birthplace of Lego. Can’t wait to visit Billund where they actually originated.
Found a bust of Niels Bohr as an older man in front of the University of Copenhagen
The birthplace of Ole Roemer, who figured out that light doesn’t travel instantaneously and came up with a pretty accurate for the speed using lanterns and mountaintops.
The Round Tower – an observatory here since 1642. It replaced the observatory built by Tycho Brahe who is considered to be the best naked-eye astromer ever and made incredibly detailed star charts with no instruments whatever. His ideas about how the solar system worked were pretty wacky but his charts in the hands of Johannes Kepler, a mostly blind astronomer with great ideas about the mechanisms proved to be the foundation of modern astronomy.
Go Tycho! He didn’t want Kepler to have his charts, but the occurrence gave him a guaranteed place in history. 🙂
Trinitatis Church
Love this stunning clock!
Lunch came in the form of a spinach and cheese enchilada, an apple crumble tart…
…my favorite brown bread, butter, and yogurt from a supermarket. Yum.
Here’s Tycho again with his signature mustache and cloak in front of what was once an observatory
Across the street from the Rosenborg Castle.
Another great scientist…Hans Christian Orsted. He figured out electromagnetism by playing with a compass and some electricity
His statue lives in the beautiful Norrevold park…so many people were out sunbathing and just enjoying the beautiful day
Last stop downtown…City Hall
And a very stiff Hans Christian Andersen 🙂
Suttertrolden Sanka! Troll Number 2 🙂
Weirdly holding a bunch of old pacifiers haha
And next to a petting zoo.
Went and picked up my rental car at the airport and drove to Odense to the airbnb I rented.
My flight from Madrid to Copenhagen had a long layover in Warsaw. So I ventured out 🙂 Bought a full-day public transportation pass for like $4. The trains were great!
I visited some memorials. One to the victims of the KLW in WWII. One to those lost in the Warsaw Uprising. And the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier representing many many battles. Poland has been a land of many conflicts.
Lovely streets. Clean and colorful 🙂
Found a Carrefour and bought some local candy 🙂
Unicorn well!!
Visited the Marie Sklodowska-Curie museum
Housed in her childhood home. Well rebuilt from what was left of it after the Warsaw Uprising. You can see the plaque in the photo below.
Young Maria
A miniature re-creation of their lab in Paris. Found polonium and radium there!
She loved her daughters and they were very involved in her work. Irene examines her mother’s fingers, burned from handling radioactive material.
Her doctoral thesis and her daughter’s biography of her
Some of her things…desk, dress, radium-infused things including some lab equipment
She became deservedly very famous. Here she is, the only woman among all the great physicists of her day. She didn’t let the expectations of others derail her passion for science. Incredible lady!
Found a green quiet spot outside of the old city walls and chilled for a bit
Got some incredible grapefruit gelato and wandered. Pope John Paul II was from here
Found a memorial to Copernicus…thanks for figuring out how that we are are the ones orbiting!
Headed back the airport. Had time for dinner…so fish and chips for me! With the craziest chunky tartar sauce 🙂
TaylorHaps 
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