Copenhagen Temple
LDS temples are all about family. They serve as the religion's most sacred house of worship. Ordinances conducted here allow families to be eternally bound. Denmark was home to my ancestors. Being able to go to the temple in my ancestral land was an incredible experience.
First, I came at a time that the temple is not normally open. The temple president opened things up for me, though, as my time in Copenhagen was limited. I was incredibly touched by the kindness and service provided by him and the temple presidency. I am so grateful to belong to a service oriented global community. No matter where I go in the world, I know I can feel at home.
Second, this temple is so cool! In the baptristry, there were murals made specifically for this temple. One mural depicted the classic scene wherein John the Baptist is baptizing Christ. The second mural depicted tons of famous Danes being beckoned to Christ by John the Baptist. The mural was absolutely gorgeous. The temple president named off and showed me many of the people pictured (Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Bloch, etc).
National Museum
Copenhagen has soooo many museums, and they are all free! I was in heaven. The national museum walks you through the entire history of Denmark. I don't remember how old the oldest stuff was... 12,000 BC maybe? Regardless, it started with OLD stuff and then worked through all the different ages (Danes were super busy during the Bronze age), the spread of the Roman empire, the spread of Christianity, all the way to modern day Denmark. I loved getting the historical context of the country. The David Collection was another museum containing Islamic art. That was another highlight for me. The collection was huge, varied, and absolutely beautiful.
Lovely picture stolen from here.
Because it was pitch black and snow covered when I went.
National Museum
Copenhagen has soooo many museums, and they are all free! I was in heaven. The national museum walks you through the entire history of Denmark. I don't remember how old the oldest stuff was... 12,000 BC maybe? Regardless, it started with OLD stuff and then worked through all the different ages (Danes were super busy during the Bronze age), the spread of the Roman empire, the spread of Christianity, all the way to modern day Denmark. I loved getting the historical context of the country. The David Collection was another museum containing Islamic art. That was another highlight for me. The collection was huge, varied, and absolutely beautiful.
Cool horns.
Cool history.
Christus
The Christus statue can be found in LDS visitor centers all over the place. The Oakland Temple Visitor's center has one! Turns out the original is in a church in Denmark! I had no idea that was the case until this trip! Clayton and I checked it out and it was pretty cool. The same artist also did the twelve apostles. They were all gorgeous pieces. Between this statue and the LDS Church's use of Carl Bloch paintings, Denmark pretty much owns the Mormon art scene.
Christus in Copenhagen at the Church of Our Lady.
Christus in Oakland.
Well the bottom half at least.
Also, lol, freshmen.
Also, the roof of this church looked just like Doe Library at Berkeley!
The gold squares at the far end had exact same flower things that Doe has.
Smorrebord
Clayton's couch surfing host introduced us to this traditional Danish food. It's rye bread, butter, and then whatever topping you choose. There are lots of fish/shrimp options, but I went for roast beef, sauteed onions, and an egg. It was great!
Meat.
Pastries
So Denmark wins at everything bread related. The pastries were just as delicious as you would imagine. I'm eating like three different pastries as we speak from the airport. I make no apologies.
I'm on an all carb diet.
Is butter a carb?
Bronx Burgers
We walked by this burger place and it looked awesome. Turns out it was awesome. We just thought it was funny that we could get curly fries at a place called Bronx Burgers right outside all these churches that were hundreds of years old. This burger though... melted goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, pickled onions, and guacamole. Whaaaaat. Thing 578468 that I love about the Danes... They LOVE guac. They put it on everything. They even offer it as a dip. It rocked.
It may be the best burger I've ever had.
I'll never know, though, thanks to my cold.
Could barely taste anything most of the week.
Overall, Copenhagen was extraordinarily beautiful and everyone was very kind! I can't wait to come back one day... in the summer.
Cool street where all the cool shopping was.
People in Copenhagen are so beautiful and so stylish it's a little scary.
Meanwhile, me and my unseasonably tan face are over here like, it's possible to die in 30 degree weather, right?
Cool buildings and churches were everywhere.
Like seriously, every street corner.
Across the street from the spirally church was an anarchist commune.
The anarchist commune is on a lovely lake.
The cutest alleys on earth.
Canals everywhere.
Seriously, could this city be any more picturesque?
In the end, I was really terrible about taking pictures in Copenhagen. Just so you know why though... This is what it looked like outside everyday:
It's hard to do the city justice when it's being smothered by grey.
The few good pictures I do have are from the one day we had a few hours of sun.
