COPENHAGEN - Day 2 continued

I must include two pictures of the changing of the guard at the palace.  Our city tour bus arrived there just in time to witness this procedure.  Several individuals had their pictures taken with the guard on duty.  We should have had a video of one lady's procedure.  She got a little too close to the guard and suddenly he was stamping his feet and glaring at her, giving her a message without saying a word.  She was quick to move over a proper distance and those who followed her did the same.  Note the safe distance that Sandra is keeping!

It started raining just as our tour was ending so that was timely.  Then it was time to do some shopping!

We learned that Pandora had its origin in Denmark
and that Danes still do the designing.

Silver flagpoles in a Georg Jensen store

More Georg Jensen items

Our grandsons would have loved this Lego store!
Lego also had its beginnings in Denmark.

Sandra took this one for her girls!
(I guess they are familiar with this brand)

We stopped for a break and enjoyed a fruit smoothie.  Another popular food being prepared on the street was crepes but we didn't try those.

They tasted as good as they looked.

I couldn't resist this group of "buskers" and added some coins to their case.

The big "M" is seen all over the world.

On Wednesday morning we enjoyed our last hotel smorgasbord breakfast and brought our luggage down to the lobby.  We were ready before ten and so was the taxi driver. Soon we were saying good-bye to Denmark and in the air heading home to Canada.  It was as good a holiday as we could ever wish to have, but as the saying goes, "There's no place like home".

Our friendly taxi driver who took us to the airport

We are so thankful for safe travels in "trains, planes and automobiles" and for good health and endurance for those busy three weeks.  My Uncle John and Aunt Camilla both died at the age of seventy not long after returning from a trip to Norway. I'm glad that so far I haven't kept up that family pattern!  Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.  We have so many cherished memories of these three special weeks together and a new understanding of the country that Grandma and Grandpa Haaland left behind.  It was wonderful to spend time with Mom's cousins and our second cousins and to visit the areas where our grandparents lived.  It was so special to see the churches where their faith was nurtured and professed on their confirmation days.

Back in Saskatchewan we missed out on the 100th anniversary celebration of Bethel Lutheran Church in Frontier on the August long week-end.  Both Sandra and I were confirmed there.  Our great grandparents, Peter and Mathilda Stenson, were among the first thirty members.  Mathilda was a charter member of Bethel Ladies Aid which was organized the day after the congregation was formed on Dec. 31, 1912.  I am thankful for the importance these pioneers placed on establishing a church in the new land.  As the title of Frontier's history book proclaims, "They Blazed, We Followed". (Mom's sister, our Aunt Ruth Geving, submitted that fitting title for the book."

This completes the posts about our special "sister trip".  It was wonderful to have this to look for ward to after Howard's passing on May 17.  It is over three months since that day.  Sometimes it seems much longer, and sometimes like it was just the other day.  I was somewhat in shock for awhile, couldn't even get myself to write thank you notes to the many people who sent flowers, cards and notes, phoned and visited, brought food, gave donations in his memory and showed your love and concern in numerous ways.  The trip helped to restore my soul and I intend to get those notes off before it's time to send a Christmas letter!  I'll keep blogging and I hope that you will keep reading.  Thanks for travelling with us!