Hobnobbing

Saturday.  We bundled up and walked into Copenhagen on some errands.  We walked down Stroget again.  Saturdays are a very busy day to be there....it is like New York.  We were were specks in a sea of people.  It was exciting to go in and out of some of the little shops and just look.

We went into a large department store called ILUM.  It was 5 stories tall and elegant.  We wandered through the kitchenware department and the Christmas department.  It reminded me of being in ZCMI as a girl, when it was cold and snowy outside and everyone inside was still clad in heavy coats and hats...and crowding through the aisles.

I realize this doesn't look all that spectacular, but let me tell you that it was beautiful...from the first floor looking up several stories with Christmas lights sparkling...this is the area where the escalators were.  It doesn't begin to capture the excitement of the shopping day.

We went in the largest bookstore in the city and looked at an array of Danish books and games.  Of course I saw a thousand things I would have loved to get for our grandchildren...but shipping would make them far more expensive than they already are.  One find was "Den Lille Prins" which is one our very favorite books from before we were married.  Each of our wedding rings has an inscription from it.

Interspersed with newer buildings are much older structures but they seem to coexist very nicely.  We went in several stores and looked at Christmas decorations.

This is the Royal Copenhagen Store on Stroget.

Looking down a little byway, it appears to be a private courtyard with some very old buildings still standing and in use.  (My apologies to Kate!  We take most of our pictures with our phones but even with a serious camera, we are amateurs at best.)

We have our little foot high tree with small ornaments, and I have been lighting candles at night because it is so cozy.  I also have two little white ceramic houses that I think are adorable that bring the spirit of the season.  I think we'll get a poinsettia this week.

We worked on our budget....sooo tedious!  We read, and then we finished off our evening reading the first chapter of "Den Lille Prins" together (the three of us...SK, Google Translate and me).