The Charm of Copenhagen

I loved this day.  It reminded me of those days a year ago when everything was new to us.  Last Fall, we walked everywhere exploring this beautiful city.  The excitement of being in a new place, with history surrounding us on every side was a constant.  There was a chill in the air and an energy that just made me glad to be alive.

We set out today for our 1-year appointment with our mission president.  We took the old 2-bus route we rode so many times to the old center.  We watched all of the lovely little shops on Gammel Kongevej pass by, lit by a Fall sun, golden leaves blowing along the sidewalks and gutters.  We saw people pushing baby carriages, bicycling and walking, dressed in warm black boots, coats and scarves against the chill.

But it wasn't unpleasantly cold.  Many sat at sidewalk tables sipping drinks or eating lunch and visiting in the sun.  Benches along the sidewalks and at bus stops were occupied by people just visiting and enjoying the weather.

We got off the first bus and began walking to the second bus stop and saw one of our dear friends from our little branch sitting on one of those benches visiting with a colleague from work.  We stopped for a few moments and visited and then hurried to the next bus stop.

Our mission president is a spiritual and perceptive man who is also a great teacher.  We visited with him about our YSAs, our service at the center, our mission and our marriage.  He gave us some wonderful counsel.  He shared some excellent insights with us about serving the YSAs and being missionaries.  Our particular mission is interesting in that he is our mission president...our leader and spiritual adviser, but as far as the center/YSAs go, we answer to the stake president.

Did you know that missions for senior couples can be fraught with discord?  Often by the time a couple has reached 40 or more years of married life, they have developed independently of each other.  Being thrown together 24 hours a day can be a challenge, especially if they each have differing opinions of their goals and methods of reaching them.

SK and I laughed when we heard stories about that when we were preparing for our mission, but since arriving in Denmark, we have sometimes found ourselves on different sides of an issue.  We have learned over and over that we must go back to basics....prayer, spiritual nourishment in the scriptures and conference talks and repentance/forgiveness.  Learning to function with one heart and one mind can be difficult but exhilarating.

We did some shopping for ripe avocados at one of our favorite stores...a little fruit stand called the Turkish Marketplace, and another grocery store.  We retraced our steps home taking the two buses.

For lunch we cooked up a couple of the (48) burritos I made and froze a few weeks ago.  I am happy to report they were quite good.  So we will get the rest of them from the Thorne's freezer and cook them up for Thursday night as chimis....with sour cream, salsa and guacamole.  That should be relatively easy.

Afterwards, not to let a beautiful day like this pass, we took a long walk down my favorite street going in and out of great little shops.  We found some products we have been looking for...expensive, but that is just the way it is.  We found a brand new little cake shop.  It was tiny....maybe 10 by 15 feet, had an old store front, and the interior was old but well-preserved.  They had delightful sweets.  We each chose a slice of a specialty cake and the lady boxed them up.  Then we wove our way home through the sidewalk crowds.

It was getting dark and a little chilly and then we found an adorable little shop that drew us in.  We saw some sweet little Danish Christmas figures.  They are made by a Danish woman using the same porcelain as Royal Copenhagen Porcelain and each little outfit is done completely by hand and sooo cute!  We decided that since Christmas in Copenhagen is such a wonderful treat, a couple of these little people would always be a sweet reminder of our time here.

Do you see their cute little wooden shoes?  

A few more stops in and out of shops and one to the grocery store and we came home.  I loved it!!! We ate dinner and then sampled our delectable little slices of cake.

I guess it would be hard to find a day more relaxing and enjoyable than this one.