Coffee is usually our first stop if breakfast isn’t included at our hotel. Today was one of those days. At a lovely little shop on the corner of a street in Roskilde, Denmark, we savoured the aroma of freshly baked Danish pastries and the rich, earthy scent of coffee before our short drive to a Viking Museum.

We were the only people in the parking lot when we had been there earlier and found it closed for another hour. Upon arriving back, the lot was filling up quickly, and we parked our tiny car in one of the many stalls offered. The sign on the entry window said 160 DKK per person. Down further, another price read 300 DKK for a family of 4. The math was easy, and the lady at the booth must have noticed our quizzical expressions and said, “Yes, you are reading it right, and yes, you can get in for 300 DKK.” We all had a little laugh about it.

The Viking Museum, a treasure trove of Nordic history, was quite lovely. We enjoyed watching the volunteers show off their wood carving skills and make various parts for the old ships they were restoring. One man was making rope. A lady sat sewing rope to an enormous sail lying across her lap and on the floor. She could barely lift it to move it as she moved along the length of the sail. We watched a small child feeding the ducks. We ended our time inside the beautiful museum, which housed many old ships that had been carefully dismantled and reconstructed in various stages of disrepair. There was so much information to read, but I loved that the museum was built overlooking the ocean, so I watched the various sailing ships maneuvering their boats in the strong winds that had blown in.

From there, we moved on to our next stop. We heard about an artist, Thomas Dambo, who created six massive wooden statues and placed them in various spots in Copenhagen. They were called the Six Forgotten Giants. We thought it would be fun to find a couple of them. We drove to the nearest spot we could get to the first one and then headed down the trail into the park where it could be found. After about 1/2 a km, we came upon the statue. It was impressive, hidden amidst the park’s lush greenery; however, it had been sadly vandalized at some point. We felt disappointed and decided not to bother looking for any others. It was getting late anyway, so off we went for dinner and back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we head to Sweden!