Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid)

The Little Mermaid at Langelinie waterfront is one of Copenhagen's most popular tourist attractions.

 

 

The statue was donated to the city of Copenhagen by the Brewer Carl Jacobsen, sculpted by Edvard Eriksen and erected on August 22nd 1913 after the fairytale of the same name written by Hans Christian Andersen.

 

Danish history is full of mermaid myths. Mermaids themselves can been found in 15 churches in Denmark and throughout the history of the Danish Navy there has always been at least one ship named the MERMAID.

 

It is said that Copenhagen's Little Mermaid is the most photographed girl in the world, however not everyone sees it that way. In 1964 her head was sawed off an removed and Langlinie was without it's mermaid for a whole month.

 

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" was animated into a film by Disney in 1989 although the ending was drastically changed.

 

 

 

The statue of The Little Mermaid depicts a creature yearning to be human and walk out of the sea. It is this yearning that, in the fairytale, causes her to abandon her mermaid form, driving her to great sorrow and death.

 

"If she had been thoughtful and silent before, she now became far more so. And when her sisters enquired of her what she had seen on the first day when she visited the upper world, she answered them not. Evening after evening, she visited the shore where she had left the prince."

 

-Hans Christian Andersen

 

 



Our Trip To Copenhagen: Day 2

Day two started with breakfast in the hotel restaurant, Ristorante Frascati. Paul then nipped out to get me a hairbrush and we went back up to the room to let Calleigh have a nap before the busy day she had ahead of her.

Our first point of call was The Little Mermaid about a half an hour walk from the hotel. Although we took a slightly longer route so we could see Nyhavn (New Harbour). It was beautiful with colourful buildings either side of the harbour and a giant anchor in the middle. We planned to come back here for lunch.

 

 

We carried on our walk and soon arrived at Langelinie and The Little Mermaid. Calleigh was asleep at this point (as usual) so missed out on seeing her. If you want to know the story about her find I posted her story here.

 

 

After a short tea stop looking out at sea, Paul decided to take us back to see Amalienborg (home to the Danish Royal Family) and the harbour another way. Several miles later we decided that this wasn't the best route, we couldn't see the Palace anywhere and somehow ended up back on Strøget. So we decided to stop for lunch. We found a nice Café called Café Scandi and headed inside. Paul and I both ordered the lunch buffet and Christmas Beer. We helped ourselves to a good selection of dishes and I even tried a green olive. After spitting it out straight away I concluded that it tastes like Paul's socks soaked in vinegar, I knew there was a reason I hadn't had one before.

 

I like Calleigh in the mirror on this one hehe

We made our way back to the hotel to rest our feet from all the walking and toyed with the idea of catching the train to Malmö, Sweden. After some research it didn't look like there was going to be much to do so we decided against it and headed back to Strøget for an evening walk. I wanted to try a hot chocolate in a place called La Glace but unfortunately they were closing as we got there so we ended up sat outside Café Norden listening to a street performer sing The Beatles. Bliss.

 

On the way back to the Hotel I stopped to get my Dad some Christmas beer and finally got hold of a blue Santa hat. Yay.

 

 

That evening after Calleigh had gone to bed, Paul and I ordered some Italian Antipasti and Champagne. Great end to a great day!!

 

 

 Our third day in Copenhagen

Our Trip to Copenhagen: Day 1

To say I was worried about travelling alone with Calleigh would be an understatement. I hardly slept the night before which when you had to be up at 4:30 to get everything ready was not good.
Turns out I have no idea what I was worried about. Calleigh slept in the car on the drive to the airport and even though we arrived far too early for our flight it was easy to keep her entertained. We had breakfast together, did some shopping and I enjoyed a Gingerbread Latte while Calleigh had 10 minutes kip before the flight.

She was lucky enough to have her own seat next to me on the plane and besides the few times I had to pick everything up that she dropped it was a very easy flight.

We arrived at the airport excited to see Daddy, however because the flight was 15 minutes early he was not there to meet us. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before we saw Daddy looking around for us. Calleigh was absolutely knackered as she had no sleep on the plane so the minute we got into the taxi she fell asleep on Daddy (not the reunion he was hoping for).

We checked into our hotel, The Grand Hotel (at which point I realised I had left my hairbrush at home), had a awful cup of tea with powdered milk (bleurgh), looked through our book to see what we wanted to do this weekend and then headed straight out to take a walk around.

I want to go there Daddy!

After a short walk we found ourselves at Strøget, Copenhagen's main shopping street popular for it's street performers. You can find anything from bargain stores to your high-end stores such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci. After walking past a few bars we realised that it was the release of Tuborg's Christmas Beer, Tuborg Julebryg, that night so we headed back to the hotel to get something to eat and planned to come out later to try and catch it.



Ready to go out

Sure enough at 20:59 we heard lots of horns going off and from around the corner 3 Tuborg lorries appeared beeping their horns to a crowd of people cheering. The lorries then stopped and from out the back blue Santa's came out and handed out free beer and hats. It was really great to see!

After all the travelling and excitement of the first day we made sure we got to bed early so we could be nice and fresh in the morning. Calleigh fell straight to sleep and slept just like she does at home, although being in the same room as her we did notice she talks in her sleep. Weird.

Our second day in Copenhagen



Calleigh's Menu: 11 Months

Calleigh loves her food, she's not fussy at all and is more than happy to try anything, very unlike me who has always been fussy about food.

Although she still has no teeth she can get through most foods using her gums so it's no problem.

Just this week we have introduced some new things so I thought I would let you know how it's going.

 

Breakfast: Calleigh always starts her morning with a bottle, then an hour or two later we will give her breakfast. This week we have introduced weetabix with cow's milk (blue top). Although it's recommended not to give you baby cow's milk as a drink until 12 months, she's not actually drinking it and she's almost a year old anyway.

 

 

Lunch: For lunch Calleigh now has sandwiches. I have only tried her with cheese spread at the moment but she loves it. There is hardly ever anything left over. Calleigh was not fond on the baby brand nibbles so I tried her on a few wotsits. She ate the whole packet!! (minus the two that Daddy stole).

 

 

Dinner: Calleigh will usually have a jar of pre-made baby food for dinner from the 10 month range. Her favourite at the moment is Beef, Tomato and Mashed Potato. This works for me better at the moment but pretty soon she will be eating what we eat, when we eat. She also loves yogurt, again we buy just normal kids yogurt, I think it's munch bunch.

 

 

We both went for a meal Halloween night with Mee-Maw and Auntie Lana. I ordered her fish fingers, peas and chips off the children's menu. I think it went down OK, although she had more fun throwing her peas on the floor.

 

 

 



Getting Ready For Winter

I love dressing for the colder months of the year. I love big jumpers and cosy cardigans, I love accessorising with scarves and hats and I love being at home wrapped up in my dressing gown and slippers.

The same goes for Calleigh. It's very important to make sure that babies are nice and warm when out and about but also looking good at the same time.
So I have been very busy buying lot's of winter items recently.

 

I love this pink stripe jumper from Mothercare, it's very cute with it's bow detail and keeps Calleigh nice and warm when getting up to her usual mischief at home.

 

 

 

As for hats, scarves and gloves they don't usually stay on as much as I'd like them to (just like in summer when Calleigh wouldn't keep her summer hat on). So I was delighted when I found this lovely set from Matalan.

The hat has got a tie ribbon to ensure it's not pulled off and the matching scarf and gloves really complete the look.

I know someone who's not having cold ears this winter.

 

 

 

Again with boots, It's a lottery as to how long they stay on. You have to keep one eye on the ground when you're out and about to make sure one hasn't been kicked off.

Check out these adorable Ugg style boots I picked up from Tiny Toes Baby Shoes.
These are such great quality, cute and actually managed to stay on for the whole of our walk and then some. Now I don't know about you but to me that is something!

Finally a good winter coat is important. For me I've recently purchased a Parka which I am in love with, it's so warm.
For Calleigh I brought a coat from Mothercare last winter which she wore all through the colder months of last year, so when I found a larger size on sale in the summer I had to buy one. It's just been brought out and fits perfectly.

Calleigh last winter

Calleigh now

 Make sure you all wrap up for winter and keep those feet warm, no one likes cold feet :-)