First glimpse of København

I have a feeling that I am going to use this blog more and more as a journal. So, be prepared for a lot of entries, many which may seem quite mundane.
I can't believe we've been here for a week already. The first couple of days were so hard, but I feel like we are starting to settle into the rhythm of life here more and more. This week, we've had several outings, mostly to local stores. We've taken the bus, the train and metro and we haven't gotten lost once! I have to give all the credit to Chad. He's done such a great job of getting us to where we want to go (and back again!) On Wednesday this week, we had an all-day long excursion to Ikea. It takes so long to drag 3 little kids all over the place on buses, that we are finding that pretty much any excursion is an all day thing. Our Ikea outing was very helpful and we were able to find a few things we needed. We ate lunch there that day and it was probably the cheapest eating out experience we've had so far. So, our house is finally starting to take shape. Chad is out with a member from our ward tonight picking up a couch and chair that another ward member is giving us. Chad went out last night and got a bunkbed for the kids. And tomorrow night, he'll go out with another ward member to pick up a couple of large items from Ikea. By then, we should be pretty much set. It's nice to finally have the house take shape and feel like we are making it more of a home.
Today, we headed into Copenagen (or København as the Danes spell it.) We thought we needed to go into the Immigration offices to do some more registering, but found out that what we did last week at the Albertslund Commune was sufficient. So, time for sight-seeing! We basically just picked a direction and started walking. It was so bitterly cold today, we weren't into being outside much, but we did manage to walk by the Copenhagen city hall, pose with the Hans Christian Andersen statue and watch the kids chase around a ton of pigeons. We found out that the Danish National Museum is free, so we thought that would be a good cold weather activity. It was really nice, most of the signs in the museum were also written in English, so we were able to understand what we were looking at. We barely scratched the surface of all there was to see there before it was time to leave. It gets dark extra early here, around 4:30, so we try to head home before it's too dark every night. So, after leaving the museum we made a quick detour to the Christiansborg Palace. It's so nice knowing we'll be here for a while, so we can back and look at these places again. We walked along the Strøget, the longest pedestrian only shopping area in Europe.

Mural made out of Lego's at the Lego Store (Lego's are manufactured in Denmark.)

Basically, it's in the old part of Copenhagen where the streets are really narrow, so there just isn't space for cars. It's so nice they've blocked it off so that only pedestrians can walk along there. We just walked along a small portion of it, ending up in Kongens Nytorv (The King's New Square.) That's where we saw our first street performer, if you can call him that. Compared to the ones we saw in England a few years ago, he was pretty lame. But...the kids loved him. Especially Noah. Anyway, it was a fun first glimpse of Copenhagen and what it has to offer. There are a lot of old buildings, palaces, castles and historic sites within just a few blocks, so it'll be great to go back and explore a bit more. Maybe when it's a bit warmer.