Day 7 - Goodbye to Herning, Hello to Copenhagen

Our cold morning was filled with lots of tears and heartfelt goodbyes this morning, kids and host families alike. We heard talk from host families of wanting to "accidentally" miss the bus and keep our kids for a few more days as well as many of our kids wanting to move here and become Vikings. Rachel F.'s home stays little girl was calling her sister and kissing her goodbye. It was a sad yet beautiful moment.

We boarded our bus and headed on our 4 hour drive to Copenhagen. Half way we stretched our legs at a rest stop. While braving the bathroom line and grabbing a snack, the kids played on a nearby park/ play structure. Merlin was our champion on one balancing object. He balanced one-footed while no one else could even stay on it. There was also a zip line in the park and all the kids gave a try! Back on the bus we had a birthday celebration for our 2 birthdays. Kennedy who had her birthday on the first day of tour and Julia who's birthday was today. We had delectable "Angel Kisses" a chocolate covered marshmallow creme confection (a local delicacy)... the girls also received Denmark soccer balls that had been signed by all the choir members. We traveled over a 18K bridge. When it was built it was the longest in the world. But then the Japanese completed a longer one 3 months later. We saw many of the wind mills that are all over Denmark, which provide over 20% of the country's power and will provide 50% in about ten years.

Once we arrived in Copenhagen, we were whisked off to a boat tour on the canals of the city. It was FANTASTIC! We saw so many of the main sights of the city on the water! The buildings at the beginning of the tour were built in the 1600 and 1700s and were painted bright and beautiful colors. We saw the new playhouse theatre, which is right on the water and completed in 2008. We saw the new Opera House completed in 2005 containing 14 floors, with 5 of those floors being underground. It boasted one of the largest roof constructions in the world and it's floor plan was more than 2 football fields in space. Besides that, the outside building was quite stunning. We saw an old torpedo boat hanger that had converted into apts. The most expensive apartments were 1.5 million dollars. We saw part of the interesting part of Copenhagen called "Christiana - The "Free Town" which is technically under different laws than the rest of the city. A black submarine last used in the Iraq War is now a museum. Nearby, we saw a war ship that was the pride of the Danish Navy, until they misfired a missile into a holiday spot. It's now called the "Oops" warship. We also saw Copenhagen's main tourist attraction, The Little Mermaid. For more information on this piece of artwork, check out the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(statue)

We saw the home of the Queen of Denmark, and she had just gotten home, symbolized by the flags on top of the house flying. We felt so honored to be only meters away from the royalty. Bob said we were going to have tea with the , but he lied! We also saw the Symbol of Christianity in Copenhagen on Our Saviors Church made with the spiral tower with gold and green and a stair case on the outside. It was stunning!

Overall, the tour was filled with low bridges for the boat to go under, made of marble or iron, green copper trim on buildings and lanterns, the dome of one of Europe's largest Cathedrals, that of the city, the sounds of our choir singing to the other tourists, and restaurants where one could get a cold beer and fried fish.

Once off the boat, we went on to the church and to meet our new host choir for the weekend in Copenhagen. After a quick rehearsal, singers were released and met their new home stay families. They went home to eat dinner and rest up for a big day tomorrow!