Berlin and Denmark

October 11, 2007
This morning we traveled to Berlin for the day. We went to the Legislative Building first (I guess this is comparable to the U.S. White House). Part of this building is older and still has bullet holes from WWII.

Next we went to a Holocaust Memorial. It covers a huge amount of space, I think almost an entire block. All it is is concrete slabs that vary in size and stretch on for rows and rows.

We grabbed some dinner on the way to the Berlin Airport. The last thing Dana said as we all got off the bus way, “I see ‘Home Alone’ chaos playing out in my head.”

So all 50 of us are in line waiting to get checked in. When I hand them my passport they told me that I had no reservation - 6 of us were told this. We realized that we were the last 6 to be admitted to the tour and the names on the plane tickets were never changed. Since it was less than 2 hours before the flight took off no new tickets could be purchased unless we got on the phone with some other specific ticket counter. So we tried calling but it was busy and continued to be busy for an hour. So by that point we had started trying to figure out where we were going to stay the night, if we wanted to book a flight taking off the next morning, what we could see in Berlin, etc. We had basically given up hope in being able to go because the counter people kept telling us there was no way once the 2 hour mark passed. But the phone rang 46 minutes before our flight was supposed to take off...it was the other ticket center. They told us they could sell us new tickets right then. So Bro. Anderson got all the paperwork finished, they checked our passports and we passed through security to catch our plane!

October 12, 2007
Today was an amazing day! Hopefully I will be able to remember everything that I want to write. This morning we took the train to the Fredricksberg Castle. It is in a gorgeous location with a pretty lake around it and lots of tree/gardens. In this castle are some of Carl Bloch’s original paintings. It’s interesting cause the castle is huge and these paintings are magnificent but are definitely not a major focal point. They are hung in a very small (bathroom sized) room that is very poorly lit. It’s too bad that the church can’t somehow obtain them and display them better.

Next we went to a church where the original Christus is. The spirit was so strong. It was a really neat experience. Also, sculptures of the 12 Apostles line the aisles of the church.

Next we had free time to get some dinner and we found delicious waffles!! They were so good - covered with whipped cream and jam!

Finally we got to go the the Copenhagen Temple. We changed our clothes in the LDS Church just across from the Temple. The church had a Christus in it which was cool.

The Temple is a very simple 3-story red brick building. The Temple President, Bro. Jacobs met with us and told us a little bit of history about the Temple. I loved the mural painted around the font in the baptistry. It was a gorgeous portrayal of Christ being baptized by John.


October 13, 2007
We had free time all day today, so it was up to us to entertain ourselves.

The group I went with started out at a Danish History Musuem which we could have spent hours at. The exhibits included daily items - clothes, toys, magazine clips, etc. - that sort of explained each decade of Denmark’s history.

At noon we were at the Palace to see the changing of the guard.

Next we walked up to the Danish Resistance Museum that is filled with artifacts from WWII.

Then we made our way to the Little Mermaid statue which was sorta a let down. I think I need to learn what the significance of that statue really is. It was small and I thought it would be further out in the water. But anyways, we took some pictures and kept walking by the water to find the dock that alot of the pioneers left from. There’s a small statue and plaque explaining the significance of the spot. On the cobblestone path are names of those who left from that dock.

Then we just went window shopping and got some more waffles!! And after we headed back to the train station to go to the airport and fly back to Berlin. We did have a little more airport drama. As we were standing in line to get it all worked out the man behind us asked what was going on. After we explained our problem he told us that he was the U.S. Ambassador of Denmark and if we got stuck there for the night the Embassy could accommodate us! Too bad we got it all resolved.