(journal entry from September 3, 2019)
Last night, after riding the ferry from Bornholm back to Ystad, we got in the car and drove an hour to Copenhagen, leaving Sweden and heading into our final night.
We found our Airbnb, but finding parking proved to be pretty difficult. City living isn’t my ideal. I’m glad we spent most of our trip in the countryside. It was fun to stay a night in a cute little city apartment though.
This morning we got up, packed up, and headed out to see a couple of things before heading to the airport.
First, we went to see the Copenhagen Temple. This temple is in the middle of the city and really unique because it was originally a church meetinghouse (built in 1931) and then renovated and turned into a temple in the early 2000s.
It was raining so we just walked around outside for a few minutes and then got back in the car and drove over to The Church of our Lady. This is a Lutheran church (The Church of Denmark) which houses the original Christus statue that was sculpted by Bertel Thorvaldsen in the 1830s. He was commissioned to decorate the interior of the church with statues of Jesus Christ and the apostles (Judas Iscariot was replaced by a statue of St. Paul instead). Other artists also contributed sculptures and paintings. Thorvaldsen carved and donated the modern font as a personal gift.
It was so neat to get to see these original statues (especially the Christus) in real life! I have seen many replicas of the Christus statue, but it was really incredible to stand there, a few feet from the original and imagine myself standing in front of Jesus Christ.
After these quick stops, we drove to the airport so we could be a couple hours early for our flight. We said goodbye to my parents and then headed to our separate destinations.
And now here we are, on the plane, flying home. This first flight is about 12 hours long and then we have a layover in San Francisco before our last 2 hour flight to Salt Lake.
This trip has been so incredible. I’m always happy to go home though. There’s just something special about home. I’m excited to see the kids and share all of our adventures with them!
