Denmark, Day 6: Tivoli Gardens

Plan for the day: Visit Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens, the second-oldest amusement park in the world! After breakfast, we had a couple of hours to kill before Tivoli opened. Strolling around outside near our hotel, the girls posed for photos in these round windows of the plantetarium across the street.

Within seconds of this photo, Savannah slipped and did a literal face plant onto the ground below. The sound of it was horrific; I thought she had cracked her skull. By some miracle, she had just slapped her face against the pavement, resulting in a nasty scrape on the bridge of her nose and a mightily swollen nose. Back in the hotel room with an ice pack, it seemed like our big plans for the day were dashed.

[Side note: We found out later that the astronomer the planetarium is named for, Tycho Brahe, famously lost the tip of his nose in a duel. Seems like a crazy coincidence that Savannah banged up her nose climbing on his planetarium. His life story is kind of hilarious, if you're interested.]

Just as we started to make an alternate plan, Savannah declared that she was up for a day at Tivoli. We had such a good time that I can hardly believe the day started on such an upsetting note!

Ready for a rainy day at Tivoli!

Tivoli Gardens is beautiful. It reminded me of Liseberg, because it is set in the middle of the city, the rides all crowded around and among one another. Flowers bloom everywhere. It is easy to see how this was one of the parks that inspired Walt Disney in creating Disneyland.

That pirate ship is a restaurant.

Moorish palace with snowy mountain peeking over

Just cruising' through Smøgen. Like you do.

Our first ride of the day looked almost exactly like the Matterhorn Bobsleds: a coaster speeding in and around a snowy mountain, decorated to look like a Swiss chalet. The girls are usually a bit timid about roller coasters, but we marched them right onto it. All smiles at the end.

Found out later this is the 3rd oldest wooden coaster still in use; it's been running since 1914. There's a guy who sits in the middle and operates a hand-brake, to make sure it doesn't go too fast, and a dark tunnel at the end that's pitch black.

Line selfie

Short lines = happy family

We had lunch at a cafe called Cakenhagen because how could you NOT eat at a place called Cakenhagen? We tried the Tivoli Cake (again, how do you not?) but it wasn't actually a cake, so that was weird.

Beautiful Danish sweets at Cakenhagen

Although I'm terrified of swing rides, I agreed to brave the Star Flyer, a swing ride that lifts a disgusting 260 feet into the air.  Jeremy called it, "facing my fears" but I called it "the worst idea ever". There are no pictures of us on this evil beast because they make you empty your pockets of everything before you get on. Yeah, that didn't make me feel safer. I kept my eyes shut almost the entire time and gripped the chains as if my life depended on it.

Never again, demon spider. NEVER AGAIN.

Jeremy and I will remember Tivoli as the place our children graduated from the kiddie rides. Just a few weeks ago at Liseberg, they spent most of their time in the children's area and refused to go on the bigger attractions. Today, they tried to like some of the kiddie rides, but just weren't into it.

"The Panda" a mini drop tower. Not impressed.

Then they went on the Golden Tower, one of those giant turbo tower rides that takes you up, up, up and then drops you dooooooowwwwwwnnnn. And they begged to go on it again!

Not even sitting with a parent?! Who are these people?!

They went on this, too. Are they even related to me?

During the heaviest downpour, eager to avoid the rain, we stumbled onto a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale ride. It was like a cross between It's a Small World (little wooden characters and scenes) and Haunted Mansion (riding in a car that rotates on a track while listening to recorded narration). We switched the narration to English, but it still left us puzzled. The stories would start and then abruptly end. "The little mermaid made a bad bargain." That's it? What was the bad bargain? Don't leave us hanging, Hans! At the end, there was a creepy wax figure of Anderson sitting at his desk. I tried to convince the family to ride it again, but there were no takers.

We finally made it to a kids' playground area at the end of the day. Even though they'd gone on a bunch of serious rides, the girls were not above climbing up on top of a whale and enjoying the hidden playground behind it.

Aggressively adorable 

When we left, we were cold and wet but still smiling. The upside of the crummy weather was that we got to enjoy a full day at Tivoli with almost no crowds. The lines took no time at all and we were able to repeat some of our favorites. Another contender for happiest place on earth.