Nathan and I had a wonderful long weekend in Copenhagen. We met Zane at the airport when we flew in, and pretty much spent the next three days catching up with him and exploring Copenhagen. Day one we walked up the Round Tower for views of the city. We then walked to Nyhaven canal area and did a cruise around the waterways. From here we wanted to hire bikes to cycle out to the Carlsburgh brewery. The city is packed full of cyclists with cycle lanes everywhere, but it is nigh impossible to find anywhere to rent bikes from. Eventually we found one shop that had scungy bikes for rent. We cycled back to the canal area where we had spotted a restuarant in the sun where we had lunch next to the water. From here we missioned it to the brewery where we did a whistle stop tour as it was close to closing time and we didn't want to forfeit our two 'free' drinks. We returned the cycles and found a nice cafe in a square to sit and enjoy a bottle of wine. Then we did dinner with a friend of Zane's who we had met at Zane's wedding and had a big night with in Vienna. It was cool to see Suna again and being a local he knew all the good places to take us. I headed to bed as the boys went to a party on a little island.
Day two was pretty relaxed in account of the party the night before. Suna had invited us around for a BBQ, so we walked around our area in the morning and got coffee before going to Suna's. On arrival I was pleased to discover 3 kittens and a 5 month old baby. We walked to a red bull event (office chair racing) down the hill from Suna's house. After dinner we went to Christiana which is like a hippie area. It is a free state where they don't pay taxes and tourists aren't allowed to take photos. It was pretty cool, they have a pretty central location so the land is worth mega bucks and the government is unable to kick them off the land. Similar to the old squatters laws in England.
Day three started with a trip to Tivoli gardens. However, 1) it was not open for another 15min, 2) you had to pay to get in, so as a result we carried on walking to the far end of town to climb up the bell tower of the Church of our Lady. The view was amazing from the top and we could clearly see the bridge to Sweden. After, we did some shopping with Zane for Lena and Kai and then had an amazing lunch of open sandwiches in the sun before heading to the airport.
We had a very action packed weekend that was topped off with lovely doses of sunshine. I was pleased that I didn't find Copenhagen too expensive as I had heard Scandinavian countries are really pricey. I would definitely like to visit Sweden and Finland and see more of Scandinavia.
We had a lovely stroll through Kew Gardens last weekend. When I say stroll I mean 4 hour walk with no breaks for sitting down and no lunch stop! We took in three massive glass houses, a mini aquarium, Kew Palace, Queen Charlotte's cottage and the tree top walk. The temperate glass house is the biggest surviving Victorian glass structure in the world! It is closing in three weeks for a 5 year renovation so we were lucky to see it before it closes. In total the gardens cover 121 hectares. 
Day two was pretty relaxed in account of the party the night before. Suna had invited us around for a BBQ, so we walked around our area in the morning and got coffee before going to Suna's. On arrival I was pleased to discover 3 kittens and a 5 month old baby. We walked to a red bull event (office chair racing) down the hill from Suna's house. After dinner we went to Christiana which is like a hippie area. It is a free state where they don't pay taxes and tourists aren't allowed to take photos. It was pretty cool, they have a pretty central location so the land is worth mega bucks and the government is unable to kick them off the land. Similar to the old squatters laws in England.
We are spending the current bank holiday weekend in London. We are going to Copenhagen next weekend so we are staying home this weekend. Yesterday we checked out the Tower of London again and this time did a tour with the Yeoman guard. Im not sure how we didn't do it the first time round. The tour was very funny and lasted an hour and then we checked out the crown jewels - amazing. We must have been at the tower for 2.5 hours then we walked to Borough market to find something for lunch, before walking along the Southbank to Embankment to get the tube home.
We had heaps of fun at the London 7's tournament yesterday which was played at Twickenham. The theme for the tournament was Safari which was so easy and fun to dress up too, made easy by primark selling animal onesies. A onesie was the perfect outfit as the weather was a little cool so we were nice and toasty in our costumes. We were with a group of 11, a mix of Aussies and Kiwis. The Aussies liked to hassle me for my croc costume as it was Australian colours and they were telling me I was supporting Australia. I put on my NZ scarf and left it on for the day so there could be no more questions over my allegiance to NZ. 
For the long weekend we decided to stay in England, mostly as we hadn't been bothered to organise anything else. We drove up to York and had a day walking the old city walls, visiting Cliffords Tower (it used to be a castle but only the tower remains) and catching up with Anna and Borrie. They have officially left London and have begun their travels which will eventually lead them back to NZ. That night we stayed with Helen and Chris in Green Hammerton which is a little village 20min from York.
