Roskilde!

I think Copenhagen is going to take a bit of getting to know, but Roskilde, which was Denmark's capital when the vikings ruled the waves, started tugging on heart strings from the moment we left the train station.First stop was the cathedral - the only one in the country until about 100 years ago - burial place of generations of kings named Christian and Frederik. I'm a total sucker for churches, but I've never seen one like this. Austere stone outside hides a treasure trove of gorgeousness inside. It seems that successive kings have each sought to leave a mark by adding a new niche in whatever styles was deemed contemporary in their day, so walking through this place is like wandering through very centuries of art and culture.
From there, it's just a short, pretty walk down to the harbourside home of one of the most famous shipyards in the world - and where we were reunited with Josh, and introduced to his travelbuddies, Daren and Rowan. I swear I don't know whose eyes, of all of us, were wider...
Roskilde town stands at the end of a long, shallow fjord, that in days of yore could be reached by ships sailing up any of 3 channels. As Danish supremacy on the high seas was challenged, around 1070 AD, the town occupants sank 7 or more ships in the fjord to block all channels but one- the hardest to navigate. Centuries passed and the ships were forgotten except for tales that in the mysterious 'reefs' in the harbour hid ghost ships - until the 1960s. Pieces of 5 ships dug up back then are still being painstakingly washed and preserved and put into a massive puzzle, with more than 20,000 pieces to each ship, and nothing to mark one boat from the next in their jumbled piles of timbers.

But even better than the guided tour that spun these stories so compellingly - Lissy, Josh and I donned life vests and went for a sail! 'You know you have to row' the woman in the ticket office had said, when we bought our tickets. We didn't know that the Aussies in the group, having travelled the furthest, would also get to man the tiller and the sail lines. We were all buzzing as we adjourned to a cafe in the town, for another amazing meal, lashings of cider, and yet more endless chatter. Daren and Josh, with US driving experience, piloted us down the wrong side of the roads all the way home, and we collapsed into sleep. Knackered again. And deliriously happy.