Our first stop on the 2nd leg of our year long travels was in Copenhagen and we could not have asked for more. The Tivoli Gardens, Nyhavn, herring, brown bread with butter and stuff on top, Carlsburg Pilsner, bikes and bikes and bikes, a couple of museums and a unique church.
We chose to start our Western European leg in Copenhagen because we figured the weather would be better at this time of the year. We were rewarded with three mostly sunny days full of exploration and education.
We walked off our first evening jet lag at the oldest amusement park in the world; the Tivoli Garden and Amusement Park. The place was right down the street from our hostel and we could see the rides from our balcony and fireworks on Saturday night, which we didn’t realize until we heard the fireworks go off at midnight.
After a quick mid-afternoon snack of Carlsburg beer and open faced sandwiches of Smørrebrød, we strolled over to check it out. Even though neither of us went on any rides it was still a fun way to spend a couple of hours strolling around in the light before retreating to the hostel for a good night’s sleep.
The next day we each bought ourselves a Copenhagen Card ($121/pp). This pass covered admission to most of the things we wanted to see ~ including the canal boat tour, as well as all fares on public transportation. In the end we decided that we didn’t save any $, but the pass did make public transportation more accessible and we were glad we didn’t have to worry about paying for every little entrance fee as we went along. Those two factors made us glad we had made that purchase.
Museums are fun when they have Egyptian mummies AND Vikings. Palaces (or is it a Castle?) are the most fun when you can see great copper pots and ruins of previous castles (or is it a palace?) the builders preserved as they were building the current Castle/Palace. Ending the day in famous Nyhavn (new harbor) with a snack was a lovely way to cap off the day.
Day two found us wandering around town and then enjoying a beer by the canal in true Copenhagen (Copenhagian?) fashion. We sat by the canal after standing for 35 minutes beside the canal waiting for a boat to take us on a canal tour. The boat finally showed up 5 minutes after we got out of the first come first served line. Damn my impatience! We were both tired and in the 2nd day of adjusting to a new time zone, which may have been a contributing factor for my ill-timed decision to walk away. Whatever the case, drinking beer by the canal seemed to smooth out the wrinkles eventually.
This is also the day I got my first haircut NOT given to me by my dear friend and hairdresser Mel Garcia. Mel has cut my hair for almost 25 years and it felt weird to be in someone else’s chair ~ even as part of the adventure. He is retiring finally this year and I hope he enjoys every bit of it.
By day three we were cooking with gas with energy to explore! We rented bikes and rode around this bike friendly city and marveled at it’s resources: dedicated lanes and traffic control lights for bikes!
We rode to ChristiansHavn to see the Church of our Savior ~ famous for its amazing views of the city. We didn’t get to walk up in the spire since we had not made advance reservations but the interior was just as interesting and unique as the exterior. The altar piece and the magnificent pipe organ are both works of art. The church is worth going to even without slogging up the spire.
We rode around a more “hippified” version of Copenhagen called The Free City of Christiania where marijuana was heavy in the air, free love art was on every wall that wasn’t covered by ivy, and the streets were considerably less tidy than what we experienced in greater Copenhagen.
We finally got on the canal boat tour I was too impatient to wait for the previous day. We rode to the Worker’s Museum to get our dose of Social Democratic history, and finally ended our ride-about-town with a nap in the park. Back to the hostel for a couple of beers and then our go-to dinner when we are tired…….Italian.
Copenhagen is definitely a city worth visiting and not as expensive as I might have thought it would be. The streets are very clean for a city of it’s size. I think we only saw one unhoused person while we were there, whether because of good services or because the winter pushes them further south is an unknown. Most people we ran into spoke English and were very helpful. We didn’t love the food ~ even though we did give the pickled herring a try. Lots of mayonnaise based salads (think tuna, chicken, egg), lots of fried things (think white fish, and octopus) and lots of pickled things (think herring, onions, and cucumbers), but not lots of vegetables or fresh fruits.
Now on to Berlin and Oktoberfest in Munich!
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