Lively Copenhagen

Tuesday to Thursday, May 24 to 26

Arriving in Copenhagen with not much more than some notion of Tivoli Gardens in my head, I was very pleasantly surprised by the pretty architecture--lots of red brick and a nice size to the buildings, 5 or 6 stories, like in Paris--and the fact that water is everywhere--the harbor, of course, but also canal after canal.

We wandered our way through Nyhavn (New Harbor) to get to our hotel.  It is one rather continuous sea of people, street musicians (not one but two accordion acts! this is important to someone who took 9 years of accordion lessons, albeit about a century ago) and wall-to-wall sidewalk bars/cafes.  In spite of this less-than-stellar description, it is a very scenic district.  This is where you'll find canal tours, but also sailboats and yachts and working vessels. Nyhavn is mostly a boat harbor rather than a canal.  It is a bustling, happening place.  And on a 75-degree day, everybody and his brother was enjoying it with a beer or an ice cream cone.

We were a tad wrung out by the time we arrived.  We spent a bit of time settling in and had to be careful not to sit down lest we fall asleep.  After a bit, we went out and wandered along the main harbor and watched the boat traffic.  Even out of the maelstrom of the Nyhavn harbor, there were people everywhere. They were sitting with their feet hanging over the dock edge, and we could see even more people doing the same at a large establishment (nightclub we think) across the harbor.  We could hear music and could see people dancing.

Next door to our hotel is the very modern Royal Danish Theatre's Playhouse. That, too, collected a crowd. It has a very popular restaurant for pre- and post-theatre dining/drinking and has tables out on the harborside dock.  We could see the striking Opera House just across the harbor and down a bit.

We walked up to a square (Kongens Nytorv) and had dinner at a nice bistro.  After walking along the harbor some more (now at dusk), we decided we could officially call it a day. We were now about 30 or so hours into our travel, and sleep was calling out to us.

Knowing that we only had 2 days to explore this pretty city, we were going to have to pick and choose which things to see.  Wednesday was again a beautiful warm day, with clear blue skies, so we decided to take one of the canal tours.  Not only was it a great day to be on the water, but it turned out to be a very good way to get oriented and to see a lot of the city.  We both agree that seeing the city from the water was the highlight of our visit. We got to see the royal yacht and sleepy little residential areas and a shipyard and trendy Christianshavn, Parliament, a number of churches, and the Royal Library, known as the "Black Diamond." Admittedly, it was an odd way to see the Little Mermaid, but given the number of people falling all over themselves (sometimes literally) to get a picture with her, perhaps our water-side view was just fine.

The royal Yacht:

Christiansborg Palace, now the seat of Danish government, including Parliament:

The Little Mermaid:

The Royal Library:

Thursday was about all things royal. We watched the very low key and interminable changing of the guards in the beautiful and stately Amalienborg Square. The guards were natty in royal blue and tall bearskin hats, but the setting was the star. The queen was not in residence at Amalienborg Palace, which essentially wraps around this grand square. If she had been there, the "changing" might have had a bit more pomp.  

A portion of Amalienborg Square:

The changing of the guards:

Afterward, we visited Frederikskirke, known as the Marble Church.  Quite grand from the outside, it is much more petite than it appears. Very pretty, with a pipe organ that was pure eye candy.

We made a stop at a smorrebrod restaurant, where we sampled a few of the regional specialty open-face sandwiches. For me, the housemade fish cakes were a highlight.  We also had a locally brewed brown ale. They're quite proud of their Carlsberg and Tuborg beers here, but we thought it might be nice to try something a little less industrial. (Showing our Oregon roots, aren't we?)

Our afternoon treat was a visit to Rosenborg Castle, an attractive 17th century, red brick castle with a moat and surrounded by popular gardens. (We walked through the gardens on Wednesday when it was 75+ degrees, and it was like being on a French beach. People were sunbathing in their underwear.  They would simply take off their street clothes and tan for as long as they could, then get dressed again and walk away.  You've never seen so many black bras and black panties in one place. That seemed to be the "uniform" of sorts. Occasionally, we got an eyeful we wished we'd missed. On Thursday, however, when the temperature had dropped 15 degrees and we had had morning showers, the bathing beauties were few and far between.)

This is a castle filled with paintings, exquisite furniture, some of the prettiest and grandest clocks I've ever seen, and tchotchkes of the royal ilk.  There were two floors of the king's rooms (King Christian IV). Climbing up and up to the top floor was rewarded with the Great Hall/Throne Room. Indeed we had thrones at both ends of the vast room. But the real treat awaits you in the cellar. You have to go all the way back down the old spiral stairway and then outside and down some stairs to the Treasury. There were many treasures made from amber, including a chest and a mirror. After viewing a couple chambers of lovely and precious things, you wind down even further and arrive in the presence of the crown jewels.  There were several crowns and jewelry that would make a gemologist swoon--diamonds, emeralds, pearls, and then more diamonds. Quite impressive. Let's just say there is a very good reason there are two armed guards outside the door to the Treasury.

One half of the Throne Room or Great Hall:

One of several crowns:

We spent some time in the garden and then walked down Sankt Annae Plads, a pretty boulevard with park benches and gardens and statues and boules courts running down the middle.  The very grand Swedish Embassy is here, as is the simpler Finnish Embassy. They are just a couple blocks from Amalienborg Palace. It looks like a very nice residential area and is only a couple blocks away from the harbor too.

We went to a late dinner at a little neighborhood cafe in this Embassy Row area and then finished our Copenhagen stay with one last visit to the Playhouse dock and a great view of the Opera House all lit up.  

Two days is definitely not enough time in this appealing city. We just might have to come back some day.

Well, That Was Fun!

Or not so much.

Our initial travel day had a few hiccups.  For several weeks, I had been worried about a relatively short connection in Seattle, where we would board the important flight of the day--our business class, upper deck seats on a British Airways 747 to London.  I really did not want to miss that connection.  We had talked with Alaska about changing to an earlier flight to Seattle.  But because we were flying on miles, they had no seats for us.  They'd be glad to sell us seats at a pretty regal price. And then because our international flight would be considered as starting in Seattle not Portland, they would have to reticket us for that flight.  All told, the tab would be just shy of $700. 

So we decided to live with the anxiety and keep our wallets closed.

And then the morning of our flight, we awoke to a message from British Airways that our flight out of Seattle would be delayed 2 hours. Hooray, you say.  Prayers answered, you say.  Me too at first.  But then I realized it meant we had only 1 hour to make the connection in Heathrow for our flight on to Copenhagen.  Yikes, that just might be a problem.

Off we went, knowing at least there must be plenty of options that would get us to Copenhagen. The important thing was the now-easy connection in Seattle.  The nice person checking us in at the British lounge in Seattle assured us that we would not have to clear customs in London, which should make our connection workable.  Everyone along the way was reassuring because our connecting flight in London was in the same terminal.

We had a comfortable and uneventful flight to London and hit the deck running once we reached Heathrow.  We were cleared for what is called "Fast Track," which moves you into a much shorter line for passport control. The next step was to find out our gate number.  The board simply said "Proceed to the 'A' gates."   This required going down two levels and catching a train. Once at the "A" gates, we had to go back up, up, up.  This is where we got to go through one of the most meticulous security checks we've encountered. We remembered from a previous connection at Heathrow that we would have to take out our liquids and tablets and cameras.  But practically each thing had to be in its own bin. My jacket and shoes were allowed to be together, but the tablets had to be in a different bin, for example.  It took us 5 bins. And Jerry had the pleasure of a full body scan and a pat down.  Then we had to reassemble ourselves.

Only then could we find a gate number.  And we drew the lovely Gate A23.  A23 is the last gate in the A area of this very large terminal, and we were already past the time we were supposed to be at the gate.  We set off at a hurried (should I say harried) pace.  We heard them announce last call as we were several gates away.  We arrived panting at the gate and managed to be the last people onto the plane.  Amazingly, our bags made it onto the plane too.  In fact, the only thing to recommend about this tight connection was that our bags were the third and fourth off the baggage carousel.

We then, in our tired and rather bedraggled state, chose to practice a false economy and used the metro--getting local currency, figuring out the transit options, and finding a place to buy tickets--to our hotel area in Copenhagen rather than take a nice, direct taxi.  After dragging our bags about a mile over cobblestones on a sunny, warm day, it occurred to us that perhaps this hadn't been the time to take a principled stand.

There really was no way to have avoided any of this--at least the airline part--so there are no particular lessons to be learned. Except perhaps to get very, very nervous when airline people keep saying, "It's a legal connection."

Our Next Jaunt

May 20, 2016

We're getting geared up to hit the road soon.  This time we're headed for Scandinavia, long on my "wish list" but never on Jerry's.  Almost 2 years ago, friends mentioned a cruise they were considering and it checked a lot of my boxes--Norwegian coast, Arctic Circle, and the Shetland and Orkney Islands.  It even got Jerry interested.  

So, off we go on Monday.  We'll spend the first 12 days visiting Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, and Bergen on our own, using a Scandinavia Rail Pass to get from place to place. Then we'll be hopping onto the just-christened Viking Sea for 2 weeks of cruising--over half of the time sailing along and visiting towns, fjords, and islands on the coast of Norway. We'll go as far as the North Cape, several hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. We'll work our way back down the coast, visiting different towns. We then cross over to the Shetland Islands, followed by a visit to Orkney as well.  The cruise wraps up with time in Edinburgh (the only place we have visited before--a grand 29 years ago) and drops us off in London, where we'll explore on our own for 5 days.

Once again, you can see that Rick Steves will be our trusty travel companion--in spirit and book form at least.

Here's what happened to our pristine Scandinavia guide.  Following Rick's own guidance, I took my Xacto knife in hand and removed the sections we'll actually need to have with us. That means we get to leave over half of the guidebook at home.  It hurts at first, but actually works quite well

The London guidebook has so far escaped this unpleasant fate and is getting highlighted and flagged instead. It probably won't look this nice by the time we return, but it will have earned its stripes.

I look forward to sharing discoveries and stories over the next few weeks. Come on along!