Contrasts of Scandinavia and Russia
Day Two – 24 May 2010
Weather: heavy cloud, scattered sprinkle, 14C
I was up at 6:30 and down to breakfast. It’s the usual fare and pretty good but there doesn’t seem to be enough seating with three or four tours at the hotel eating at once. At 8 we left for the included city tour of Copenhagen. I got a view of everything from land that I saw from the canal boat ride (so, yes, take the canal boat tour – then you get the best of both worlds).
We saw the Old Stock Exchange and a variety of other old buildings. The nice part about Copenhagen is that it is an old city, but it does not feel like it. It doesn’t throw its age at you at all. And being such a clean city helps considerably.
One other thing Copenhagen lacks.
Cats.
Yes. On my flickr page you’ll find a set entitled “The Cats of Greece,” “The Cats of Turkey,” and Israel and Jorden and so on.
You will find a set entitled “The Cats of Denmark” and it will be empty.
Seriously. Not a cat to be found.
Meanwhile, back to the city tour. We made a stop at Nyhavn for pictures. Too bad the sun wasn’t out. That’s a picture that needs sunshine. From there we went to see the Little Mermaid.
LOL.
Well, turns out that screen that we saw from the canal is a live feed to the World Expo in Shanghai showing the Little Mermaid. Pretty amazing. Next October, I’ll stand in front of the camera and hold up a sign saying “Hi Diego!”
But fear not, there was an enterprising young man lying under the screen to make sure us tourists didn’t leave completely empty handed.
I kid you not.
He was promoting a mental health site, according to the tour guide.
From there we visited Amlienborg, the winter residence of the monarchy. After a short walk around, we returned to the hotel for a quick break then were off for our first optional – Zealand and Frederiksborg Castle.
The bus took a very scenic route out of Copenhagen and drove along the coast. We could see the bridge connecting Denmark to Sweden in the distance with several huge wind turbines next to it (Denmark gets an amazing 20% of its power from wind and expects to get to half of all its power needs from wind within 20 years with the goal to get 90% or better. The Danes are very environmentally conscious and given how flat the country is, they have reason to be concerned. Sea level rise will take a lot real estate here).
After a drive of about an hour, we stopped at a fishing town where many of the buildings had thatched roofs.
Our tour guide said they were very expensive (Ten grand for a small house) and treated with fire retardant. Fire insurance rates must be sky-high though. We walked along the street, took pictures and some of us put our hand in the Baltic Sea (or rather, close enough for us).
From there, we drove inland to a small town where we could have lunch. Oh, I forgot to mention…remember that bank holiday I mentioned? Well, that was today. The country is shut down, so while this town would have been a wonderful stop for some quick shopping, only the restaurants/bakeries were open. I opted for a Coke and apple strudel from the bakery then went up to the Palace of Peace to watch the changing of the guard.
A little prodding will get the guard to smile.
From here, we went to visit the Frederiksborg Castle. I have to admit, it reminded me of Schonbrunn Palace in Austria – except for the exterior.
That screamed castle, but the inside was so much Schonbrunn as were the gardens. The tour guide mercifully didn’t go through every single room and comment on every painting and bed. Rather, she told us stories that were quite entertaining, including how the relationship between the various prince and princesses of Europe ultimately meant they could use the DNA from Prince Philip of England to identify the remains of Anastasia of the Russian Romanovs. There is a Danish connection.
After a quick shopping stop at the gift shop, we went outside to get some pics of the exterior of the castle.
Again, the lack of a blue sky really made a difference. The ride back to Copenhagen took about a half hour. The scenery is quite nice. Very green. Very clean.
No cats.
If there were a prize for the World’s Cleanest Country, this would be my nominee so far.
Optional Opinion: Recommended unless you didn’t have a pre-day and want to spend some time exploring Copenhagen on your own. We did get back at 3 pm which gave us 3 hours to go out if we wanted. If that’s not enough time to do what you want in and around Copenhagen, then skip the optional. (Or skip Tivoli with dinner and you have from 3 pm on to do some exploring.)
Is that hail hitting my window??? Hmmmmm…
At six we departed for the Tivoli and dinner optional. Most attended. We took a bus a few blocks to the entrance of Tivoli but stayed outside for dinner. We shared the bus with the Scenic Scandinavia tour and like me, there was one solo girl on the tour and we made a table of four with two Canadian women and had a delightful meal. It started with broccoli soup, followed by crackling pork with popper potatoes and desert was rice pudding with almonds. One desert had a full walnut in it and whoever got that won a prize. Turned out the prize was a shot of something pretty strong.
Wasn’t me. I’m still able to type.
After the meal, we went across the street to visit Tivoli. Diego brought us to the Tivoli Lake to show us the replica of the Little Mermaid.
Yes. It was there.
The light was perfect for some nice pictures. Then Diego showed us to a musical show which we watched for a few minutes, but moved on before hypothermia set in. We stared in awe at the airplane ride and the swing that goes like 30 stories into the air.
We just stared.
After our stomach’s settled, we sought out the ferris wheel and two of us decided to take a ride. At the last second, the other two women asked for our cameras to take pictures of us up in the ferris wheel, and silly us, gave them the cameras.
We get up there and are the only two people on the wheel, so the operator stops the car at the top of the wheel. We look around and say “wow, this would make a great picture.”
Oh wait!
Yup. Got a nice picture of us going around. Nothing of the sunset over the entrance to Tivoli.
After walking around for a while, we met up with the bus at 9:30 and returned to the hotel. I went straight to my room, got in bed and set up my laptop so that I could watch the series finale of Lost.
Yeah. I’m still scratching my head at that one.
Go to Day Three
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