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Published: September 11th 2012
We find ourselves quite pleased to be in a city again! From a rather remote location in the northern part of the Shetland Islands, three flights and two transfers later and there you are; the bustling city of Copenhagen. This is one of those cities that has a distinct pulse and is alive with activity.
We look around and all of sudden we notice that everything is quite flat. This bodes well for the plethora of bicyclists who motor around on their faithful steeds, secure as they actually have their own lane to travel here in the heart of the city. As Americans, we have to keep a watchful eye on those bike paths as the pedal pushers will mow you down and move on. As well the bikers need to take care. Our first hour exploring in the city involved a car hitting a girl on a bike and they were waiting for an ambulance as we walked past. We are amazed that no one wears helmets in a city where thousands bike everywhere. Fearless or naive? We will bet you the neurosurgeons stay busy with more than their fair share of cracked melons.
A bit weary of hotels and guesthouses, Dave was able to use a website (airbnb) and find us an apartment to rent for our time here. It is so nice having a little home rather than a room. This is our first foray into renting an apartment and so far so good. The only issue we have is this unit was selected because we were lead to believe there was a washer and dryer in the unit…not so. It is in a grungy little basement and is coin operated but once again we have some clean clothes. For those of you who have been in our position, washing every piece of clothing is like starting anew and it feels good!
When you rent on airbnb, you email with the owner for details after the rental is approved. The owner was not going to be able to meet us with the keys because we were arriving after 11pm. She made arrangements for us to pick up the key from a neighbor. We had a bit of difficulty finding the neighbor but fortunately because it was late we decided to spend the money on a cab. The
driver was a real gent and allowed us to use his cell phone to call her and get additional details. Arriving in the dark of night it was difficult to assess the neighborhood but good news…..all is well.
Not having done this before we were not sure what to expect. As it turns out, the apartment we rented is normally occupied by the lady we are renting it from. All of her clothes and personal items are still in the apartment. We must admit we weren’t really expecting that. It feels a little odd for all of her stuff to be here but we have adapted as we always do. She must be staying with a friend or family member while we are here.
If you have used the website before we would love to hear what your experiences have been. We have booked an apartment for next week in Berlin so we are eager to see how the next experience differs from this one.
Our walk into the hub of the city is about 35 minutes—not bad at all. Not to mention that it provides some
Game day
soccer fanreasonably good exercise for us.
Hoofing it provides some interesting stops. Our little domicile was on a route directly to the center of the city and a stop the Copenhagen Museum provides the history of the immigrants that make this city what it is today. They had a wonderful exhibition that gave a snapshot of at least a hundred immigrants and the story of where they originated, why they came to Copenhagen and the positive impact they have made. A second exhibition was concerning the jitterbug, hula-hoops, rock –n- roll and the American influence on Denmark’s teenagers over the decades. It is a small quirky museum, but enjoyable.
And now for some really exciting news: we bought a replacement camera lens! After an hour of considering new versus used, replacing the lens with the same lens or upgrading we decided to get the same lens and used. We believe we will be buying the Nikon D800 in the next year and did not want to invest too much money in this current camera. MJ is simply gushing using the Nikon D90 again. A long lost friend has returned! “Point and shoot” cameras are really
quite good these days, but for us it was difficult to go back. We are happy having our Nikon D90 back in service.
Our first day in Copenhagen we had walked several miles and it was time to find refreshments and give our feet a rest. We’d stopped in a couple of places and didn’t care for the menu and we finally ended up at the Rio Bravo Restaurant. Yep partner, here we sat in Copenhagen, sipping fines Danish ales, eating a variety platter of fine Danish cheeses and baguettes all while looking at a bar- restaurant that could be located in Wyoming. They had saddles for seats at the bar just like in Jackson Hole. The irony was not lost on us. You almost felt like rustlin’ some Danish cattle.
We put so many miles on our feet our first day in town that we decided to take the hop on hop off bus on our 2
nd day. We bought the boat & bus ticket. We enjoyed the boat phase better than the bus phase but both were nice. We’ve taken hop on hop off buses in more than a few major cities
and have found the commentary in other cities to be far more informative. But, they are a convenient way to learn a bit of history and have transportation around the town. Travel tip # 104: You need to sit on top of these double-decker buses and take it all in. And don’t forget to always stay seated while the bus is in motion or risk losing your head on some tree branch.
The route included all the famous places in this grand city. One of those is the Mermaid. Ok……. let’s talk about the Mermaid. Not impressed. Seriously. You pull up and here is this fairly non descript statue perched on a rock near the water. It’s clear that this is one of those things that has drawn more attention than is necessary in our opinion. This town has some beautiful statues that should garner more attention than the Mermaid. We’ll just stop now. You can come and have a look if you like. We had a similar experience when we visited the re-known “Plymouth Rock” in Massachusetts. You get all worked up and then you see it and think, “is that all there is?”
All in all, a very nice city and we enjoyed the sites and it’s definitely worth a visit. Our time was rather short, but we found the architecture interesting, Christiana is rather quirky section of town (but you would have to expect that given its history of old hippies and a fair amount of drugs), the food is excellent throughout the city and the general vibe is positive.
A note to travelers who have the fortune to meet other people traveling: when we were in Greenland we became friends with Thomas and Susanne who live in Copenhagen. They invited us to dinner in their home and we had a most wonderful evening and feel as though we will continue to be friends. They cooked us a traditional meal of Danish meatballs that were absolutely wonderful. We sipped fine Danish beers and had a marvelous evening getting to know each other better. Thanks again Thomas and Susanne!
We have heard from some of Brutus’s fans and they were wondering what happen to him in the last blog. One friend questioned whether or not he may have been afraid of the Shetland ponies. The truth
Dog in a basket
No reason to walk when my owner is driving me! is it was very windy and rainy in the Shetlands and we were afraid he might blow away and when we were in pubs or restaurants we simply forgot. Whoops! Brutus has had a wonderful time in Copenhagen. Take our word for it.
We’ve enjoyed meandering the antique shops, pubs and sitting at open-air cafes chatting. We met a couple of really nice ladies from Nashville and we had a wonderful conversation about our up coming elections.
All in all, a very nice but brief stay.
Time moves quickly and now we move on to Berlin……
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
ENJOYING OURSELVES JUST FINE
You can tell by the tone of your tale...that you are having a mighty fine time...yep...mighty fine time