Blogs from Denmark, Europe - page 12

The weather here in Copenhagen, which remains chilly and breezy, continues to be a thorn in our sides. Yesterday morning the temperature was a frigid 39 degrees when we awakened, and barely crept up to the 50-degree-mark by late in the afternoon. The sun plays hide-and-go-seek most of the time, and a few occasional light showers seem to come out of nowhere, making traveling by foot quite a challenge for three warm-blooded Floridians. So we stayed put most of the day, venturing out only for lunch, and then for a brief visit to the Church of Our Savior a block down the street from our apartment. This unique church, the upper portion of which is visible from our rear windows, is a baroque church most famous for its helix spire with an external winding staircase that ... read more

All of us were up and about by 6:00 AM on this chilly Sunday morning (upper 30s at daybreak), when Chef Dee surprised us with eggs Benedict for breakfast! While enjoying this treat, we discussed a plan of attack for today, and settled on a visit to the famous Tivoli gardens and amusement park. The walking distance to the park from our apartment looked to be about a mile, so we decided to take a stab at riding a bus. We walked up the street to the nearby metro station around 12:30 PM, and jumped aboard the 9A bus, only to be greeted by a gruff female driver who was obviously annoyed at having to sell us tickets and collect the money (most riders use machine scannable passes). She proceeded to issue terse commands, like a ... read more

The weather has been downright miserable, at least by our standards, since our arrival in Copenhagen. Although we can tolerate the cooler temperatures (40s and 50s), it's been the blustery wind conditions that make walking--even short distances--very uncomfortable. The evening before last, when a frontal system moved through the area, the winds howled at upwards of 40/mph, rattling the windows throughout the night. As a result, our sightseeing plans have suffered a serious setback. However, we did make an outing of sorts this morning, when Dee and I rode the metro from the nearby Christianshavn station to the airport to greet our good friend Cindy at the arrivals area. Cindy flew from Orlando, Florida (via London Gatwick) to spend a week with us here in Copenhagen, and it was great to welcome her after a typically ... read more

As soon as we crossed the Arctic Circle going towards Nordkapp, we started seeing reindeer. It was very cool. Someone had painted a red nose on a reindeer crossing sign, so Rudolph is known even in Norway. Nordkapp (North Cape) is the northernmost point in continental Europe (71*10'21"N); the sun doesn’t set here from mid-May until the end of July. We were there in mid-August, and we were very lucky to see a beautiful sunset, considering how rainy it had been on our drive to get here - it was actually clear that whole day. It was touristy, but also fun. On our previous trip in 2005, we met some motorcyclists who had driven more than seven days from Italy, only to be socked in by clouds and they could barely see 50 feet in front ... read more

Dear All Hello again, for my third and final update on my lovely little winter trip to Denmark. I had enjoyed two full days of sightseeing until this point, around Copenhagen first, and then two royal castles situated in Hillerød and Helsingør in northern Zealand. For my final full day, I wanted to explore more of the natural beauty of this part of the world, and planned a visit which would take in both coast and forest, and after ending up with some additional time towards the end of the day, I also managed to fit in a lake. Whilst so far I had visited some quite famous tourist sights of Denmark, this final day enabled me to really get off-the-beaten track, and just explore what was around me in the natural north of Zealand. It ... read more