Friday, June 1st

We woke up relatively early to start our journey to Denmark. We enjoyed our free breakfast (later in the trip we miss this so much because we stocked up on fruit and bread for the afternoon) and hit the road. The drive to Copenhagen was just over 2 hours. It was free of traffic and we enjoyed some beautiful Swedish countryside (and the hundreds of windmills that dominate the landscape). We crossed the Oresund Bridge that connects Sweden and Demark (one of the longest bridges in the world) and arrived in Copenhagen. Our hotel was too new to be found on TomTom, but Carla miraculously remembered what it looked like and we found it without much trouble. We checked in to the Island Hotel (it was super modern thanks to a recommendation from Carla’s friend Farhad who lives in Stockholm and is into modern) and we were on our way.

We had heard a lot about the free bikes in Copenhagen but had heard they were hard to come by and often found broken. Therefore, we sucked it up and rented bikes from the hotel which at the time we thought was a TOTAL rip off (100 Danish Krones) because we thought the USD to KR conversion was 2 to 1. We then stopped at 7 eleven for some water and gummy bears for what we thought was another rip off (40 Krs). Turns out the conversion it is around 6 to 1 so our rip offs weren’t as bad as we had thought.

We are so glad we rented bikes because this was honestly the best way to see all of Copenhagen in one day. We LOVED the city. We mapped out a route that allowed us to see most of the city in one day. We started off at the Rosenborg Castle and Treasury. This was the Renaissance castle of the “warrior king” Christian IV. Too bad a large part of the castle was closed but we got to check out all of Denmark’s crown jewels and learn a lot about the history of the country.

From there we headed to the fort with a nice detour through some parks and canals. We hopped off our bikes in the fort and walked a mile or two through a place that reminded us of the Presidio in San Francisco. We saw a traditional Danish windmill and so many dogs running off leashes freely into the canals it was quiet entertaining.

After the fort we hit the over photographed but still worth seeing symbol of Copenhagen, Den Lille Havfrue – The Little Mermaid. I thought this would be Carla’s most anticipated stop on our tour of Europe, due to her love of mermaids, but it turned out she didn’t even know it was there. The statue was dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen and based on his short story (also where Disney got the idea for the story of Ariel). Carla even posed just like the mermaid for a good photo.

From there we headed to the Amalienborg Palace and Square. Queen Margrethe II and her family live in the mansion there. There was a beautiful fountain and some guards trying to match the ones outside Buckingham Palace in London (they didn’t compare, but they didn’t smile much either). We next biked down to an area called Nyhavn, the old-time sailors’ quarter, and discovered Copenhagen’s rich and poor enjoying some Friday night beers and eats (the rich sat at white linen tables along the waterfront, the poor (mostly kids) got sixers from the local package store and sat on the docks nearby. The street is on a canal which is lined w/ crazy old wooden (questionably seaworthy) sailboats and bright colored houses that reminded us of the painted ladies in SF. We decided to eat (and drink) like the local young crowd instead of the ritzy older crowd. Jobby enjoyed a LARGE (that’s what they call it, a “LARGE”) which was a bacon wrapped hot-dog (the guide book said hot-dogs are considered a staple food in Denmark, and what better way to enjoy one than wrapped in delicious bacon) and some Danish beer (much cheaper than water) while Carla enjoyed the Danish version of Hawaiian pizza. We ate along the waterway and watched drunken football fans jump into the nasty oily canal and immigrant Asian families scour for beer cans to recycle for cash.

From there we hit the Stroget walk – the longest of pedestrian walk in Europe (we think) and enjoyed the scenery. We sat for a rest while we parked our bikes and watched some football fans kick the footy around. It was all Carla could do to contain Jobby from joining in and really making himself look like a stupid American that doesn’t know how to play football (ie soccer).

We ended the night at the city amusement park, Tivoli Gardens. There is so much to see in this park and it’s great that it’s right in the heart of the city. We didn’t go on any of the rides but we did enjoy a MONSTEROUS box of popcorn and did some serious people and game watching.

All and all, we saw most of Copenhagen in about 8 hours and enjoyed every second of it.