Copenhagen - Day 2

Saturday, May 24

After a good sleep, we awoke to a cool, grey and damp Saturday in Copenhagen. We had breakfast in our room and headed out to catch the Copenhagen Hop-On Hop-Off Bus to get an overview of the city. We walked to where the stop closest to our hotel was shown on the map but after several buses went past without stopping, we decided to walk to the next stop that, in fact, was the start of the route.

The Little Mermaid

The weather improved as the day went on and we were shedding our warmer clothing before too long. The bus trip was great because as well as seeing what a beautiful city Copenhagen is, we heard an excellent commentary too. We decided to do a complete circuit without getting off and then use the bus to get to the places that most appealed. The bus stopped for 10 mins at The Little Mermaid (with emphasis on the "Little") so we did get off to take pics. There wasn't time to wait in the queue to stand beside the Mermaid for a photo opportunity so our pics have some strangers in them! At the end of the circuit, we got off to have some lunch and decide which places we wanted to return to but as we passed the Tivoli Gardens we bumped into another Aussie couple, Ingrid & Jack, who we had met on the Royal Princess so we "detoured" and had a kaffe & Danish pastry with them. After more farewells and promises to keep in touch, we went our separate ways.

Al outside the Tivoli Gardens

The sun was now shining brightly and it was quite hot. We boarded another Hop-on Hop-Off bus and headed for the Parliament House Building. From there we walked for miles taking in the sights of a Copenhagen, enjoying the sunshine, watching the Danes enjoying it too, taking heaps of photos and chuckling at the ingenuity of the Danes with their bicycles. They manage to carry bunches of flowers, breadsticks and other difficult shaped objects whilst riding along (often talking on their mobiles too); a lot of the business girls ride in stiletto heels and other Danes have bikes with all sorts of interesting shaped baskets, boxes and carriages attached to them for transporting everything (we saw quite a few carrying the wife and kids, another transporting the family pets and yet another carrying a metal BBQ). There are so many bikes around that you are much more likely to come to grief with a bike than a car. We noticed speed cameras for fining speeding bike riders, bike washing stations and bike-only parking buildings. Our cities could do worse than follow the Danes in their use of bikes because the pollution levels are low in Copenhagen and the majority of the people are fit and healthy because of all the exercise they get.

The Royal Palace

Nyhavn - an area beside the canal with lovely old multi-coloured houses

One of the sightseeing highlights was seeing the Royal Palace and whilst there, the huge gates opened and a black car drove out at a good speed with a young woman and man in the back seat. We really believe it was Princess Mary and Prince Frederick but the lightly tinted windows and speed of the car made it impossible to be absolutely certain. There were only a few people around the palace at the time and none of them seemed terribly excited about it. Oh well, we'll believe we saw them!

Noelle in the driveway to the Royal Palace Square

Al, and the boys he travelled overseas with back in the mid 1970's, have often talked about the fabulous smorgasbord dinner they had at Copenhagen's Central Station (that apparently kept them fed for a day or two with what they stuffed into their bags!) so Al was interested to visit the station and see if the restaurant was still there. He knew exactly where the restaurant used to be but it is now O'Leary's Sports Bar. A very young waitress at the bar confirmed that "many years ago" it used to be a smorgasbord restaurant so Al was happy with his memory but not so happy with her description of when it had been a smorgasbord restaurant!

Al at Central Station with fond memories

After another great day in Copenhagen, we bought our dinner (more wonderful Danish salads and goodies), returned to our hotel, had a Danish beer in the courtyard then went to our room to watch the UEFA football final interspersed with qualifying races for tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix. It was fun seeing the places we had walked around while in Monaco only a few weeks ago. It also brought back memories of our 2007 trip to the Monaco Grand Prix.

Sun bathing in a city square

We both love Copenhagen and are looking forward to another day here tomorrow but I suspect our sightseeing will have to fit around the Grand Prix telecast.

 

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