Thursday 9.23.2010



Copenhagen 101


Our misbehaving intercom system from last evening does it's job this morning in it's role as alarm clock. We crawl out of bed at 7:00 and by applying a few basic word combinations, John swears that he buys 2 coffees while conducting the entire transaction in Danish. Mary is skeptical. After getting cleaned up and our bags repacked we return to the coffee shop where the ship provides Wi-Fi. There is a different fellow at the coffee counter and when John repeats his earlier order the guy says, "you want cream with that?" Hmmph.


The ship provides free buses in Copenhagen to one of the major squares, Kongens Nytorv, which happens to be a couple blocks from our hotel. It's 10:00 AM and our room isn't ready but we are invited to help ourselves to the breads, coffee and juices in the breakfast room, so we do. Our Hotel Bethel is on the Nyhavn Canal which is part ship museum and part party. The water part of the canal is lined with old sailing vessels that would have to be dismantled to move through the overhanging bridges. The land side of the canal is lined with bars and restaurants capable of dismantling many a tourist.


The early fog and overcast has cleared and we are lucking out with another perfect day. There is an international food festival going on in the square at the end of the canal with tent displays from Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, Greece and others. It is a fun collection of cheeses, cured meats, nuts, olives and candies. We continue our walk down the Stroget, Copenhagen's main pedestrian mall and all the big names in luxury retailing are here. As with our other Scandinavian city visits, the streets are packed with folks moving with a purpose, the squares loaded with folks relaxing with an attitude, and the buildings loadied with charm and design.


Our furthest walking point this morning is Nytorv Square where there is a photo exhibit by a Danish artist showing rites of passage from around the world. He spent years assembling the collection and it is very impressive. When we return to our hotel a room is ready so we move in for our three night stay and then hustle down to the Canal for a harbor boat tour. The tour floats us around the harbor and canals while a young blonde (imagine that) girl tells us in three different languages about the sites. We get a close up of the Opera House, the Royal Palace, a lot of important government buildings and naval history sights along with Paul Allens's (Microsoft) yacht. When we return to the canal we decide to sit in the sun for lunch. We have the bargain lunch--Mary the onion soup and John a herring plate, with a split small beer--for only $40. Sure, this is a lot less expensive that Norway.


We keep our walk moving down past the Palace and to the Marble Church which are in the same complex. There are a few members of the palace guard marching around with their high furry hats which reminds us that we will have to put out our Christmas decorations when we get home. The church is a spectacular domed building virtually unmentioned in any of our guide books. They have a strict "no conversation" policy for inside the church so they must have angered the guiding community. It's late afternoon and time for a break before meeting nephew Patrick this evening.


We go to the lobby at 5:00 to find Patrick and lovely Nina waiting for us. She and Patrick met as undergraduates at Augsburg and he spent most of last summer at her family place in Bergen, Norway. We met Nina when she joined the family for Christmas last year and charmed everyone, especially the collection of uncles. Patrick is now in graduate school in Copenhagen and Nina is finishing up grad school in Arhus, a few hours to the north. It turns out that Patrick's apartment is about three blocks from our hotel so we got a chance to stop by to meet his roommates and assorted friends. It's a Norwegian enclave by and large so Patrick says he gets Norwegian at home, English in class and Danish on the street. What's the difference? Nina says that if you read a word as it is written, you will be speaking Norwegian. To speak Danish you have to learn a whole new pronunciation for the word that has nothing to do with the way it is written. They all say they can read Danish, but can't speak it.


We want to see Tivoli Gardens, the oldest amusement park in Europe for a glimpse of Danish color, so Patrick and Nina were our tour guides. Nina has been visiting Tivoli since she was a little girl but much preferred Universal City in California. It is quaint and there is still a bit of late-season excitement with rock bands playing here and classical orchestras playing there. We don't participate in much but enjoy the people watching.


We walk a block to a Danish steak place for dinner with Nina taking care of the table arrangements and explaining the menu. Patrick points out that we will have a whole new service experience here that involves the customer becoming invisible. He's right. We see our server a total of three times throughout the evening, all of which involve standing and waving frantically. There are two servers taking care of about 30 tables so if we don't like the service, you can only imagine how frustrated they must be. We both have a nice piece of Danish sirloin with some fried potatoes and "special" sauce.


There is a full moon on the way back to our hotel. Patrick and Nina split off on their street and we make it back to "our" canal that seems unusually peaceful tonight. We'll see what happens on Friday and Saturday nights.


Todays weather: Overcast early with sun by mid-morning. Low of 59 on arrival, high of 65.