Copenhagen

The Baltic Cruise

On to Copenhagen!

Our flight from Phoenix to Denver was uneventful except for a last minute plane equipment change which meant a change in our assigned seating. Instead of aisle seats across from each other, we ended up with one middle and one aisle seat. Luckily we were up the Economy Plus section so even though it was a full plane, it wasn’t that uncomfortable. We had about an hour and half layover in Denver before our flight to Frankfurt. Lufthansa uses the Continental Airlines President’s Club in Denver, so we headed there and had coffee to wait out the layover. Time to board our flight! Lufthansa’s business class was completely full while there were only 2 people in first class. We would have gladly moved up there, but for some reason they just didn’t seem to want to do it! We decided that the business class in Lufthansa is actually not any nicer than United’s business class. Neither one of them is up to what we had when we flew ANA to China.

The flight to Frankfurt was 9 hours long. I watched a few movies while Hank snoozed. I never did go to sleep. Frankfurt’s airport is huge! We had to change terminals for our flight to Copenhagen and it was a good thing we had a two hour layover there. We had to clear security twice at two different points. The flight was on time and we had a much smaller plane. The flight to Copenhagen was only about an hour and a half. Even so, they managed to serve the entire plane a snack in that timeframe.

Copenhagen

Arrived in Copenhagen at about 4:00 p.m. on the 10th. There was absolutely no customs or passport control to go through. You just grabbed a baggage cart (and in our case - a couple) and you were off! We picked up some wine to take with us for our cabin on the ship and headed for the taxi line. The ride to the Marriott was quick and a mere $40 later we were there! The Marriott is the hotel of choice it seems for a lot of pre and post cruisers. It’s right on the canal and overlooks the water and the city. We had a view of Tivoli Gardens from our room on the 10th floor and could see one of the rides in the park from our window. By the time we got settled, had a couple of drinks in the Executive Lounge that we had privileges to and had dinner, we were ready for bed.

Up early the next morning and ready to meet Grethe, our guide for the day. She stopped to pick up Barry and Susanna, the couple from Flagstaff, who were joining us on our day. Grethe is a Danish citizen who lives part of the year in St. Petersburg, Florida and returns to Copenhagen for the summers to act as a tour guide. She was recommended to me by a contact on one of the travel forums I frequent.

Our day was cloudy and it looked like it could rain at any time. With umbrellas in hand, we ventured forth. We stopped in the Old City which contains the most historic part of Copenhagen. Our first stop was at the Parliament Building near the Stock Exchange. We could see the where the seat of government was housed. The buildings had a Dutch Renaissance façade that was popular at the time the buildings were built - over 400 years ago. We traveled throughout the city and saw Christianborg, the Royal Library and the winter residence of the queen called Amailanborg. The queen is very popular in Denmark. She was young when she was proclaimed queen, in her early 30’s. Unlike England where the monarchy is coroneted, the monarchy here is proclaimed. All of the buildings were similar in design to me. We went by the Gafion Fountain and through Nyhaven area where all the colorful houses line the canal. This is the area that Hans Christian Andersen lived in throughout his life in Copenhagen and what a lot of the pictures show when depicting Copenhagen. We walked to see the Little Mermaid - a tiny little statute that has become the symbol of Copenhagen. She sits right on the edge of the water and the area was very crowded with everyone wanting to get a glimpse. While we were in the canal area, we got a glimpse of the Queen’s ship which apparently had just returned. We thought we might get the chance to see the Queen as the tender with officers on deck headed to the ship - but no such luck.

After looking through the Old City, we left Copenhagen proper and headed to Sledten. Sledten is a quaint little village with lots of houses with thatched roofs. It was charming! The flowers were all in bloom and we walked up some of the narrow lanes to look at all of the houses. We also went by the Karen Blixen house and Museum. Karen Blixen, a.k.a. Isak Dinesen, was born in Copenhagen and is most famous for writing “Out of Africa” which was later made into a film. We also went by Louisiana which is Scandinavia’s most-raved-about modern-art museum. It was located in Humlebaek. It is called Louisiana not after the state, but because all three of the wives of the man who lived there were named Louise - hence he decided to call it Louisiana.

We drove on north up the coast to Kroenborg where we went to Kroenborg Castle. We also went to Frederiksborg Castle which is known as the “Danish Versailles.” It was built in the 1600’s and was the summer palace. We didn’t go through any of the castles simply because time was just too short. We did go into the courtyards and looked at the buildings which were huge.

Grethe had told us that she made reservations at an inn for lunch. The “inn” turned out to be her home! It is in lovely setting in the country and waiting for us was her husband Espy. He took us on a tour of their home which they have had for 25 years. The original room was over 300 years old and then renovated and expanded the home to add 3 bedrooms, an updated kitchen and a lovely sunroom called the Florida room. We were served a traditional Danish meal. We started with herring on a slice of rye bread with butter and added onions. This was had with schnapps and Danish beer. After the herring, we had Danish meatballs with red cabbage and picked cucumber. More schnapps and more beer! It was a delicious meal. We had a chance to visit with Grethe and her husband (who is Indian and a retired civil engineer). We then took a stroll of the gardens which the beautiful flowers and lavender in bloom. Tried some of the berries right from the bush. Back for tea and Danish. The Danish pastry is not what is served in the U.S. - this is very light and was delicious.

Grethe then returned us to Copenhagen and dropped us at their pedestrian street lined with all the same stores we have in the U.S. There were performance artists along the street and it was very crowded with everyone walking about. In crossing one of the streets, a cab driver walked up to the car in front of him, opened the door and started slapping the driver of the car! They yelled at each other - spitting occurred and finally all the cars honking at that them made them stop and move on! An example of Danish road rage!

After saying goodbye to Barry and Susanna who headed back towards their hotel at the airport, we walked over to Tivoli to look some. We didn’t go in as we had heard it was really nothing more than an amusement park and not really worth seeing and paying the entrance fee to just to go in. A long walk back to our hotel!

So much to see in Copenhagen! We only had a touch of the many sights here. The city and countryside are very clean and orderly. The country is a leader in environmental issues. Over 22% of their electricity is generated by windmills and over 60% of their land is agricultural. The cost of living is very expensive and taxes are very high. On the other hand, Grethe explained that the wages are also high and the average salary may be $20 per hour. It’s a city of bicycles because owning a car is so expensive - not just the gas which is about $9 per gallon, but the cars are heavily taxed too.