Five Days in Copenhagen

May 13 to 17 - Days 595 – 599 - Berlin to Copenhagen, 65°

I have little memory and fewer notes about our train to Copenhagen. I can only say it rolled Cyndy and me across roughly 225 miles of northern Europe for 7 hours. That doesn't sound fast, but it felt that way.

Once we arrived, we settled into our comfortable hotel, the Grand Joanne, only a few hundred feet from the Copenhagen train station, ate dinner at the hotel restaurant while we got our feet on the ground, and enjoyed the remainder of the evening doing absolutely nothing.

Copenhagen is expensive! More expensive than Germany, more than Switzerland. It gives North Americans like us a taste of the sticker shock someone from South America gets when they visit to the United States.

For breakfast the next morning down the street we enjoyed excellent coffee and oatmeal and then paid the $42 bill. Prices are 50 to 100% higher per hotel and meal.

If you're visiting, be prepared. But the visit is worth it.

After breakfast, we walked along Vesterbrogade Ave, a broad avenue not far from the Lego Store and famous Tivoli Gardens, one of the world's oldest amusement parks.

It was Sunday, not a day when we expected much traffic, but soon we were surrounded by some 3000 marathoners trotting or striding along the boulevard for the city's annual marathon. Tourists and locals clapped and whistled encouragement, and the closer we moved through the throngs toward the canals and the famous Nyhavn section of the city, the larger the crowds became.

This might have been because it was a perfect day, sunny, 70°, hardly a cloud in the sky. Apparently locals had seen nothing but a week of rain so they were ready to get out. Soon Copenhagen's network of cobbled, pedestrian streets and plazas were absolutely jammed with happy shoppers and wanderers.

I noticed that women and men here, as group, are tall and mostly white. Diversity is not a hallmark of the people we saw around us, but height was easy to find. I'm 6 ft 2 and in most places, I’m taller than the people I can see, but not here. We were now at the southern edge of Viking country (though from 800 to 1200 it was often difficult to know what WASN'T Viking country since it seemed to claim so much of the world back then). Maybe that had something to do with tallness. My theory: (based on no research) after centuries of Viking raids, multiple plagues and wars, only the tall and strong survived to pass their genes along. I'd have to look into that.

Denmark is a small country now, but in the past Danes were a central force when Vikings ruled. For centuries they controlled lands that included Sweden, Finland, Norway, parts of Russia, Iceland, Greenland and for a few years a spit of land in Newfoundland that we had visited early in our journey (see Dispatch X). They ranged throughout Europe from London to Constantinople (Istanbul).

A review of the Scandinavian history can be confusing, as borders and powers between Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway shifted depending on who was the reigning and strongest monarch.

Copenhagen enjoyed its share of European mayhem. Multiple fires and battles in the 1700s and 1800s destroyed most of the medieval city. Thus the majority of the architecture we saw was no more than 150 to 200 years old.

In time made our way to the famous old Nyhavn section of town (a must if you visit), and sat down on an open-air tourist boat that took us through the canals. We drifted by wooden masted sloops, and tall brightly colored cement buildings beneath red roofs, each 6 and 7 stories high with big glass windows and riotous maroon, orange, yellow and blue façades.

The canal cruise gave us a glimpse of the major tourist attractions: Hans Christian Andersen's house, where he lived for 17 years writing many of the plays and fairytales that still resonate with children and adults around the world today -- The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperors New Clothes.

The stories sill remain relevant. In the harbor, we waved to the seamen and women painting Danish Queen Margaret's handsome yacht. (Denmark is a monarchy – there are still 12 in Europe.)

In the coming days we did all the proper touristy things, wearing out 25 miles of shoe leather visiting the statue of the Little Mermaid, waking the King's Gardens, strolling among lovely Tivoli Gardens with its amusements and stunning topiary. (Pittsburgher: Kennywood Amusement Park -- one of the oldest in the United States -- was based on Tivoli); enjoying the many ways that Copenhagen's 675,000 cyclists peddle their two wheelers. (That's over 500,000 more than there are cars in the city.)

I walked the famous baroque steps of the Church of Our Saviour near the so-called "hippie" section of Copenhagen-- all 400 of them for the magnificent and hair-raising view. (Standing on the very last step when it disappears into nothing at the top has an effect)!

Naturally, we also had to explore the big Lego Store not far from where Lego founder and carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen began producing his first wooden toys in 1932 and then switched to the plastic versions that went onto change the toy world forever.

Copenhagen has far more history and many more urban legends than I could ever share here, but look for the books I'll be writing as we continue our 7 continent journey, and all details will be revealed.