With our Schengen visa about to expire we had to have one last fling with Europe, so after much procrastinating, we made the final decision on 14 Feb (coincidentally, Valentine’s Day – how romantic!) to go to Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 Feb. The draw-card: free accommodation because Trent’s company owns a serviced apartment there.
There’s more pictures over here…
Our first taste of Scandinavia! My mission was to eat a copenhagen pastry in Copenhagen. But alas! We could find no pastries labelled “copenhagen” – and so the mystery of what a copenhagen actually is will perpetually elude us.
We did the slightly inadequate (only ran for about 4 hours) hop-on, hop-off bus thing for a little sight-seeing which took us to the palace, cathedral and the harbour (which included the much over-played statue of the Little Mermaid – apparently supposed to represent a sad story, not with a happy ending like Disney portrays).
It was great watching the changing of the guards at the palace. Very much like Buckingham palace except the guards wore black instead of red, and played musical instruments! The funny thing was that instead of the expected brass instruments, they played drums and flutes! This led to a very light-hearted twiddly sound, and I found myself wanting to dance a little jig. I could swear they played, “The Grand Old Duke of York”, and to prove it to Trent I sang to the tune. There was another allegro classical piece I recognised but could not name. Trent told me it came from Tom and Jerry.
The highlight was a colourful waterfront area along a canal, travelling inland, called Nyhavn, meaning “New Harbour”, pronounced “Nee-hown”. It was freezing, so it was great to duck into a restaurant and sit next to a heater to thaw over a warm lunch. After which we proceeded to go ice-skating in the park at the end of the canal, during which time it started to snow very lightly! Wonderful stuff.
My souvenir from Denmark is a Bodem tea plunger – like a coffee plunger but a cute teapot shape and used with loose tea leaves instead of tea bags.
Caryn