Copenhagen or CPH

Copenhagen or CPH for short
Day 1
Once again I had to get up at 3:30am to catch a 6:20am Flight. Only this time I really did not sleep. On Thursday, Luda Chris graced Kristiansand with the loudest concert I have ever heard. And of course it was right on the back lawn behind the city house. I am sure I fell asleep at some point, because the alarm and my father’s phone call scared me to death. I made it to be bus stop on time, but was hassled by the stragglers from the concert. One guy who barely spoke English asked me to spend the summer with him, I was thoroughly creped out!
The fly bus never arrived and at 5:15am I was beginning to get nervous. There was one bus at the station so I asked him about getting to the airport. He said he was the fly bus and the route had changed. The bus routes in Kristiansand change more often than they stay the same.
It was an uneventful short flight to Copenhagen and I walk through the airport, catch a train to the central station and arrive at Hotel Strand before 8:30am. There were no rooms available yet so I had to find a way to occupy my time. CPH also has a card for about $80 with free admission to attractions and free public transportation.
I hopped on to a bus called City Cirkel. It is a bus that goes around the entire city and passes by many attractions. Because I had visited CPH last summer, the city was very familiar, but I still wanted to get my bearings. The entire trip around the city took one hour. I got off the bus and walked to central station. I got a McDonald’s coke and visited the ATM. In Denmark to use you Credit Card you must have a pin. This is different from a Debit card. Using Kroner is much easier.
I walk in to get a ticket for the train because I am headed out of the city to see the Louisiana Modern Art Museum. In Amsterdam, their card was much more controlled and you had to check in and still get a ticket. But not in CPH. I was in line, but then a hostess stopped me and asked where I was headed. I told her, showed her the card and she said just get on the train. If asked about a ticket, just show the CPH card. I take the slow train out of the city. Not much to see from the train, but a nice ride. I listened to my IPod and napped a little.
When I arrived at my stop, I had the most fragrant 10 min walk to the Louisiana. It was lined with flowers from people’s gardens and it was the most wonderful smelling roses and vines with white flowers. It was amazing; I guess you could say I stopped to small the flowers.
I am not sure if it was because I was a little dazed and exhausted, but I think the Louisiana Museum is the most beautifully laid out museum I have ever been to. It is in an old home that has been added onto. It has a garden with beautiful grass and wonderful statues. I walked around outside for about an hour and a half. Then I went inside. They had an impressive collection. I got to see Picassos, Lichtenstein’s, Warhol’s, and many many more. I absolutely loved this museum!
I took the train home and checked in to the hotel. It was time for a Nap! I only let myself sleep for an hr. I could have slept all afternoon! Then I hit up the main shopping street. It is one of the longest walking/ shopping streets. There were a bunch of department stores and places to eat. But nothing really jumped out at me and said BUY ME!
I went in to 2 different Amber Museums. Did you know that for tree sap to be called Amber it has to be over one million years old? That is amazing to me! The Museums had beautiful things. Most amber is found along the Scandinavian coast lines, that is why it is so popular in Denmark and Norway. I really enjoyed looking at all of their pieces. I saw a bracelet that I really liked, but thought I would buy it at another time.
Once I got down to the Hans Christian Anderson square, I stopped and had a hot dog. There are hot dog stands everywhere in this town. I swear they are on every street corner. I was to meet Bill at Central Station at 7:30 ish. I had time for on Museum. I was looking for the HC Anderson Museum, but I walked the entire square and never found the museum. I was exhausted, so I walked to central station and found a seat. Bill finally arrived. We took the bus to our hotel. He was so kind, he let me crash and take another nap. I am sure I was asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
Bill woke me up from a deep sleep (I am sure I could have slept through the night) and he said he was going to take me out to dinner. We went to Nyhaven 1st. It is a street on a canal lined with restaurants. But all of them said their kitchen was closed, I had slept too long. So then we walked along the shopping street. We had a small meal, nothing too exciting, but the people watching was good. We walked home and went to bed. We were both dead tired.
Day 2
Woops we slept in! Normally the sun wakes me up in the morning, it rises really early. But the black out curtains in this hotel were awesome! We slept in till 10am, then it took me an hr to get ready to go and then we had to get a game plan together. We finally left the hotel at 11:30am. We walked to the central station to get Bill a CPH card so he could get into the museums for free and we would both have free transportation!
Getting the Copenhagen Card was much more difficult on a Saturday afternoon then it was on a Friday early morning. We had to wait for about an hour. We both got so engrossed in a silly game on his IPhone, that we almost missed our turn. He had to run to the counter. The lady almost told him he had missed his turn and needed to get a new number, but the next person that she called did not show up, so she reluctantly helped us.
Then we were on our way to the 1st museum of the day! The NY Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum is a collection of sculptures. Bill kept mentioning tomb raiders, it did look like the Danes had raided Egypt, Greece and Rome and taken all their statues. It was a great museum, so big and confusing, we got lost. But the best part was at the top in the center section, we got to se the Original Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Sculpture!!! (For those of you, who do not know, I love Degas as an artist and my Kitty’s name is Degas) Did you know the skirt of the little dancer is actually cloth, I have only seen replicas and they are all sculpted, I did not know the real sculpture had a real tutu on!
Next we walked to Radhus Hall (City Hall), there was supposed to be a tour, but we never found the entrance and we were kind of pressed for time to see everything we wanted to get in. So we went on to the National Museum- Who are the Danes? This museum took us all the way beck to the beginning with their history. Neat museum! Bill was much more interested in the history than I. But I told him he could NOT spend 2 hrs like he did in the Amsterdam National Museum. We saw everything, quickly. My favorite thing was a painting that could only been seen through a reflection of a mirrored cylinder. When you looked at the tray the painting was on it looked like someone had taken a stick and swirled the paint to make an abstract painting but when you looked at the reflection you could see the faces very clearly. It was cool!
Next we walked to the Christianborg Palace and the Ruins. Are you picking up on all the walking? Bill kept saying, it is just around the corner, no need to take a bus. Let me remind you that I was exhausted, and it was hot in the mid 80”s (know nothing like the heat in Texas) BUT THERE WAS NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! I wore a light linen dress and flip flops and I was still wearing too much clothing. I have never been so heated and not able to cool of ever. All of the buildings were hot and outside was hot, and there was very little breeze. UGH- ok so to the Palace.walking reluctantly. We pass this one entrance and it goes down. We both thought it was the entrance to see the inside, but it was actually the entrance to the original palace (s). So we started there, it was almost 4pm, when they closed so this was the only part of the palace we were going to see today, but it was awesome! And very cool, in temp, because it was underground.
There have been like 8 palaces all standing in the same place but they kept burning. The ruins that we got to see where all from the previous palaces. I am not sure I would keep building on the same spot if the house kept burning down. It was really an interesting museum. I love museums that are below the city, like the one in Seattle! It is kind of creepy, but very interesting. I totally want to do the catacombs in Italy.
Vor Frelsers Kirke Ok, this was on our itinerary that we had written down for the day, but it must not have made an impression. I vaguely remember walking into something that looks like the Parthenon, Roman columns and a large church. But I don’t have any real memories about this Church.
Next we WALKED to the Round Tower. It was another church, but it had a tower that you could climb to the observatory. It was a different tower, because there were no stairs, just a wide ramp that lead to the top. It was a very easy walk to the top. You could see different rooms that jutted off of the ramp. Once we got to the top we looked out over the city, enjoyed the breeze and then headed down!
I demanded to take a bus to the hotel. I knew we were not THAT far, but this dead run sight seeing was killing me. We took a short bus ride and then a Nap! I needed to rest up for the evening. We were headed to Tivoli!
Bill and I are totally into amusement parks. This spring we went to Disney and now we have gone to Tivoli- the place Walt Disney got his inspiration for his theme parks. It was a little corny, very much like a pop-up fair feel, with simple rides. But you could totally see where Disney got his ideas. We ran from one ride to the next. We got in for free, but we had to pay for rides. My favorite ride was one you sat in and you went around clock wise as a whole large group. And as you were going around you went up and down too, but ass you went up and down each individual car started to spin forwards or backwards. It was awesome. Bill lost some Kroner, but he had a great time. I have NEVER walked off a ride that dizzy. It was Awesome! We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant in the park. After dinner Bill promised me cotton candy. We ran to as many rides as we could get to, but they were closing. And so did the cotton candy shops. Bill had made the same promise at Disney and I never got my cotton candy. He said he would make it happen some how. As we walking out everyone was stopped on a bridge. There was to be a show with lights and water and smoke. It was much like the water show at the Bellagio in Vegas. But I was too tired and too cold to really enjoy the show. I just snuggled into Bill to keep warm.
I know, I know, never satisfied, too hot one minute and too cold the next. We caught a bus to our side of town and went to bed. I think we both died!
Day 3
The next day we woke up early so we could get everything in on our list! First we started with the Christianborg Palace. This is the place that kept burning down. It was a nice palace, I could live comfortably there, but it was not Buckingham. Next we walked over to the Amalierborg Palace and watched the Changing of the guards. Again nothing like you see in London, but neat none the less. We did not go into this palace. It was just a summer place and they were not in residence.
Next we walked over to the Marmorkirken (Marble Church). It was made out of Norwegian Marble in the beginning, but as that got to be too expensive the settled for cheaper marble to finish the church. It was beautiful, the rotunda was huge. On the outside and on the inside they had a cow with wings. The church was originally a Catholic Church, but after the reformation, it became a protestant church. I am unfamiliar with the significance of the flying cow. Can anyone enlighten me?
We walked to the water and strolled along the water way as we made our way to Kastellet Park. I was in need for caffeine so we stopped by a super market. We got cokes and candy. In Europe it is very popular to find licorice sticks filled with cream. I had never tried one, and Bill being a fan of candy, we bought 4. They were really tasty! We had a cherry one filled with lemon, a caramel one filled with caramel, a chocolate one filled with chocolate, and a black licorice one filled with white cream! Very good, I recommend trying them if you see them! As we snacked we walked along the outside of Kastellet Park. This was an old battle ground or something. Bill knew the history, I just listened. Something about the walls being built at an angle helped them stay strong during attacks.
Finally we made it to the Little Mermaid. I saw her last year. She looks still the same and with a lot of attraction. She is the most famous of HC Anderson’s fairy tales. Her actual statue is not that big, but everyone who goes to CPH goes out to see her! She is a popular girl!
I was hungry and needed to be fed, so we wondered. We wondered a little too far and we were in a suburb off the city. I needed food. I was getting grouchy. Bill turned us around and we had a nice lunch near the Defense Museum. He was interested in learning about how the Danes were never able to really defend themselves, but he said he would not subject me to that kind of history torture.
We walked back to the water front and went through the Statens Museum for Kunst. (It was actually just a satellite, but we did not know that at the time, we missed the real museum) It was a small building full of replicas of sculptures from all over the world. There was Nike, and the David and Caesar, and the Madonna. And so many more, it was where they put the replicas together to place out in different places. The weather had turned cool, so we headed back to the hotel to put on long pants and pick up a jacket. We sat down on the bed and CRASH! We took a Nap. Woops!
We woke up at 3:15pm and ran out of the room to make it to the Rosenborg Castle where the Crown Jewels are on display. We literally ran the whole way, but we did not make it in time. That was fine. Diamonds are diamonds and I am sure they are really pretty! So instead we took a leisurely walk through the Kings Garden. As we were running I told Bill that after running that many blocks I deserved ice cream! We sat near a fountain and had wonderful ice cream. Watched the people walk through. The largest Jazz Festival was going on while we were in CPH so we had some nice music to listen too. Then after a few pictures we began to walk home. I thought, hey we can take this time to pick up a few souvenirs! Bad timing, it was Sunday and all, I mean ALL the shops were closed. So Sad! I wanted to get an Amber bracelet to match my ring. Oh Well, maybe next time! We went to the hotel, picked up my bag and headed to the train station!
Just a Bill promised, we stopped in at Tivoli for Cotton Candy. We took a few more pictures and made our way to the Train Station. Because of the CPH card, Bill had a free round trip ticket. So he went with me. He was not leaving until Tuesday. He walked me as far as he could and we had to say our good byes. It will be 6 weeks before I get to see him or anyone else from home. But I really did enjoy his visit! It was so much fun!
I walked through the airport and found my gate. It wasn’t 5 min and we were boarding. Getting on a plan in Europe is no big hassle, you can arrive 30 min before the flight levees and still get on, I love the stress free of traveling in Europe, and it is so different from home. We all get on, they tell us to put away our electronic devices and go through safety things, to end up finding out that we were on a Broken Airplane. There was a water leak or something. They had us get off the plane. I ran to get something to eat so I would not starve, they were not sure if we were going to get another plane. But just as I got back from getting food, we were boarding another plane.
We left 50 mins late. I was supposed to arrive at 10:10, but instead I arrive in Kristiansand at 11:30. There was no fly bus so I had to take a taxi, silly $60 to get home. I dropped my bags as soon as I got in the house and went straight to bed. I had to make sure I caught the bus in the morning to go out to the island for work. Ugh, nothing like never stopping, always go, go, and go.
Well I am now out at the island. I will be here all week. Tonight Trip is in Oregon and Nora is in Grimstead for a play. Summer and I are on the island alone. Tomorrow guests arrive to have a bread making party. They will make about 30 loaves of bread in the brick oven in the basement. Then on Friday Nora, Summer and I will pack up and drive up to Stavanger, NO. In Stavanger, there is the largest fjord, (rock cut by glaciers) it is called The Pulpit. We will climb to the top and have lunch. Norwegian’s love to hike! It should be fun, I just feel like it is go, go, go! Talk to you later!
As long as the internet stays up, I will load pictures this afternoon! Cross your fingers!