A few general observations: Andrew and Emily got all the Danish genes - all the young Danes look so much like them! Everyone rides wonderful bikes in the lovely bike lanes. Copenhagen is very flat, so that makes it easy.
We left on Saturday night, September 8. We flew from Boston to Frankfurt, and then from Frankfurt to Copenhagen. We took a train from the airport to the central train station (about fifteen minutes), and then walked the remaining few blocks to our hotel. It was about about five o'clock on Sunday when we got there. We settled in, took a bit of a walk around the area (formerly the meat-packing district), and had some really delicious burgers for dinner at a place that was close to the hotel. We were pretty tired and went to bed fairly early.
Our hotel, the DGI-byens, is part of a sprawling complex that includes as well as a hotel a conference center, a sports center with several pools, gyms, workout facilities, and a climbing wall, and a bowling alley. Our room was very spare but actually much larger than we were anticipating, so that was nice. The ceiling was high, walls white and gray, floors wood, and very little furniture. Breakfast was included, so each morning we went across the courtyard to the restaurant in a building that must have once been a warehouse or factory (lots of exposed wood and metal beams) for a buffet of bread, meats, and cheese, as well as yogurt and toppings, soft-boiled eggs, and pastries. It was great. I possibly ate my weight in whole-grain bread spread with organic Danish butter.
We spent three days exploring the Copenhagen with our Copenhagen Cards. This seems to be common in European cities: you purchase a card at the tourism office, and it acts as a free pass for all the public transportation and gets you free or discounted entry to all the popular sites for the number of days you purchase.We visited Rosenborg Castle, which has both a glass room and a china room, and the Treasury, where we saw the crown jewels; the castle grounds are surrounded by a moat and are in the middle of a lovely park with sculpture installations. We also visited Amalienborg Palace; the one of four identical palaces (the royal family lives in the others) that's available for tours has rooms decorated to show the personalities and interests of the last several kings and queens, as well as a great collection of ball gowns belonging to the current ruler, Queen Margarethe II. The Amber Museum is a tiny place, with a collection of pieces of all types of amber on the two upper floors of a funny little historic building and a shop on the ground floor - it only took about twenty minutes to see everything, but it was a cute place.
Of course we went to Tivoli, the amusement park, several evenings, just to walk around and see the sights. One evening, there was a concert of fiddle music. We had ice cream with a marshmallow-like topping called "guff". We even had abelskiver there.
We climbed the nearly 300 steps to the top of the Radhus - the view is great, although it was rainy that day - and saw the astronomical clock that's also housed at the Radhus. We wandered through the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a museum financed by the then-owner of the Carlsberg brewery; the collection is primarily sculpture, with a few paintings. We spent a rainy afternoon at the Danish Architecture Center where we learned about some interesting projects, and we went to the Danish Design Museum, which had an exhibit on new materials being used by designers, as well as a permanent exhibit of the history of Danish design.
Christiansborg Castle took half a day. It houses the government offices as well as all the royal reception rooms: a throne room, a formal dining room, a ballroom, a library, and beautiful art everywhere. It's like touring the White House, only not nearly so much security. You do have to wear shoe covers to protect the floors. The current Christiansborg is the fourth (?) castle to stand at that site; you can tour the ruins underneath to see the remains of the first several and learn about the fires that destroyed the more modern ones. We just stuck our heads inside the royal stables, but they seemed pretty impressive as well, and they do actually house horses.
We had an afternoon canal tour to see many of the major landmarks from the water, including the statue of the Little Mermaid. Although the boats are very flat, we still had to duck going under the bridges. Our last stop with the Copenhagen card was the Thorvaldsen Museum, which is mostly his sculptures from Greek and Roman mythology in a funky building: multiple stories built around a courtyard that houses Thorvaldsen's tomb.
We went several times to Magasin, a department store, to wander around and get our souvenirs. In Denmark, it is possible to buy a Le Creuset abelskiver pan. (Since I already have two, I didn't, but I was tempted.)
Bryan's conference went well, and I even got to see his presentation. In one of the albums below, you can see a picture of him just before he presented.
Food and drink:
- We had some traditional Danish food at Cafe Petersborg: hash for Bryan and meatballs for me. Very tasty; very filling.
- We ate a couple of different hotdogs from the vendors along the pedestrian shopping street; interesting toppings, and one in a tube-shaped bun.
- We had our first smorrebrod, open-faced sandwiches, at the Magasin food court (good), and better ones later on at a cafe in Nyhavn.
- "Coffee and cake" is a common thing to see on a menu. Basically, it means that you get a dessert and a coffee drink for a set price. Excellent idea.
- We had a very expensive meal (ribs and beer, mostly) at a touristy place outside Tivoli, with several of Bryan's colleagues.
- We had another meal with a bunch of conference goers that was a buffet; I don't think anything was traditionally Danish, but it was all tasty.
- We had pizza from a little hole-in-the-wall shop, and shawarma from another.
- We had mussels at Nyhavn 37, and a starter with three kinds of herring.
- Beer in restaurants is mostly Carlsberg, Tuborg, or Jacobsen. These all come from the same brewery. They are generally light lagers, although we had a couple of darker ones.
- There was a great craft beer bar, Fermentations, a few blocks from our hotel, and we spent two evenings there enjoying the beer selection.
- Mikkeller, a Danish brewery whose beer we'd had before, also had a beer bar that we went to twice. Good stuff!
- Apparently Denmark has the highest rates of organic food consumption anywhere in the world. On our last night, we went to an organic restaurant near the hotel, BioMio, for an excellent meal.
We had one day when we tried to do several things and couldn't. We walked through a lovely park and saw the outside of Frederiksborg Castle, but it turns out it is a military training center, and the public aren't allowed inside. (The Frederiksborg Castle you can visit, we learned later, is in another city. Go figure.) And, sadly, the Royal Copenhagen factory no longer offers tours, although we did wander through the factory store. We did get to wander through the Assistens cemetery and see the grave of Hans Christian Andersen.
We also toured the Carlsberg Brewery. Much of the exhibit is about the family that started it, but we also saw lots of historical brewing equipment and a collection of over 20,000 unopened beer bottles, from almost everywhere in Europe, Asia, and Africa. And, more horses - they look like Clydesdales!
The highlight of the trip was Legoland. We got up early on Sunday morning, took a train to Vejle, and then a bus to Billund. Legoland was a short walk from the bus stop. The rides and and amusement stuff were cool, but the really impressive part is all the Lego models. There was a whole section of Star Wars models, as well as famous landmarks, European cityscapes - even the Nyhavn street in Copenhagen, where we could actually pick out the restaurant we'd been to the night before! We wandered around for hours, and we took more pictures at Legoland than anywhere else. We only went on rides when it got us a better view of Lego models. I think I dreamed in Legos that night!
Of course there are pictures:
Legoland
Motorcycles of Legoland
Everything Else
On the trip home, we took the train back to the airport and flew to Toronto where, we learned, you have to get your luggage and go through U.S. customs before your flight to the U.S. The timing was tight, and we ran to our gate, but we made it back home in the evening of September 19.
We spent our remaining four days before going back to work overcoming our jet lag.
Thanks to Emily for taking care of our house while we were gone!
