Ken and Elise's trip

DAY 4: Copenhagen

  We arrived back to our hotel where the staff had kindly stored our luggage for us while we were on the Norway fjords tour. We only had a couple hours before the deadline to be checked in to the ferry for our overnight boarding. Because of the expense of this trip overall, we have tried to cut costs as much as possible and walk as much as we can. However, with such a short time left and with heavy bags and backpacks to haul, we decided the better part of valor was to call a cab which the staff at the hotel did for us. She told us it would cost about 150 knoner which we felt was outrageous for a couple miles, but we were getting used to outrageous costs in Norway. The cabbie arrived--we asked the price hoping it would be less, but he, too, said 150k. We got in and Ken started chatting with him. He told us he had been driving cab for 30 years. We had a nice talk and then arrived at the dock. I don’t know if he felt sorry for us or what, but when Ken went to pay him he only charged us 115K. I tried to give him a tip, to which he said “don’t worry about it”. I still hadn’t got used to the change, so I held out a handful of all kinds of coins and said, “You’ve been doing this for 30 years, you know the correct tip. PLease take it.” He smiled, reached in my palm and chose what I later knew was a nickle! Here we met another of the wonderful people that have blessed our trip the whole way so far.

   We got on board the ferry, found our cabin without trouble. It was so small it made our “box” hotel look like a palatial palace. But Ken pulled down the upper bunks and we were able to store suitcases, etc. there leaving us room to navigate. The overnight crossing was uneventful except for the staggering cost of the buffet dinner we had. We arrived in Copenhagen the next morning fairly rested.

  That didn’t last long. We had no idea where the train station was from the ferry. We kept asking people, and kept getting different answers. All seemed to think we should turn left--the difference in answers had more to do with the distance to the station than the direction. Some seemed to think it quite walkable, others were not so sure. However, Mr. and Mrs. Frugal decided we would hoof it.

  Now, I don’t know if I have mentioned this, but I am coming into this trip recovering from a broken ankle. I’ve done pretty well, I think, having walked literally miles and miles. But the ankle does get tired. Off we went on our quest to find the station and our hotel.  We walked and we walked. I began to doubt that I could do it. I was hot, my ankle was killing me, and the backpack was like a ton of bricks on my back. We passed a smaller station, but clearly not the main station. We met a guy--asked him again, and he told us it was at least a mile further. At that point I considered a fake faint. Didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t go any further, especially when Ken was carrying the bulk of our luggage. But I stiffened the upper lip and kept trotting along. We came to a second station. Ken went over to read the sign on it to try to determine if it told how much further. Another, man came along. I asked him if we were close. He looked at my bedraggled, exhausted features and shook his head sadly. “But why don’t you just catch the train here?”, he asked. “It runs every few minutes!” I nearly hugged him, and ran off to tell Ken. “But we don’t have a ticket and the office isn’t open yet,” he said. “We have a pass!” I said staring at him. He stared back for a second or two, and then said, “Oh for heavens sake, we could have caught a train at that first station we came to.  I forgot we had passes!” (Perhaps at this point I should mention that I have been the one in charge of the tickets). Kicking ourselves for our stupidity, we caught the next train into Copenhagen Central and came to the next phase of our trip education.

  We decided to check our luggage into the lockers and take the HOHO before trying to find our hotel. We found the locker room, found a locker that would accept all our luggage, and then tried to figure out how to pay for it. All the directions were in Danish.  Can you believe that!:). People started trying to help, but somehow, our card just wasn't working. We tried locker after locker with at least 6 people standing around discussing amongst themselves what our problem could be. Thing is, we put the card in, it read, and a receipt came out. But the doors wouldn't lock. Finally the man in charge of the desk came over (even though he had a constant line of people trying to store their luggage directly with him instead of the lockers--why didn’t we do that? It was WAY more expensive). Anyway, he came over, looked at my receipts, shook his head and said, “No, this is not a receipt. You have cancelled it each time!” So he stood there while we tried to do it--and over and over again, it wouldn’t accept the card. He kept telling me to try again, and he would turn his head while I put the pin in, ,but we had to do it so many times, Ken said later it would be a miracle if he doesn’t know our pin.  FINALLY,it worked. There was a resounding cheer from all the bystanders and we were off!

  We hopped on the HOHO and began our tour of the city. To be really frank, we were neither in a great mood. The walk to the station had worn us out and then the trouble with the locker. So it was in grim silence that we took our seats. I sort of planned on staying mad all day, but after awhile, I couldn’t help but notice the beauty of the city and the way the warm sunshine was smiling down at me. I discovered that I just couldn’t stay grumpy after all. Ken must have felt the same because before long we were cuddling away, and enjoying the beauty of all the canals and water. I said that I had liked Oslo a lot, but Copenhagen was way more beautiful. Ken looked at me like I’d grown a third foot and said he totally disagreed. “Oslo had all those flowers everywhere--and Copenhagen is just dirty,” he said. However, as the day went on I kept pointing out the thousands of flowers which he said he must have missed at first due to feeling so exhausted and cranky. In the end, he said he thought Copenhagen was wonderful. We got off the HOHO at one of the stops by a canal and spent some time wandering down all the open cafes. We went into an ice cream store and came out with three huge scoops with whipped cream piled on top. If that won’t put you in a good mood, I don’t know what will.

  Finally, it was time to head for the hotel.. We didn’t have any trouble finding this as our HOHO driver had looked it up on his GPS for us and it was just beyond the station. We stopped back by the station to get our luggage. Another learning experience awaited us. We couldn’t get it to open! However, this didn’t turn into a major incident as there was a very beautiful Danish girl there with her husband getting their luggage. She heard our conversation, and walked over, showed up how to put our verification code in and voila! It opened. We grabbed a quick meal at the station, and headed to our room which was inexpensive and very decent. We got a fairly good night’s rest. NOTE: I cannot get these photos to load in the order I want them to so they'll just have to do. It takes FOREVER to get them up and loaded which is why I am so far behind in this blog. The photos without captions are just random photos of Copenhagen.

Our wonderful ice cream--we want more!

The beautiful fountain--can't for the life of me remember the story behind it

St. Albans Church. It is spectacular.

There were thousands of bicycles all over the city. EVERYONE rode a bike. We were amazed at seeing thousands of Danes riding merrily along in the midst of traffic with nary a helmet to be seen. Apparently they are more skilled a riding than Americans and don't need helmets. Either that or America has too many laws restricting the movements of its citizens.

The ferry we took from Oslo. It was actually quite fancy.

The two mermaids. The top one of course is the famous one. The bottom one is fairly recent and as our HOHO tour guide said is "bigger in every way than the original. He said it caused a lot of local controversy when it was put so close to the famous one. Ken took the bottom photo. He said I told him I needed a photo of the mermaid--how was he to know it wasn't this one. He says this one looked more "realistic" to him.  Very funny Ken.

END OF DAY 4