Editors Note:  Yes, I know it is confusing – we are definitely out of order now with the chronology of countries.  Don’t fret – we are not done with Russia quite yet, and the other nordics deserve at least one post, before we get into Germany and Austria…

“O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”*  And there was much rejoicing as the Minkey hopped a plane from the arctic to Copenhagen.  She nearly missed the plane due to some gate confusion (odd that, since I am a frequent air traveler!) and then promptly did it wrong looking for the metro at the airport.  After getting some instruction on how to find the metro I was off into the fabulous warmth and sunlight of Copenhagen.  The weather was unbelievably wonderful.  It was so WARM!  I was very appreciative of this fact.  Of course, I was staying in yet another Airbnb place.  This one was easily found and at the building door I encountered another American.  Copenhagen seems to have a healthy population of Americans – and after my time there I understand why – because it is so awesome!

This American gal turned out to be in the apartment next to mine – and she gave me the heads-up that this apartment was up four floors (no elevator).  These were double stairs too – felt more like eight floors of climbing!  I was thinking of making two trips so as not to cause a hernia (can women even get those?) plus it’s a narrow, steep, staircase.  But the American gal is behind me, and she exhorts me to carry it all up at once; exclaiming that ‘I need to get used to this sort of thing if I’m going to travel around the world’ (we had already had some discussion about what I was doing in Copenhagen, etc.).  Consequently, she took my small bag and I lumbered up eight stinking flights of stairs trying not to fall backwards with the ungainly backpack and rolly duffel.  Needless to say, I was a sweaty mess trying to catch my breath when I got up to that flat.

My Airbnb host was a sweet guy – he showed me how to work everything, made sure I could get on the wifi, and introduced me to the smallest bathroom I had yet encountered.  Sadly, I don’t think I took a picture – it was something.  Yes, it was the all-in-one style with a shower curtain pulled to cover the wooden bathroom door – and while showering you could actually have used the toilet and brushed your teeth (with sink access), all at the same time!  Convenient, no?  These types of bathrooms have forced me to reconsider my personal hygiene habits… let’s just say that I’m emulating the European bathing habits.  Hey, nobody gets that close to me anyway…

Let’s talk Copenhagen – I loved it so much…   Everyone should visit this city which is beyond laid-back.   People are basking in the sun literally on every available spot of pavement or green grass, and all of them are drinking beer.  In the canals there are small boats (think small open fishing boats designed for lakes) which ALL have a table in the middle and lotsa beer bottles covering the table… I started to wonder if there might be some kind of national drinking problem here, but could not recall hearing any stories about drunken Danes (sorry, had to work that in – cracks me up)…  I don’t know if the weather was a factor – I have a sneaking suspicion that it was…  and I lucked out to be there at the perfect time.

I did head out on a canal boat tour, the ‘Grand Tour’ (highly recommend that, the company that runs them is called Stromma) and was able to get great views of all the buildings both classic and modern.  The architecture is amazing – one building was a converted torpedo hall, complete with the original concrete structure and now housing apartments.  The crème de la crème was the opera house – I believe they were trying to outdo Oslo (!).  The Copenhagen Opera House is on the water (like Oslo), though built with circles and squares in mind rather than the triangles of the Oslo Opera House.  The city reminded me some of Amsterdam, because there are myriad waterways with steep, narrow houses and buildings side by side.  And much like Amsterdam, they too had a golden age (late 18^th century and early 19^th century) where leading traders amassed huge fortunes and built mansions on the canals.

There are also plenty of castles and palaces available for your viewing pleasure.  Some are located right in the center of the city like Christiansborg Palace and you can tour them and get your fill of over the top neo-classical décor.  Underneath Christiansborg Palace you can see the original walls and other items from earlier castles and forts built on the same location.  This goes back to the 12^th century!  They discovered all of this about 100 years ago when they were rebuilding the castle after the second time it had burned.  That’s right folks, the Danes accidentally burned down Christiansborg Palace twice… in the span of about 100 years.  Apparently faulty stoves and pipes were to blame each time.  The second time around some of the palace staff would not let firemen into the building for fear of ruining the floors….   But I’m not going to say anything snarky about the Danes here, as Copenhagen was just too wonderful.

On this particular adventure I was joined by a buddy of mine who is currently spending some time in Florence, Italy.  Sarah came out for the weekend and it was such a pleasure to have some company for dinner and someone to patiently hear out my ranting and raving about various issues.  We went to a great art museum, Glyptoteket; in a beautiful neo-classical building with a relaxing winter garden and café.  We enjoyed the Gaugin exhibit and a fair amount of other impressionist works.  And of course, we went to Tivoli Gardens.

Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland  – Tivoli is an old-school amusement park.  It was built in the 19^th century, and get this, the King (Christian VIII, in this case – every Danish King is either Christian or Frederick) supplied the money to build it because the founder told him that “when the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics”.  The park has themed areas, mostly focused on the Orient (sound familiar?).  We rode on the Dragon Boats and walked by various pavilions, including one theater where a pantomime play was taking place (it’s a thing).  But our favorite ride was probably the ferris wheel… which is generally thought of as a slow and calm kind of ride.  Ha.  This ferris wheel was up on a platform maybe 20 feet off the ground and the cabins you sit in were dangling from bars on the wheel, meaning they moved back and forth at the slightest hint of motion.  And there was no restraining bar over your lap or anything – you could have hopped out the back or the side if you wanted to end it all in dramatic fashion!

We were slightly unnerved by this and the second after we sat down the wheel starts turning – and it turns fast…   And Sarah and I look at each other and immediately have death grips on the bars available to us, as our bucket is swinging in the wind – and we are screaming – well, at least exclaiming (there was a lot of sharp intakes of breath) over why there is so much movement and we feel so unsafe!  This went on for some time and we were hopeful that it would end soon, which it eventually did, but with our cabin on the topmost point – stopped and still swaying precariously in the breeze – aieeee, this did not work very well for us.  With each slight turn of the wheel we slowly descended to the platform, it took forever before we could get down and off that ride.  The ferris wheel of all things!  In spite of that ferris wheel ride we did enjoy our Tivoli experience.  We were there at night and the park sparkled with twinkling lights.  We thought there would be less people there in the evening, but not so much, still wall-to-wall people.  In that sense, very much like Disneyland…

More to come – like the visit to Kronborg Slot (that’s castle in Danish!)  – oooooo, ahhhhhhhh

*All credit to Mr. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There)