Our hotel in Copenhagen also had breakfast included, and what a breakfast! We went down to the first floor and the dining room of the bar had been converted to a breakfast buffet. Hot eggs, bacon, pancakes, a plate of some of nice cheeses (cheeses I wouldn’t give out to guests – these were premium!), some yogurt that was like no other yogurt I had ever tried – maybe homemade? At each table was a tall thermos of hot coffee so we could pour our own and tamper with it how we liked. It was much better than the automatic machine from the last hotel.
Since the breakfast was so nice we lingered a bit longer. In the dining room there was a Spanish family speaking in loud volume about something that had happened last night in a restaurant somewhere. The father was full of opinions, and the rest of the family dutifully listened to him rant while they waited for their taxi. I heard a lot of Spanish on this trip.
Once we finished breakfast we got an early start on sightseeing. We first traveled south and across a river to a part of town surrounded by canals, and there we went to see the Church of Our Saviour. The spire of the cathedral was beautifully designed in dark colors with an odd spiral twist at the top – it was really attractive. We left that neighborhood and walked through more empty streets on the Nyhavn, this time having the place almost all to ourselves. I took lots of pictures of the colored buildings on the waterfront, and really spent some quality time there. From Nyhavn we headed north along the waterfront to go and try to see the mermaid statue that has become a symbol of Copenhagen. However, along the way we passed (accidentally) through a huge square. The square was about 100 yards on a side, with a big statue of Fredrik V on a horse in the center. Along the east side was the dramatic dome of the Fredrik’s Church. But other than these two landmarks, that remarkable amount of space was standing empty. Well, almost empty. At each corner of the square there was an armed guard posted. The guards were wearing formal dress, and by chance when we entered the square they started a slow march to change positions. It was a very surreal feeling to be in a space that big surrounded by four silent armed guards in a city we barely knew. As we left the square heading north a young woman was hurrying the opposite way alone, so maybe her boyfriend was working guard duty that day.
We didn’t see many other people until we reached the mermaid statue. There were already a group of Chinese tourists there posing for pictures in front of the statue. One cute old lady was lying on her side on the rocks, vaguely imitating the pose of the mermaid – it was an unusual scene. Near that area we walked through the Kastellet – an old military base that was converted into a city park. We spotted some armed soldiers walking through, so perhaps it is still active. We even found a windmill in there – interesting place.
From that area we headed generally southwest, using a long city park to make the travel more interesting. The park was really grown out and felt a little like Disney’s Jungle Cruise ride. But there weren’t many people out, it was quiet, and we felt pretty safe (no tigers!) We re-visited the Stroget shopping area, did some shopping at a supermarket called IRMA, bought a mermaid ornament to hang on our tree this Christmas, and went back to the LEGO store on the off-chance that they had restocked stormtroopers on keychains. Unfortunately they didn’t have them on the rack, so Kuniko settled for a BB-8 and Darth Vader instead. As we were paying the handsome LEGO cashier, I mentioned that we were disappointed that they didn’t have the stormtrooper keychain, and he said that he’d check the back room for us. And to our surprise (and Kuniko’s great joy) he came out with a handful of them. Kuniko bought two of them on the spot, and we left the store very happy. Kuniko started to cry – she was so happy to find it – and that was a very successful shopping trip.
After leaving the store we stumbled on another big city square with dining tables outside, so we took the opportunity to sit down in the shade of the umbrellas and become the first customer of day for a restaurant we picked at random. We bought two big Carlsberg beers and drank them outside while resting our feet from all that walking. The place was interesting – they had faux animal furs on the seats (in case we got cold) and once we sat down more customers came quickly.
Our next stop was Flying Tiger, nearby. If you remember I mentioned that in Reykjavik I had urged Kuniko to wait on buying crayfish napkins, with the rationale that Copenhagen would have them for a better price since everything was expensive in Iceland. Unfortunately Flying Tiger in Copenhagen was sold out, so we missed our chance. Oh no!
One more interesting stop was a big food hall, filled with upscale restaurants, cafes, cheesemongers, butchers and fish shops. There we bought a large fried fish cake (fiskadeller) with a side of fake crab salad and an ice cold bottle of ale. We ate on barstools in the busy market while people squeezed by behind us, and sitting together with my beautiful wife, drinking that beer and eating that food I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. It was one of those moments of bliss that seem to happen so much more often when we’re on vacation.
We made our way back to the hotel room, and unfortunately the room was not cleaned yet. We followed our standard procedure and went back down to the hotel bar to drink a little and write in this journal. I had a Tuborg beer, and Kuniko had an E-pa, and since it was an unusual item on the menu I ordered a blueberry cider. Unfortunately when it arrived I realized that it was actually apple cider with blueberry flavor. Not bad, just not what I was hoping for.
We spent a little more time resting up in our room after it was cleaned up, and outside the building in the square below someone was having a music party. He was playing dance music at a very loud volume but also singing along terribly at the top of his lungs. It went straight past annoying and on to strange and funny. We enjoyed listening to his take on euro dance, and we were laughing every few minutes when his voice cracked. Great memories of that afternoon!
In the evening we stayed a little closer to the hotel, visiting a lake built right in the city, a furniture shop that felt a little like a rip-off of IKEA, and then we moved on to our dinner restaurant, called Fridas. The reason I picked the restaurant is that it was “traditional” Danish food, and their menu had a dish I wanted to try. The interior was dark and reminded me a lot of an Irish pub, with lots of old pictures and strange utensils decorating the walls. The proprietor took our order, and we drank beers while we watched the other customers. Believe it or not, we seemed to be the only tourists in the place so that was a good sign.
Dinner came and we dug in. The dish I wanted to try was morbradboffer – a hot pot dish with fried pork in a rich red sauce, mixed together with big chunks of crispy bacon and small wieners. This is scooped onto rice and then eaten with a complete disregard for cholesterol levels. Kuniko went with veal liver with mushroom sauce, and her dish also had a side of little steamed potatoes, pickles (refreshing) and a plate of bacon. They are completely not messing around here. The beers we had here were worth mentioning, too: we had a Jacobsen Brown Ale and a Jacobsen IPA – both excellent ways to wash down all that meat.
After the big heavy meal we stopped in the store to buy some snacks for the leg of our journey, by bus and train tomorrow. We bought some chocolate, some yogurt, and some canned prosecco as a nightcap. Another big walking day with 30,080 steps – a new record for this trip.
