Sunday, August 28, 2011

Copenhagen - Day 8

We got off the ferry about 9:30 in Copenhagen and drove straight to our hotel without any trouble, which is surprising considering the crazy traffic from cars and bikes. We dropped off our luggage and went to park the car. This parking deck was a much better size than the parking deck in Oslo.
Our hotel room.

We parked the car and first went to the Apoteket to get me some band-aids because I still have the blisters. Actually, only one of the blisters is giving me issues. It is on top of my pinkie toe and is the size of a bean. On top of my toe, meaning I can’t wear any shoes other than flip-flops.


So we got the band-aids and went to tourist information place across the street. We got our maps and Copenhagen cards and went straight to the royal palace for the changing of the guard.


After the changing of the guard we walked over to Nyhavn, an old street with buildings facing the canal. This is where we got on the boat tour.

Once the boat tour started, we realized the tour guide wasn’t speaking English. Hmm. We thought maybe we hopped on the wrong boat, but no, she eventually did speak some English, just not very well! So we had some trouble determining each landmark, but we just took pictures anyway and decided we could figure it out later. We were able to see the opera house, which was not as impressive as the opera house in Oslo! We also saw the little mermaid statue, as Hans Christian Andersen is from Copenhagen.

Nyhavn
Opera House
The Little Mermaid

Following the boat tour we walked to the Stroget, which is the main shopping/pedestrian street for lunch. We ate at a place called Tight, which was ranked #1 of TripAdvisor. Once we got there, it seemed that they had a little campaign to be ranked high on TripAdvisor, as it said it on the sign outside the restaurant. It was a very small restaurant on a little side street, but it was pretty good. I had a hamburger. Again. I think I have had several hamburgers along the way.


After lunch, we walked over to the Dansk Architecture Museum, which was across the water on a different island. Our main interest in Copenhagen was architecture, as they are building lots of new, progressive buildings that Ben wanted to see. We were going to take some form of transit over to the museum, but weren’t able to figure it out, so decided to walk instead. We finally made it there, going against the getting off of work traffic that included hundreds of bikes. Lots and lots of bikes here that will run you over. There is a bike lane, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be bikes on the sidewalk. The museum was small but interesting. They also didn’t have air conditioning. There were models of many of the buildings Ben wanted to see. He was also able to buy a book that catalogued all of the new architecture in Copenhagen that included a map of the buildings.

Lots of bike riders!
Inside Architecture Museum bookstore

By this time, we were hot and tired. Also, I had another lovely problem. HIVES….really bad. They never went away completely from a few days before but now they were really bad. Despite my blister, I had decided to walk around in my Merrell’s because it was slightly chilly, but I also thought they would be more comfortable than flip flops for all of the walking. Bad decision. My legs got hot, because I was wearing jeans and then socks, plus doing so much walking, that hives covered my legs. Not only did I have hives, but the hives were making my legs swell really bad, too. I felt the hives coming back in the morning as we were walking around, and pushed my socks down around my ankles at lunch, but we kept going, which was a mistake. By the time we had walked all the way over to the museum, I was miserable and was having trouble standing on my legs. We knew there was a bus station nearby, but couldn’t figure out which bus to get on to get back to the hotel. Nobody at the bus stop could help us either. We had a transit map, but it did not make sense at all. We finally just got on a bus and hoped it went the right way. It went toward the hotel, so we got off about 5-6 blocks away. We made a second visit to the Apotek for some Benadryl and went back to the hotel. Once we made it there, I felt really sick. Ben wrapped my legs in cold towels and I ended up taking a nap for a couple of hours.

After my nap, my legs felt a little better, so we decided to go over to Tivoli gardens, which was only 2 blocks away. Tivoli is a small amusement park, similar to Six Flags in the middle of the city. It also has a concert hall and an outdoor stage for concerts. We decided to ride one ride, because you have to pay extra for the rides. We rode something similar to It’s a Small World in Disney that went through H.C. Andersen fairytales. We ended up getting to ride it for free because when we walked up to ride it we didn’t realize we had to pay. The guy working the entrance said we could pay with a credit card right before we got on the ride. Once we got down there, we realized they only took European credit cards with a chip, so the girl there told us we could just pay next time. We wandered around here for a little while, watching all of the people. It was a Friday night and there were mostly local people here with kids or watching the concert. We got an ice cream cone for dinner inside the park and then left.




Not for from our hotel was the Mikkeller bar, so we went there next so Ben could get a beer that he can’t get at home. We went back to the hotel after we left Mikkeller. This hotel didn’t have air conditioner either, but we were able to open the windows. We were facing the main street, but we actually slept better with the street noise since that is what we are used to from living on Peachtree for years!


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