Copenhagen Wednesday

Greetings!

Hotel Absalon, and several other low budget faamily hotels, sits in what is referred to as the "erotic district". Getting in after dinner last night, I had bought Pat's comment that it didn't look like we'd be getting a breakfast. Seedy would be an upgrade to describing the neighborhood, and we didn't look very closely at the lobby and amenities. We were informed that the room we had reserved was "without facilities", which meant that the toilet and shower were out in the hallway. Pat urged an upgrade, and the addition of an extra day. For another $50/night and $180 for the final night, we got what we wanted, and hurried off to bed.

Then we read the hotel's guidebook in the room. Not only did they have breakfast, but wireless internet in the lobby. I went downstairs, got an extra pillow for Pat and a replacement light bulb for the desk lamp, and returned to the room. The lamp still didn't work, but we decided against making a pest of ourselves. I took the laptop downstairs, sat on a couch near the reception, and logged on. High broadband speed, and no logon problems.

This morning, with slightly less variety in the cereal ingredients, and really poor orange juice, we had the hotel breakfast. Pat had yogurt and sliced peaches, and then moved joined me in cereal. As she's been working on getting me to like almost every other food besides the five of six I fell into liking as a kid, I'm working on her liking milk. I have a long way to go.

Another beautiful day in Scandinavia. We decided that our previous strategy of taking a city bus and harbour tour was the way to go with Copenhagen. The only glitch we found was that the ATM said "card issuer unavailable" when we tried to get some cash out of it from our bank's debit card just before the 9:30am tour left without us. We walked around the city center area for a while killing time in the hope that it would become available for the 11:30 tour. We used an alternate strategy at 11:00, and got cash out of one of our credit cards. Later in the day, we found the ATM responsive again to our debit card.

While we waited, we visited the home store of Royal Copenhagen. The third floor contains their museum, and a working artist from their production line painting the ceramic dishes. I really did learn more than I thought I'd find interesting about this Danish commerical treasure

The other glitch was that we found the tour bus almost full when we got to it, and sat in one of the seats on the first level. On a tour which focuses on seeing buildings and dramatic views, looking out at the first floors wasn't exciting. We did see a troup of royal guards on the street, and got out to photograph the little mermaid statue near the shore.

The tour boat had much better views, and I was blown away by how much the city has done to convert its surplus navy and industrial properties into high-end housing, and sailboat-served summer apartments. It's also working on a new waterfront opera house and theater complex.



In the late afternoon, we just had to try the main tourist attraction in the city - Tivoli Gardens. What a ripoff. Unless you are nine years old, with a set of parents willing to let you lose your lunch on scary rides, and buy every possible souvenir imaginable, you'll be disappointed. I did get a closeup photo of the marching band. Later, we walked partt of one of the city's walking tours, before coming back to the hotel around 5pm. A good, long day in a vry pretty city. But tomorrow, we'll walk it.


Here is a link to all of the photos we took today: Copenhagen Wednesday