24 Hours in Copenhagen

Actually, it was slightly less than 24 hours since our flight was delayed by a few hours, but who’s counting? After checking into our tiny (but central) hotel room, we set out on our self guided walking tour of the city. We ran into two other groups wielding Rick Steves books on the same route. Only slightly awkward. It was fun wandering around the pretty buildings, old and new and we stopped for an epic freshly made waffle with ice cream and the best chicken Caesar wrap I’ve ever had. Seriously. Apologies for no photos because I ate everything too quickly 🙂

We decided to spend the evening at the famous Tivoli gardens amusement park, which is conveniently located in city centre, right across from the central train station.  I rode the first roller coaster I’ve ridden in years, it was so much fun and the park is really well decorated. If you plan on riding more than one or two rides, it’s worth it to get a pass as the rides aren’t cheap and the pass is pretty reasonable. Also, check what time the restaurants close as we were left with one (expensive!) option open in the park for our late dinner. (Admission : 110 DKK per person, unlimited ride pass: 220 DKK, 1 dollar = roughly 6.7 DKK) Afterward, we drank beer and watched the light show in the park then wandered back to the hotel in the rain.

We woke up to pouring rain on Thursday morning, but still made the trek to get fresh danishes.  Amazing.

the original danish

Visiting Christiania, the hippie development/tourist attraction was next on the list.  It is interesting to wander through, and a bit strange to see pot dealers also wandering around (with their faces covered, as it’s still illegal in Denmark). It has roughly 850 residents living in former military barracks, and the area is filled with restaurants and shops. Most of the area seems to not allow photos, so apologies for the lack of them. It’s an interesting community, very different to anything I’ve seen before, and worth a wander.

ready to set sail!

After that, it was time to head to the boat, almost a disaster! We’d left 2 hours to get to the boat before last call, and with only a few miles to go we figured there would be no problem…but apparently John Kerry (US Sec. of State) was visiting Copenhagen that day (we learned this from the signs protesting his arrival) and the main roads were shut! Fortunately our cab driver knew some back routes, but it took ages and I was really getting nervous we wouldn’t make it. We did, and checked onto the Serenade of the Seas, bound next for Rostock Germany.

This is the first post in a series about our Baltic cruise! Over the next week or two I’ll be posting about our adventures in Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Finland and Sweden. It was a busy but awesome trip!