Copenhagen, Denmark

We arrived in Copenhagen in the early evening after a long train (and boat) ride, but it's summertime, and it doesn't get dark here until midnight. So, after checking in at our hotel we visited the nearby Tivoli Gardens. First, we had dinner at a Viking themed place called Valhal, where the portions come in two sizes: Ladyviking and Man Viking. (Really. I guess political correctness hasn't hit Denmark yet.) We were pleased to have been mistaken for Danes by our waiter, but that impression didn't last long once he started asking us questions. We couldn't keep up the illusion, but it was nice not to be immediately pegged as tourists.


Tivoli Gardens is a small amusement park, but it has a wide variety of rides from "Door No. 13," a medically themed house of horrors, to "The Golden Tower," a 63 meter free fall. Secured in roller-coaster type seats (the kind with the over-the-shoulder restraints), we were winched up to the top of the ride for an ominous pause followed by an earthward plummet, finishing with a slow series of bounces. It was so thrilling we did it twice. We ended the evening by watching the fireworks display over the lake at the center of the park.


Having developed a liking for walking tours, we took another one the next morning. Our guide, an expatriate New Yorker, led us from city hall to the university, through churches and past a castle, the Rosenborg Slot. He was an entertaining fellow with a good sense of humor, and he ended the tour by acting out the story of "The Little Mermaid" for us in front of a statue of Hans Christian Andersen. Along the way we passed the practice grounds for a Danish military band. There they were, dressed in camouflage, playing such martial tunes as "Carmen" and "Heigh-Ho." Our lunch that day came at our guide's recommendation: smørrebrød from a local shop.

Our next must-see attraction was the Carlsberg Brewery. We were getting pretty familiar with the normal mash tun to fermentation tank to tasting room route, but here we also got to see the bottling line. Knowing the fundamentals of beer production as we do, brewery tours provide us with other amusement. For instance, the guide here made quite a point of telling us that Carlsberg's signature horses, the Danish Jutland breed, were the strongest and most powerful horses in the world. We got the distinct impression a comparison was being made, but she never mentioned Clydesdales. Also housed here is the world's largest collection of beer bottles; room after room, the display holds over 10,000 bottles, all different.

We also saw the legacy of an unfortunate marketing decision. Before Hitler was even born, J. C. Jacobsen adopted the swastika as the logo for his new brand of beer. This logo was understandably dropped in 1940, but the displays at the visitor center still show some examples. We didn't see any swastikas anywhere in Germany, and then we came to a Danish brewery...

We had dinner at Nyhavn, a restored waterfront area along a canal. It used to be the red light district, but they've cleaned it up and turned it into a pedestrian area with shops and restaurants. It took us a while to find a restaurant that met our budgetary needs, but once we did we were quite happy with the meal, and we were again mistaken for Danes. After dinner we climbed the ramp to the top of the Rundetaarn, the oldest functioning observatory in Europe. From the top of the tower, we could see the bridge being built from Denmark to Sweden.

We knew we couldn't leave Copenhagen without seeing the statue of the Little Mermaid, so after dinner we trekked off to find it. This proved to be more of a challenge than we had anticipated, as the statue is located far from downtown. Also, the signs were misleading and our freebie map from the tourist office had a few inaccuracies. At one point, we wandered into some Danish military installation, only to wander immediately back out with a wary and armed Dane following us.

Eventually, we found her. She's perched on a rock just off the shore in the harbor. There are no special lights or other fanfare; she just sits there, looking forlornly at the passing ships. By the time we got there, it was dark, so we didn't stay long before heading back to our hotel. The next morning, we caught an early train to Helsingør, where we got on a ferry across the straits to Helsingborg, Sweden.