Copenhagen is clean, sophisticated, convenient, high quality and a bit cold… kind of like me. The subway is very easy to navigate and immaculate. The Quality Inn was conveniently located a few minutes from the metro, the beds were very comfortable, the staff was quite helpful… it was quite unfortunate that the rooms smelled of sewage. On the upside, I could see the ocean from my window!
My first day consisted of arriving at 7:00am, thankfully early check in with no issues, then jumping on the metro and heading to the botanical gardens. After an inordinate amount of time on google maps, I was able to navigate by metro to the gardens and then to the Rosenborg Castle. The streets in Copenhagen have a quite nasty habit of having 28 letter, infathomably unpronounceable names and changing these cryptic names every block or two. In a way, that made it that much more rewarding to figure out though.
The botanical gardens were pleasant, particularly, or perhaps especially, because they were free. If I were to be honest though, they didn’t stack up to many of the gardens I have visited, if the St. Louis or Longwood or even OP Aboretum were a 6, this would be a 3. In fact, when I walked across the way to the Rosenburg castle grounds, I was immediately struck by how much more lush, established and well laid out these gardens were in comparison to the university botanical gardens.
The Rosenborg was very well thought out. Long, finely graveled lanes led to beautiful sculptures or rose gardens or to the castle itself. By the time I got to the castle, it was raining quite steadily, so I welcomed the chance to duck indoors. As with everything in Copenhagen, the entry price was high. Though the castle was small, I enjoyed it overall – especially the mirrored room and the treasury.
By the time I was done there, I was starving and exhausted. I wandered to city center, home of the longest walking road in Europe (or so they told me) and made the tourist mistake of choosing a place the ir close and has an open seat – the Cafe Phonix. I ordered a marinated Greek sandwich that was decent but way overpriced. I then headed home on the metro and took a well deserved nap. An hour later, I pulled myself out of a bad dream and otherwise good sleep. I took expatriot and coworker Rachal’s advise and checked out the shopping in city center. Rolex, Cartier, Burberry, insert-expensive-brand-I-don’t-know-here. It was cool to be walking free of worry of cars. As I planned, I could check out a couple fountains and sights on the way home. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering from beautiful spire to charming canal to the next. Few people were about so I got some nice pics of the sights or the undiscovered views such as this.
For dinner, I took Danish coworker Christian’s advice and headed to The Globe Irish Pub. The place was pretty well empty, but still had a nice feel and the Irish bartender took pity on me and coaxed me into drinking nasty traditionally Danish shots. I had the chili at his recommendation and was glad I did.
Well, I’ve been trying to publish this blog for two days but wifi and the blogger app don’t seem to be playing well on my tablet. I’ve given up on uploading photos for now. I’ll give it a shot from Barcelona tomorrow!
