Part of Your World (Copenhagen, Denmark, part 3)

The day commenced as they tend to do in Denmark, with beautiful sunshine. Sadly, dear reader, it is often short lived. Today the drizzle was forecast from around 3pm. Our day kicked off at Buka, of course, for pastries and coffee and to purchase a baguette. It would be another 'French' dinner tonight to exhaust our supplies prior to our next transit day.

Our café was already out of baguette so we walked the 200 metres towards the Square to the other store to make our purchase there.

Today we decided upon a canal cruise so, after depositing our baguette back home, we grabbed the camera and the bags containing the lenses. The cruise promised many photo opportunities. We left home at 10:30am to arrive at 10:45 for an 11am cruise, as is recommended in the company information.

Below is my Tripadvisor review.

Stromma Canal Cruise

This canal cruise promised so much and delivered so little. The only accurate part of the 'sightseeing' description was we were in a boat on the canal and it lasted for an hour. Oh, yes, and there was an English speaking guide. Did that really matter when you couldn't see what he was speaking about?

A quick snap before anyone stood up.

Unless you were fortunate enough to get a seat on the side, or outside, you saw very little apart from other passengers. Most seats were taken when we arrived at 10:45 for the 11am cruise. Soon after we left the dock, passengers were invited to stand up, thereby obscuring any view those seated closest to aisle might have hoped to have.

The windmill in the Kastellet area.

As for seeing anything through the roof. The perspex had ceased to be transparent long, long ago. This appears to be purely a money making venture and you will see far more on foot creating your own personalised tour. It will also be more enjoyable. We walked to the Little Mermaid once we were off the boat. A much more pleasurable experience and we saw so much more of Copenhagen.

A garbage incinerator that doubles as a ski slope.

Don't waste your money.

I was just reviewing the blog and noticed the nice white outline for the cut and paste of the above review. I'm not sure why it also includes the next two paragraphs, they were definitely not part of the review. Nor was this, but hey, computers and stuff.

What I didn't put into the review was the absolute disregard for other passengers displayed by many people on board. There were two large family groups in front of us on both sides of the boat. While they could have probably occupied two rows of seats each they placed two members of their family on the side of the boat in three rows each. Some then spread out and turned their back on the aisle to ensure no-one else could sit there

A similarly crowded boat.

The two people to my immediate left, closest to the outside, stood up as soon as we reached the harbour, not only preventing me from taking photos, but completing obscuring any view. We, on the aisle seats, were prevented from standing up by the discoloured, dirty perspex canopy.

The commentary was in Danish and English. This meant the guide raced through the pre-prepared script in both languages. I was uncertain at times as to what language the guide was speaking, let alone what he was saying.

New apartments on the water. Asking beetween $2m and $30m AUD.

Some people occupying the aisle seats gave up trying to see anything and unsurprisingly resorted to doom scrolling on their phones.

As an experience, I couldn't rate it lowly enough. I received an email from the company this morning asking me to rate my experience. That should be fun.

Marmorkirken

Following such a scintillating experience, we needed to walk off some frustration. This would require taking on the weather forecasters and the afternoon drizzle.

HCA lived in both of these houses. Not at the same time.

Back through Nyhavn past Hans Christian Andersen's many abodes, apparently he really liked the area, we turned toward the harbour and then Marmorkirken. The dome is breathtaking and dominates the skyline of Copenhagen. If you forget it exists, you can round a bend and there it is, floating above the landscape. I'm quite fascinated by it.

HCA also lived here. It's the opposite side of the canal.

To get to the dome, we had pass through the Amalienborg Slot square where the changing of the guard was once again continuing at its glacial pace. Many people had lost interest in watching two rows of tin soldiers standing staring at each other and the crowd had thinned, so I got the photo I missed out on the other day.

A serious staring competition.

Through the Square and across the street to the Marmorkirken. There was a constant stream of people moving in and out of the church. It was quite crowded inside, people sitting in quiet contemplation. Good Friday influence I imagine. It was not possible to photograph the entire dome without changing lenses and lying on the floor. Probably not appropriate behaviour. I snapped a couple of quick photos and another of a stained glass pane in the ceiling of the foyer that Jayne pointed out. 

The dome.

The ceiling in the foyer.

The Little Mermaid

Outside the church, the clouds had become heavier and the wind a little stronger. The drizzle might be arriving earlier than expected. Undeterred, we commenced the 1km walk to the much maligned statue.

Although the story is loved, as is the original Disney animated film, the good people of Denmark do not share that love. All types of heinous acts have been perpetrated upon poor Ariel. She has been graffitied and defaced. In one act of violence she was beheaded.

The "English" church.

Today she sits upon her rock, bereft of the love of her prince and of her native people. A statue that is the backdrop for innumerable selfies, a canvas for mindless morons who feel the need to document their travels by sticking their face into every photo taken. Aside from that, birds shit on her head.

A swan making good use of the castle moat.

The walk down and back passes through the Kastellet precinct. It houses the Museum of Resistance, several churches of different faiths, a castle, the launching point for the royal yacht and finally the statue of the Little Mermaid.

There was no time for deviation from our plan as the drizzle had commenced. We followed the crowd to the mermaid. It would not be easy obtaining a clear photo given the number of people clambering over the slippery rocks around her. One vacuous girl was being photographed on the beach twirling an umbrella and turning to look coquettishly at the camera. Or her girlfriend. Whatever.

Look at me when I'm speaking to you.

We paused momentarily for a change of camera lens and swapped in the 300mm lens, meaning I could shoot from a distance. Obligatory photos taken, none of which included our visages, we left the crowds clamouring for position as they muttered "just one more picture". It was said as an apology but lacked sincerity.

I'm not looking at you. A bird has shit on my face.

It was officially raining as we reached home. Excellent timing. The rain was going to hang around all day so we decided to call it quits and adjourned to our warm abode to crack a bottle of chablis and discuss the day's events. And hate on Stromma.

Ah, yes. I'd be unhappy too.

Of course the title today Part of Your World is from the 1989 Disney animated movie The Little Mermaid.

A shop window on the way home. Interesting.

And that's about it from Copenhagen.

Until next time.

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen (Gothenburg, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark)

The excitement of Gothenburg became too much for one post, dear reader, so here we are. And yes, we do get to Copenhagen and today's title. I know, an early reveal. Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen by Danny Kaye from the 1952 musical Hans Christian Andersen. It's time to a rekindle memory or just to be appalled by the music of the '50s. Your call, but listen here. Given the trend to 'revive' musicals I am mystified as to why this one hasn't hit the stage again.

Flowers are beginning to emerge.

Day 3

Monday (time is fluid). The systembolaget would be open today. Super excitement. On the way to find food to start the day Jayne reported our room hadn't been serviced. The response was underwhelming and the woman at the desk began making excuses. "Maybe you sent them away." No. "Maybe you had 'do not disturb' on the door." No. "I'll have it attended to immediately." she said as we left for breakfast in Haga. 

In case you don't know there is a sign: HAGA.

We had deliberately delayed our arrival at Haga to ensure there were more stores open. In reality it is one long street of timber fronted stores. It is like Berry in NSW stretched along one street with little car traffic. There are a number of antique stores, cafés, clothing, souvenir and quirky gift shops.

The Skansen Kronan. Not a great photo.

We selected a different café for breakfast. In an unexpected move that Jayne said would only disappoint, I swapped my double espresso for a double shot Americano. She was right. It was a disappointment. But the pastry that accompanied it was spot on.

Fish Church

Following breakfast, we walked down towards the river and the fish market which has been dubbed the fish church because of the building's resemblance to a church. It has been undergoing renovation and was due to open in 2023, according to the official Gothenburg tourist booklet. As you can see from the photo, like SJ trains, they are running behind schedule.

Pray to the seafood.

The walk along the waterfront was not as scenic as we had hoped and we deviated back along the canal, towards the hotel and what I thought was a church. It had a clock in the steeple we noted from a distance. Clearly not a church. As we got closer we could see crosses on the lower roof line. A church with a clock in the main steeple. That's something we've never seen before.

Christchurch, Gothenburg.

Back to the hotel to change bags and grab the backpack, to find our room was still unclean. Hmmm. It was still early.

Lunch

Wine supply secured, we returned to the market hall in search of Swedish meatballs. The food in the market looked amazing, but the restaurants mostly had bar type tables. Not what we were looking for. The problem we realised, once outside, was that if the restaurant did not feature an English menu we had no idea what Swedish meatballs were called in Swedish. Thankfully Google translator did: Kötbullar.

Fortunately the restaurant across the road served Kötbullar so in we went. The staff were lovely and produced an English menu for us. The starter was free as was the bread, salad, biscuits and brewed coffee. We were amused by one of the wines on offer, a shiraz from Australia called Don't tell Gary. It's McPhersons wines in Victoria. No we didn't drink it; we opted for an Italian red to go with our Swedish meatballs.

Yeah, I had to Google it. It's a sculpture of a girl in a green dress riding a mythical animal.

Everything was going well until ... I placed my knife on the side of my plate and was reaching for my phone when the knife slipped. Not wanting it to fall on the floor, I pushed on it with my free hand. It stopped the slide to the ground, but in doing so, created a force that transferred up the handle to the blade. The blade was covered in thick, luscious, dark gravy. I may as well have picked up a spoon full of gravy and flicked it over myself. And over my shoulder. Fortunately, or unfortunately for the comic aspect of this catastrophe, there was no one sitting behind me. Gravy, spotted from right shoulder to cuff and one lone heart shot. Cruel. And on a clean shirt.

The Final Afternoon

Despite the desecration of my shirt, we went to the shopping mall to purchase a few requisites for tomorrow's travel. We opted for Lidl, another discount German chain similar to Aldi. It's a cheap option but I'm still  not sure about some of the product we purchased.

As we were leaving, the drizzle re-commenced so we went straight back to the hotel. Would our room finally have made the service list? I mean we were promised immediate action this morning and that hadn't happened on our pre-lunch visit.

A children's play area in Haga. We'll discuss later.

We opened the door to find ... the room exactly as we had left it. So, we dropped our bags, grabbed the computer and went to reception. This time we spoke with the concierge. Before he knew our room number, he said someone had been sent to clean it after we complained that morning. I don't think so. Then he asked for our room number so he could send someone there immediately.

The robot was cleaning the hallways - maybe we should have sent it to our room.

We adjourned to the bar and blogged. No drinks. they didn't deserve our money. After an hour, we went to the room to find it had been cursorily cleaned. The bed looked like it had been made by a teenager. The floor hadn't been vacuumed but we had clean glasses (we hope).

That night we switched on the TV and came across an English program called Shetland. Two episodes in. We're addicted.  It's like the Australian show Dead Loch without the humour. I'll be chasing that when we get home.

Leaving Gothenburg

At check out the next day, the woman on reception did the usual, "How was your stay?" So, Jayne told her. The result of the non-housekeeping was she removed the charge for the bottle of wine we had one evening. Cool. Still won't be going back to Radisson Blu anytime soon.

Across the cobbled pavers into the station. Bags stowed. Seats facing the direction of travel. The train left on time. Everything was looking good. Our connecting train that we were picking up at Malmö was 20 minutes late leaving Stockholm, but by the time it reached Malmö it was only 5 minutes behind schedule.

Copenhagen or København

We arrived close enough to the scheduled time. The difficulty was, as always, getting form the station to the accommodation. It was supposed to be a 30 minute walk. The part walk/part train journey was still a 750m walk and involved navigating a train system of which we had absolutely no knowledge.

It was a nice day. The sun was shining, something we hadn't seen for a while. We decided to trust Declan and typed the address into the phone. I must say, we were a little bit disappointed that Mary hadn't sent someone to meet us at the station, given we are almost family, (we've been to Tasmania and we have also walked past the Slipp Inn at Darling Harbour, as opposed to the Ship Inn at the Quay).

Anyway after dragging the bags about 400 metres we decided we were headed in the wrong direction and returned to our point of origin and started over. What followed was a fun filled 30 minutes or so of dragging our bags across Denmark's quaintly paved footpaths. They are all partly solid, the other section is cobbled. Not really designed for wheelie bags, but so cool for tourists.

As a result of Declan's penchant for zigzagging through streets, we saw much of the Latin quarter before we reached our accommodation. It was Tuesday afternoon but the streets were very crowded. Jayne was navigating so the fact we walked past the Pandora shop was, I'm absolutely certain, coincidental.

And then ...

Accommodation discovered. Eventually. It's never as easy as it is supposed to be. Sadly it was on the second floor, up three flights of stairs. Equally sadly, there were four different digital locks to negotiate before we could get in. That's more security than we have at home. There was, of course, a trick to mastering the digital locks but we got there, thankfully still in daylight.

The apartment is everything we need and is extremely well situated. Bags unpacked, we went in search of a supermarket and some wine. As it turned out, they were one and the same since Denmark, for some reason, has not subscribed to the rest of Scandinavia's prohibitive approach to the sale of alcohol. Our shopping done, we turned our attention to dinner. Given how well located we are, how difficult could that be?

This is our place. Well, the entry.

Not so simple if you don't know where things are. We wandered for a while and stumbled across the Pandora store again.  Time was on our side. In we went, Danish charm, a crown in honour of our Mary, Queen of Denmark purchased, dinner then moved to top priority.

It was no easy task, dear reader, but you have suffered enough for one blog so I shall end this forthwith. We found a tiny Italian restaurant in a cellar. Great food and wine and, as we settled in for our meal, the people kept coming and coming. Some were turned away. Others were more defiant and stood and waited in the tiny area near the entry stairs.

We didn't linger over dinner and relinquished our table to those so desperate as to stand and wait.

Until next time.