Danish Day (2nd August)

When booking our flights we decided to get the first one to Copenhagen in order to totally maximise our time. In hindsight one should check the transportation to the airport when booking these flights. Is Heathrow really the busiest airport in the world? You wouldn't think so as there is no way to get there by 5:35am in the morning. The tube doesn't run and we're told night buses are no good. So it's 40 pound for a taxi. In a way we are pleased because it is a nice and efficient way to get there with out stress. Yeah right! Somehow we managed to write in the bible that we needed to be at Terminal 4. Na-ah we need to be at terminal 5. But we don't realise this until the taxi had disappeared. So there is surely a free terminal transfer? Well the train is a 35 minute wait (we're meant to check in in 20 minutes). We're told by a really helpful man that there is a bus. Hooray it's due in the next few minutes. We're on, but it isn't strictly an airport bus. It is actually public transport and as such stops at 5 random stops to drop heaps of people off at cargo and offices between terminal 4 & 5. It's ok, we arrive safely and the queue is short so we check in our bags and head away on the flight. Copenhagen customs had no queue. This is interesting. The dude looks at our passports not that closely, opens up, stamps them and we are away. No questions no nothing. Sweet! On the plane we hummed and haaed whether to buy a Copenhagen Card for 450DKK (divide by 3 to get NZ$). Turns out it was a fabulous idea. Free public transport everywhere. So we headed on the metro (fully automated and driver less) to Norreport stop. Up at street level we could not work out where we were. Two people saw us looking at the map and pointed us in the right direction. Danes are very helpful people. The hostel was 200 metres away down a side road, so not too much walking with our packs on. Changing of the guard is at 1pm and so we hurry away to Amelienborg Palace to see it. On our way we see some guards marching along the traffic lane. We figure they are going to the same place we are and we follow them taking photos when they stop for the red lights (we're not kidding). At the palace we see the guards change over. Queen Margarethe is not at home because there is no flag flying. She is well liked and respected by Danes. She has set up an exhibition about Tiara's, it's fascinating to look at them all. Some of the tiara's are the Queens and others are from members of the extended royal family. Mike is not so keen on these, but Shona thinks they are mostly beautiful. Our Copenhagen card allows us to visit another exhibition in the same place about maps. This is way more up Mike's alley. The detail of these maps from the 1600's right through to the 1800's is amazing considering they are entirely hand drawn. As Danish is the official language of Denmark we are not able to learn everything that there is to know. The important parts are translated into English for us, but not the finer points. Danes are bi-lingual speaking Danish and also English, so we don't run into trouble when trying to communicate. It's a beautiful sunny day so we stroll along the waterfront promenade eating ice cream, past the statue of David (Dave and Fi -does this mean we don't need to see him in Florance?) to visit the Little Mermaid. She is cute and we both get our feet wet for a good photo. This blog is long and there is still so much to talk about. Trying to make the most of our Copenhagen cards we decide we can fit in the zoo this afternoon. It is a Sunday but the zoo is open until 9pm. OK, lets go! What a fabulous decision. Copenhagen zoo is the best zoo ever! We walk in to see a pride of lions. They are being lazy because it is too hot. So we walk on to find a polar bear. No wait there are two polar bears. And they aren't just pacing back and forth. They are swimming around (I'm a polar pop bear and I live in the pool...) and looking back at us. Cool! Next door are brown bears, a Daddy bear in an enclosure on his own and a mummy bear in a big enclosure with two cute cubs. They are also looking at us and having fun. Behind us are some reindeer. Another bonus. We have never seen reindeer up close and personal. They use their antlers to scratch their legs which is cute. Basically the zoo is brilliant, 7 elephants, otters (thought of you Andrew), hippos, rhinos etc etc and even keas to make us think of home (sadly no car's in the enclosure for them to demonstrate natural behaviours!) The lions are full of energy when we head out after a very impressive experience. Next on the agenda was the Hans Christian Andersen display which is a much less impressive experience. Finding it was a drama and although the displays are impressively presented - it's just a place to hear some of his stories read out... oh well it's free with the Copenhagen card so we can't really complain! Back to the hostel via the Cogenhagen equivalent of Times Square for a very much needed sleep! Bikes... I can't finish a blog about this place without mentioning the bikes. EVERYONE seems to have one - and from the number parked up on every block, park and train station I get the feeling most people have 4 or 5! Plus each street has a specified bike lane and Shona keeps tripping over the second curb. We think that NZ is clean green, but Denmark has in the last 20 years significantly reduced it's carbon emissions while still increasing production - this is largely due to wind farms and the fact that bikes seem to outnumber cars, pedestrians and trucks all put together!