Fairy Tale Journey – Copenhagen

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!  We followed in the path of H.C. Andersen, leaving Odense for Copenhagen.

To get from Odense to Copenhagen, you have to cross a large body of water called the Store Baelt (remember the movie where they were going to Copenhagen on the ship?)  Now there’s a huge bridge spanning that waterway.  They’re still paying for it, I guess, since the toll was about 30 Euro to cross (around $45 or so!)

We didn’t think Copenhagen was all that wonderful when we got there.  We found the hotel building, but there was no parking, not even pay parking, available anywhere close.  We ended up going round and round trying to figure out how to get to a the parkhouses we could see signs for–all while trying to avoid the masses of bicycles that own the whole right side of the road.  Finally, we found a parking area a few blocks away.

We stayed in a “managed apartment”, like a hotel room but with a little kitchen area.  Nothing fancy, but good enough for a few days.  When I went in the bathroom with the shower and sink and saw no toilet I was a bit concerned, but the toilet turned out to be in a separate room by the front door.

Of course the first thing to do was find something to eat, so we walked a few blocks and found a little cafe.  Our server had gone to school in New York, so he spoke very good English.

We walked around our area of town a bit.  The city hall and square (Rådhuspladsen) were not far from our hotel, so we looked around.  There’s a large statue of H.C. Andersen between the square and the entrance to Tivoli (looking out over H.C. Andersen Boulevard, I think).  The square was a nice wide open area, and the city hall and statues are nice to look at.  However, this area of town seems a bit shabby and dirty–frankly, I was a little disappointed.

Back to the room to plan our trip for the next day–leaving Copenhagen (already?) to take a side trip to Sweden.