Denmark - October 2010

Cruising around Copenhagen

The Guinness

I managed to track down a place to have a Guinness pretty easily. The Globe Bar was full of atmosphere, even early in the evening.  I had a warm welcome off Phil the barman, who turned out to be from the same place in Ireland that I got married. Small world eh! A local journalist I met there suggested I start a blog.  Sorry it's taken me so long to get around to writing about Copenhagen.

Sneaking behind the bar at The Globe

The Guinness was as nice as ever and only the equivalent of £4.50 a pint, a bargain compared with Oslo! I could have stayed there all night but no, time to move on, there's a whole city to explore.

Phil, a real Irish barman.

Getting there and around

It was another fairly circuitous route to complete this journey. Although I flew directly from Birmingham to Copenhagen and spent a few days exploring, I then continued onto Brussels by overnight train where I had a business meeting.

Whilst in  staying in Copenhagen I took a train p to the historic town of Roskilde where all the Danish monarchs are buried in the Gothic cathedral.  Even Bluetooth is buried there - I wonder if that's not the same guy that invented wireless communication?

Team Makeup

It was just me on this trip. We'd visited Denmark as a family a few years earlier for our summer holiday so it was decided that I would make this revisit on my own.

Accommodation

I stayed in the Copenhagen youth hostel which is a sky scraper of a building and very different to the small hostel of Idwel Cottage in Wales where I'd stayed the previous week. One thing you can say about youth hostels is that they are all very different.

Food

Nothing to write home about, nothing to even write here about. It was baguettes and burgers all the way for the sake of economy.

Sightseeing highlights

The colourful multi-story houses down in the harbor and then the shouts and screams coming from the Tivoli Gardens, the oldest amusement park in Europe. The National Museum, for one designed to keep people awake.

Quirky moments

The Little Mermaid - the most famous attraction in Copenhagen - was missing. It has been lent out to an Expo Exhibition in Shanghai. All I saw was a live video stream of it from China. Can't imagine the French would do that with the Eifel Tower or the British with the Tower of London.  Just because its small that's no excuse to go lending it to people!

 

The Mermaid - Live from China!

Lasting Memories

Hundreds of people on bicycles. Even the pushchairs have bells on.