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| The mermaid Copehagen |
As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent three days in Denmark before moving on to Norway. We saw quite a bit during those three days. Unlike what we are used to when travelling with Adventure Canada, most of the excursions were optional, meaning you pay extra if you want to go on them. Figuring that we wanted to get the most we could out of the tour, we went on all but two of the ‘optionals.’ Ironically, some of the tours we would have skipped were the included ones. Driving around a city in a bus while the guide points out landmarks turned out to be one of our least favourite activities.
Anyway, we had most of the first day of the tour to ourselves so we took the train into the city centre and found another nice park. R did some drawing while I chased birds with my camera. A new bird for me was a common dove, and I watched a heron in the reeds of one of the ponds. The sky was overcast so not as hot as it had been. Yea!
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| Copenhagen has some gorgeous parks |
At one point we were looking for a washroom and noticed that there were a bunch of kids in some kind of program. We got talking to one of the adults who told us that there are places around Copenhagen where children’s programming is free to the public. The parents can come and have someone else supervise their kids while they have a coffee and a chat. I don’t know if they could leave the kids there and go run errands or whether it was a place to take a break. We were impressed that there was that kind of support for families during the summer when school was out.
In the late afternoon we joined the crew and went to Dragor for supper. It’s a picturesque little town that used to rely on fishing and now relies more on tourism. We had a short walk through the streets to get to the restaurant and I took pictures of flowers and houses.
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| On the way to the restaurant in Dragor |
On that outing we also visited Copenhagen's waste processing facility. A good portion of the heating and electricity for the city is produced by burning organic waste which boils water and the steam turns the turbines and then heats the houses.The plant is huge and the city decided that instead of just an industrial facility, they would make it into a ski hill. We rode an elevator up to the top where we had good views of the harbour and the city. As we were climbing the stairs to an upper viewing platform, I had my first close encounter with the concrete. I caught me toe and fell up the stairs, bruising my elbows and one knee. R was ahead of me so he didn’t witness my graceful splat. A couple of kind people offered to help me up but I was able to right myself and continue up to the viewing platform.
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| View from the top of CopenHill powerplant |
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| Lego model of CopenHill |
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| CopenHill ski slope and stairs |
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| CopenHill exhaust stack |
As we walked down the stairs beside the ski slope we were passed by skiers heading down the artificial turf. Some of them had shorts on and I thought of what kind of rug burn they would get if they fell.
The next day, Tuesday June 30, we left Copenhagen for Randers and made a lunch stop at Odense where Hans Christian Anderson was born. We had a good breakfast at the hotel so, rather than go to a restaurant for lunch, we went into McDonald’s for coffee and a pit stop, mostly for a pit stop, and then bought a container of grapes at a food store. I went to scope out a sports store and managed to get a tea tumbler. Of course, I have a bunch at home, but I didn’t bring one. I thought I’d just drink tea at meals.
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| Hans Christian Andersen |
It didn’t take long for me to see the flaw in that arrangement. Our breakfasts were a bit rushed and the cups were tiny. I like to enjoy my tea over a longer period and I prefer a larger cup than the hotels provided. Ya I know, picky, picky, picky. From then on I was a happy camper as I could take my tea onto the bus and sip away at my leisure. Randers was our last stop in Denmark. On Wednesday July 1 we took a ferry to Norway.
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| Randers |
