Canals and Stroget Street
Day 1
*note on blogging, many of the Scandinavian words have umlauts, lines through letters, dots and the like. I have no desire to be so accurate as to spend extra time to insert these properly so I'm not going to. Also, I didn't write any of that down so I'm not looking it up either! So if you see things and think 'hey, that should have a line through the o', I'm doing it on purpose.*
I survived the Keflavic airport quite nicely. Usually an hour to change planes is a bad plan when the only back up flight is 12 hours later, but we arrived early and the airport is small and moves you through efficiently. I was amused on the plane that we were a mere 400 km from Churchill, if we were lower and it was a different time of year maybe I could have spotted some polar bears. And I feel like in this world of information at our fingertips that perhaps people can do a little research. Passengers behind me were asking the flight attendant if there was anything to do near the airport as they had a 40 minute layover and thought they might be bored. First of all, Reykjavik is at least 40 minutes away. Secondly, that isn't nearly enough time to leave any airport, come back, do security and board the plane.
I have arrived in Copenhagen, or Kobenhavn as it is called in Danish. This is one thing that baffles me, why do we always have to make our own English version. Granted many other countries do this and some of the pronounciations can be tough, but it's always weird going someplace and seeing 12 different ways to say the name in different languages. I did find this trend through much of the countries.
The weather is a little overcast today and not as warm as I had hoped but is similar to the forecast. Despite this I headed out for some excitement as I had a few hours before the welcome dinner that night. My hotel is very close to Stroget street, a pedestrian friendly corridor with plenty of shops and restaurants. Shops that are either expensive to shop at (Hermes and Gucci) or found at home for similar or cheaper prices (H&M and the Body Shop). I made it down to Nyhavn, the new harbour for a canal cruise. It was really great to see the city from the water as they have done a lot of work to really improve the city. Many of the Scandinavian cities are right on the water and have been pushing to get industry outside of the city center to allow residents and visitors to get a chance to enjoy the views.
The cruise was interesting because Copenhagen had a big influx of Dutch immigrants so they do have some canals within the city that are very similar to those in Amsterdam and the tour included those as well. Oddly enough I met a lady from South Africa who lived in Calgary and actually knew where I was from. I'm not used to that at all. Usually I get the blank look after saying Western Canada.
That was about all I had time for before getting back to the hotel for our tour briefing and dinner. It's a medium sized tour with 35 of us. There are a few older ladies also traveling alone and another couple around my age, also from Canada. Funnily enough, I never did ever talk to them or learn their names. But they had a similar idea that I did, they were using the tour for the hotels and the transportation and didn't want to waste a free meal. Would have been more surprised if we hung around the group long enough to talk. Otherwise most of the group are at least a few decades older than I am.
The hotel room is pretty good, only the trend I noticed here is that there are hotels with single rooms. They're very small. Finding a spot for my suitcase was a little tricky sometimes. But I didn't plan on spending too much time in there anyways.
Tomorrow is a full Copenhagen day, where hopefully I'm a little more rested!
*note on blogging, many of the Scandinavian words have umlauts, lines through letters, dots and the like. I have no desire to be so accurate as to spend extra time to insert these properly so I'm not going to. Also, I didn't write any of that down so I'm not looking it up either! So if you see things and think 'hey, that should have a line through the o', I'm doing it on purpose.*
I survived the Keflavic airport quite nicely. Usually an hour to change planes is a bad plan when the only back up flight is 12 hours later, but we arrived early and the airport is small and moves you through efficiently. I was amused on the plane that we were a mere 400 km from Churchill, if we were lower and it was a different time of year maybe I could have spotted some polar bears. And I feel like in this world of information at our fingertips that perhaps people can do a little research. Passengers behind me were asking the flight attendant if there was anything to do near the airport as they had a 40 minute layover and thought they might be bored. First of all, Reykjavik is at least 40 minutes away. Secondly, that isn't nearly enough time to leave any airport, come back, do security and board the plane.
I have arrived in Copenhagen, or Kobenhavn as it is called in Danish. This is one thing that baffles me, why do we always have to make our own English version. Granted many other countries do this and some of the pronounciations can be tough, but it's always weird going someplace and seeing 12 different ways to say the name in different languages. I did find this trend through much of the countries.
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| Copenhagen Canals |
The cruise was interesting because Copenhagen had a big influx of Dutch immigrants so they do have some canals within the city that are very similar to those in Amsterdam and the tour included those as well. Oddly enough I met a lady from South Africa who lived in Calgary and actually knew where I was from. I'm not used to that at all. Usually I get the blank look after saying Western Canada.
 |
| Nyhavn Canal |
The hotel room is pretty good, only the trend I noticed here is that there are hotels with single rooms. They're very small. Finding a spot for my suitcase was a little tricky sometimes. But I didn't plan on spending too much time in there anyways.
Tomorrow is a full Copenhagen day, where hopefully I'm a little more rested!
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