My Visit to Denmark

The first Saturday in Sweden, even when tired after continuous hours of work and travel I was excited to take a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. Well connected by train and road from Sweden, this is a major tourist and business centre in Europe.

I was delayed to start from Malmo as I had to wait for a friend of mine to join me for the short trip. We started from Malmo by noon and is altogether about 45 minutes ride in the train to Copenhagen. Travel and tourism departments are so well organised in Sweden and in Europe and their services are a quick blessing anytime for foreigners. catalogs and maps are also available at these locations. The lady at the counter suggested us if we were off to Copenhagen fro sightseeing ,take return ticket valid for 2 days. However we opted for a return ticket for the same day valid for about 24 hours.

First we got down at the border town of Denmark and had a quick look around of the place. In fact that was an accidental stop we made. But in minutes we caught the next train and were traveling to Copenhagen central. Soon we reached the Copenhagen central station passing through a couple of stations including the KopenHavn Luftava - Copenhagen airport station. The train takes the underwater tunnel for some distance when we cross the borders under the sea. Its just the pressure difference that tell you that you are below sea level all of a sudden and in few minutes you will e out in the sunlight soon.

The central station is huge and majestic with the classic European style construction. The first thing was to get something to drink and keep our throats. Even if the summer if pleasant and beautiful, watch out the climate is really dry and you need to keep up with your fluid intakes.

It;s a great thing that in most of these countries they accept euros or the local currency or even the currencies from the neighboring countries. Thank God we need not find an exchange centre as a result. But be assured you are losing a bit when you are doing these kind of transactions as they round off all the trasactions.For example if I am supposed to get 30 Danish Kroners back, its told that 20DK=30 Sk and that’s it end of transaction. No doubt there are losses involved, but still most prefer it this way.

A beautiful young lady in one of the station stalls helped us with the way to the tourist information centre few minutes by walk from the central station exit. An important notice to all travelers’ in Sweden and in Denmark is to be careful to be safe from robbers and pickpocket. At times people give you strange looks maybe they are surprised to see Asians our beauty and wisdom. Well from the life in Japan these looks have been given don't care degree in my case.:)

The tourist information centre - That’s the place to start for any traveler in Copenhagen. Get your token and wait. This is common in both Sweden and in Denmark even to buy a train ticket you take a token and wait for your chance. Its similar in Japan too at least in banks and government organizations(had mentioned before?)
But at all these places when your turn comes you can take your own sweet time and make sure all your doubts and work is cleared.

By the time we were at the desk of the tourist assistant, it was almost 2.30 PM.HMMMMmmmmmmm. The best suggestion was the open air sightseeing busses in 4 different routes .Buses will ply till 4.30 PM and they keep on shuttling.
Options
- 120 DK tickets per route . Use on one route fro one day.
- 140 DH tickets for any of the 3 allowed routes out of 4 (The routes are identified by their colours.)

I opted for the second option. These are definitely the best way to see around CopenHavn. Plug in your earphone and there is continous description of buildings and situation in history. and the few hours we took the bus was worth it. Lot of background information on the culture and the sights that they drove us around. We took a 5 minute stop at the famous statue of the Little Mermaid and the again caught another route bus to move around many other locations. We got down at the palace location and then watched a lot in and around the area for a couple of hours. The long days are really advantageous in here and at 6 PM too it was as bright and sunny as in noon times. we were getting a bit tired when we decided to pack up. Asked another shopkeeper another sweet lady, who asked to take buses 15 or 26 to the station. (She was doubting whether we would forget and was ready to write it down for us when I told no I will remember. see its still fresh in my head:))

We stopped at a small garden by the side of a canal for some clicks and as we were walking over the bridge there was a boat full of tourists taking a fun ride through the canal. Well out of curiosity we thought we will explore a bit of the canal side as it seemed to be a happening place, lot of food outlets and couples and bustling crowds.

As we walked we saw the canal tour rides board and made a quick plan to check out for a boat ride option.
DFDS canal tours and we checked for a possible ride and there was one in the next 15 minutes. We thought okay take a ride ! 1 hour 140 DK.

Well we just got the ticket and in 2 minutes the rain. oooooooppppppppppssss.
But soon there was a covered boat to take us wow we felt and as the trip was about to begin the rain stopped and we could glide open the roof tops. The ride is a must take while you are in Copen Hagen. 1 hour and you will see a lot and lot and lot of things . its just fantastic. you can see and hear about a lot of history and monuments. Its beautiful. The best time I feel is to take this ride in the summer evenings when the sun is shallow and everything is still bright and clear.

Its covers many almost 60-70% of the spots in Copen Hagen from the water I guess.
The black diamond building, Opera house, St.Xavier's cathedral are some special attraction. I was lucky enough that I bought and carried a new extra battery fro my T9. Those who love snapping memories will find you are clicking every 10 seconds during the ride.

Please visit my T9 shots link on the right to see a slice from my trip. Architecture and patterns are at its best all around .The place is so beautiful for art lovers and lovers. The setup is so romantic and majestic.

We felt that 60Kr was too cheap for such a ride. And the guide , she was describing every sight and its history in detail.

In fact for a bit more planned traveler Copenhagen can be cover in 2 days completely built there are lots and lots to see. the conducted tours are really good as I found them to be worth taking, specially when you want precise info in short time and maximum coverage.

Walking towards the bus stop w had some hotdogs and then was about to reach the bus stop when some posters in the square distracted us. we saw a small tent exhibition named spirit of the wild and thought o take a look. wow!! amazing photographs of the nature and its wilds. Visit the photographers website http://stevebloom.com/
its just beautiful, Emotions Digitally frozen...

Well was too tired by the time we finished the day and I was planning to go back for the rest of Copenhagen the next Sunday. But sadly had to drop due to a rainy Sunday.

Well still to be continued more about this city as soon as I cover up during my second visit. watch out my page..

In a sentence, Europe is a beautiful mix of man's desires, ambitions, majesty, Cruelty and above all God's lovely creation of nature. But it's just beautiful. Never miss a chance.