We arrived for our two days in Copenhagen under grey skies but warmer than it was in Oslo. Unfortunately, the ship docked some way out of the main city and it was quite a walk to the centre. Copenhagen itself was bustling, the well decorated shops full of people.
We spent the first day walking, and walking some more. There were beautiful streets with coloured houses, and modern shopping precincts, old buildings and new office blocks. There was however, a shortage of public toilets so we crossed our fingers and went into the vegetarians’ nightmare that is MacDonalds for a wee. Judging by the queue and the small charge we had to make this was common practice for the Danes.
As dusk fell we visited the amazing Tivoli gardens. This is a big park and this time of year was a child’s Christmas paradise. This picture below was of one of the restaurants, but it was pretty much like this everywhere in the gardens. Our grandson William would have loved it.
After a pizza and some lager we tried a Copenhagen pub. It was packed with commuters having one or two or three for the road. A rather drunken Swedish journalist started speaking to us but he was slurring so badly we couldn’t understand what he was saying. His mate eventually got him to go home, only for him to return again about fifteen minutes later. We pretended we didn’t see him! After that it was a long walk back to the ship.
We had another quiet night of eating, drinking and making merry onboard ship, and the following day took one final walk into the city. Our route took us past the famous little mermaid (which isn’t so impressive in real life) and we ended up outside a small museum.
Dedicated to the Danish resistance we thought we’d have a quick look. Instead we spent three hours learning about the bravery and organisation of the resistance fighters. It was a truly moving experience, ending with translations of the letters written by those who were to be executed by the Nazis. Tears filled our eyes as we read their final messages home to their loved ones, many expressing defiance to the very end. After that we returned to the ship feeling somewhat shocked.