Copenhagen summary

I wake up at five thirty, but manage to fall asleep again. We get up around seven and start sorting out our stuff. Most of mom’s bike stuff is already gone with the DHL Freight shipment and I travelled here with the big suitcase half empty, but it will be a tight fit with all our purchases. Lego may not way very much, but the packages are pretty big. We have breakfast at the hotel – this time I remember to boil the egg before slicing the top off – and take it really easy. Our flight takes off at five to twelve, so we don’t have enough time to go out and do something, but more time than we really need to pack.

Back in the room, we finally pack everything away in the big suitcase, two extra bags, the two purses and a laptop bag. Bulky and unwieldy, but should be perfectly acceptable for the airline. We take a taxi around nine and are at the airport way too early. Fortunately we can drop off the bags pretty soon and we can relax in the business lounge. Time enough to write the summary.

The beautiful buildings

We’ve seen grand buildings from any time between the 17th and 21st century. They must have pretty strict rules about urban development, because the whole of it is harmonious, beautiful and practical: wide streets with room for cars, cyclists and pedestrians, big blocks of brick housing estates with green courtyards.

All the cyclists

The friendly people

I can’t really show this in photograph shape, but one of the things I’ll remember is how friendly the people are. I’ve had to ask for assistance a few times and was always helped out with a willing smile. On top of that, everybody speaks great English! The waiters are cheerful and make jokes, often taking a moment to chat. When faced with an unpleasant fact like a closed bridge, people spontaneously start a tidy queue and wait patiently. Nobody is in a hurry, there’s a general attitude of ‘relax, everything will be okay’. This might be due to the great weather, but I suspect it’s just a cultural thing. Danish are supposedly amongst the happiest people in the world and walking around in Copenhagen, that’s easy to believe.

Great museums

We prefer to spend most of our time outside, walking or cycling through the city, so we visited only two museums: the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and Ordrupgaard in the north.

We selected these both for their architecture and their content. Both had some stunning pieces of art spanning thousands of years. We saw Egyptian mummies and Danish furniture, as well as a great amount of French impressionist and Danish paintings. Beautiful !