Our train arrived in Copenhagen around 6:30 PM. Because Alex lived here for his spring semester of junior year in college, this one is fun for us!
The challenge is in the strategy of what to choose and how to spend our time. We have flip-flopped on this. Our first decision was to shoot right up to Copenhagen from Frankfurt. We had entertained the possibilities of detours along the way, versus getting started right away with the multiple things to do in and around Copenhagen. We had eliminated Norway (far away and boring), Berlin (only points are for Checkpoint Charlie and we have both been there), Luxembourg to get your passport stamped (very long detour), Poland (to take a bike ride on Usedom Island - no thanks), or Heidelberg (half day detour, didn't seem worth it).
We roughed out a plan that put us in Copenhagen (CPH) to scavenge the first evening, go to Sweden the next day, return around dinnertime to CPH and finish up with CPH activities Thursday morning.
It sounded like a good plan but it wasn't. After we checked in to the hotel and dropped off our luggage, we set out scavenging. Everything we tried to do was closed. It was a useless endeavor. We tried to get tickets to the Royal Ballet which started in a half hour (sold out -- but we did get them for the next night). Walked to the King's Gardens (open), but the mission was to stroll through the gardens to visit the Rosenborg Castle (closed). We went to the place which we thought was the cemetary with Soren Kierkegaard's grave. It turned out to be a botanical garden and besides, it was closed. We earned our first points by taking a lovely stroll down the walking street Strøget (pronounced like a throat clearing), on to the Rathaus Plaza (no, it wasn't a Rat House - it is a magnificently decorative public building, where our scavenge was to see the World Clock inside. Literally, the door slammed in our faces. Closed. We managed to snap a pic of the sculptural column with a horn blower on top of it. Hah!
Throwing in the towel for the day, we gave ourselves a well-deserved treat of a stroll and dinner in Tivoli Gardens. The sun was setting, the twinkling lights had just been turned on and were a welcoming beacon. Said to be Walt Disney's inspiration for Disneyland, Tivoli is a delightful landscaped park with lakes, restaurants, music shells, theater, amusement park rides, bursting with flowers - and plunked right in the middle of the city. It is magical. The music drew us in down a curvy pathway. The scavenge was to find the Pantomime Theater. It was one of the first things we encountered and a show was in progress. We stood and chuckled at a few acts and then went to choose a restaurant.
It started out great. Nice menu, delicious appetizers, and while we waited for our entrees to come, we made a silly video challenge of a blind taste test comparing Tuborg and Carslburg beers. We thought we were pretty funny.
But then, a waitress delivered our dinners to the table next to us and they started eating OUR FOOD while complaining to the waitress that this was not what they ordered. It took over two hours in the restaurant. But we had a nice stroll afterwards and collapsed into bed at 11 PM.