Sailing in Scandinavia

Getting Here

Under normal circumstances, we would have planned a direct flight to European destinations but in this case we connected through Toronto and it added about 5-6 hours to getting to Copenhagen, Denmark where we arrived earlier today. The net effect was that we arrived here much more tired which affected our being able to sleep normally the first night.

The Cycling

We arrived into Copenhagen early in the morning and since our hotel room wasn’t ready we decided to get some exercise and start exploring the city. It was sunny and a brisk 15 degrees, although it would warm up considerably throughout the day. By our third day in Copenhagen, the weather would only get warmer each day.

From our hotel, we were in walking distance of a number of cafe’s and restaurants, all closed due to it being around 7AM when we arrived. Using the map on our phone we were able to finally find a cafe that was open to have a morning coffee.

While there were the usual cars on the road with people commuting to work, it was the hundreds, if not thousands of cyclists we saw, riding their own cycling lanes. People wearing suits and multiple kids being shuttled on cargo bikes, it was clear that cycling was the preferred way to commute in Copenhagen. Everywhere you went, there were hundreds of bikes parked outside every building, most only having simple locks to secure them. In Vancouver, with the high number of bike thefts, it’s a requirement to have very strong locks to secure the bikes, obviously not as much of an issue here in Copenhagen.

Both of us having red fish at a local restaurant

It’s the Fish

Being a maritime country, Denmark, and really any country that faces the water, will have lots of seafood on the menu and Copenhagen is no exception. Barb and I have had a great selection of fish and often multiple choices on every menu, all of them very nicely done. The photo above is from last night where we walked to a local restaurant and both had red fish dinner. Perhaps a highlight of our Scandinavian trip.

Transfer

We planned to stay in Copenhagen for 3 nights and by Friday, we will be checking out and making our way to the cruise ship terminal, just 3 Km from our hotel. As we reach the end of our planned 8-day cruise through Norway, I’ll be posting my final instalment.

As always, I’ve started to upload my photos from this trip to my photo website here.

Baden