After several days in Copenhagen, I have struggled to think of what my major impression of this city is. It’s a city of bicycles, it’s a city of old canals lined with colorful merchant buildings, and it’s a city of many young people. That could easily describe Amsterdam as well, but Copenhagen is different than Amsterdam. Perhaps Copenhagen feels ultimately a little calmer, yet it is also an energetic city; it feels a little more subdued, but it is still vibrant. Regardless, we are enjoying our time here.

Our room

Our first day of wandering in cold, windy weather with scattered showers was picturesque but tiring. Returning to our hotel with its warmth and soft bed was so inviting—I ostensibly pulled out my book for a break from touristing, but it was really just an excuse to take a little nap. Mike ventured out to explore our neighborhood, Vesterbro, a little more, and came back with the makings for dinner, which included TUCs, salami, aged Danish cheese, and oranges. Just the thing!

One of our dinners-- amazingly inexpensive caviar and TUCs!

We also enjoyed spending some time watching TV for the first time in weeks. At any given time, we can usually find two or three channels with English language shows. History Channel is usually on, and there are a variety of other American shows that pop up here and there. They have Danish subtitles, which is amazingly close to Swedish. We have also found a few soccer games, but the main sport televised here is hockey. The Giro d’Italia is running right now, and we, especially Mike, are astounded and dismayed that we can’t find any coverage at all! These are big cycling countries, but we can only assume that the hotel just doesn’t get the right channel.

Our neighborhood in Vesterbro

One of the many cafes equipped with blankets for patrons

Our stormy introduction to the city did make us wonder if our weather luck on this trip had completely turned, but the next morning dawned with mostly sunny skies and when we hit the sidewalks for another day of exploration, we felt renewed and refreshed. It is a perennially windy city, but at least with the sun out it feels much warmer. We seem to have been either a day behind or a day ahead of bad weather at each stop. I won’t question why, just enjoy!

The Round Tower

Some notable sights we have seen include the Round Tower, which was built a long, long time ago. Sorry, we have seen so many different old, old places that I lose track of the details of each one. The tower is remarkable in that it consists entirely of a brick-paved ramp ascending to the top of the tower, which we climbed. One thing I do remember about the history of it, though, was that it was a place that was used for royal ceremonies many centuries ago, and on one such occasion, a visiting king rode his horse all the way to the top, followed by his queen in a carriage. There was a great view from the top.

The spiral staircase inside the tower

View from the Round Tower

Typical scene in Nyhavn

 Nyhavn is Copenhagen’s old maritime merchant area, so it is lined with the old merchant buildings. We took a canal cruise that started here and toured much of the waterfront area of Copenhagen. Very nice, especially with the sun shining. I have to give credit, too, to the ship’s lecturer because he clued us in to not only a half-price cruise, but also some of the other lesser known sites, such as the Round Tower, that we saw.

View from the canal trip

Let me just close with one of many pictures of Mike guiding with his map-reading. I particularly like this picture because of the couple in the background also checking their map. What you can’t see is the woman who is also about to wander into the picture, also referring to her map.

Mike checking the map during our wanderings, as is another couple