Although most of you probably read about our adventures in Denmark right here on the notes page, I've sorted through all the photos and reformatted the travel diary put it all on its own "site".

There are heaps more photos from our time in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, so feel free to browse.

Here is a video especially for my Nephew, Oscar.

Copenhagen Metro Line has driverless trains. The trains are completely controlled by a computer program. Everything is computerised, from when to stop at stations, to opening and then closing the doors after passengers have boarded and alighted. It.s pretty cool, but just a little bit freaky at the same time (Open the pod bay doors, HAL... I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.)

No driver means you can sit right up the front and watch as the train speeds through the tunnel. We hope you enjoy this video Oscar!

Our last day in Copenhagen was spent at the National Museum of Denmark. We visited the exhibitions on the Danish Middle Ages (1000 - 1536), the Renaissance (1536 - 1660) and Modern Danish History (1660 - 2000). Unfortunately, the exhibition on Danish Prehistory, which has some items and information on the Viking Age, is closed until May 2008 (that's 2 whole years!).

The museum is definitely worth a visit if you have spare day in Copenhagen.

And so we say farewell to wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. It is a beautiful city with an interesting history. Unfortunately, also a little bit expensive for us poor travellers spending the South Pacific Peso.

We may return though as we didn't get to go to Tivoli. Whenever we tell people that we visited Copenhagen, they ask "Did you go to Tivoli?". Unfortunately, while we were there it was closed for maintenance. A two week closure that coincided exactly with our visit. We're considering going back for Halloween or maybe the Christmas markets. We'll see... maybe another country will tempt us away.

We were in Scandinavia, and our only knowledge of Vikings and Viking culture, was the Monty Pythonesque movie, Erik the Viking. We felt that a trip to a Viking museum was in order. Roskilde lies in the West of Zealand, the main island of Denmark. It is well known for its Cathedral, its music festival and its Viking Ship Museum, our target for the day.

Fisherman in the Roskilde region had always believed that there was a ship scuttled by Queen Margarethe I in the 15th Century in Roskilde fjord. When archaeologists began to excavate the region in the 1960s they were quite excited to discover not one but five Viking ships scuttled, at the bottom of the fjord. Five different types of Viking ship were discovered: an ocean-going trader, a great longship, a small coastal trader, a small longship and a fishing vessel. The ships were originally scuttled to block a channel through the fjord and hinder enemy attack.

The museum was very good. At the beginning there was an introductory film which explains how the ships were excavated and conserved and why they were sunk in the first place. In the exhibition hall, the remains of the ships are on display. There is also a Children's corner where you learn to write in Runes or dress up as a Viking. (The website for the museum is very good too!)

Outside, there is a boatyard where they have been building Viking ship replicas. In 2007, they are planning to sail the Great Longship to Dublin, Ireland. The journey, which will take eight weeks, is been undertaken as an experiment. They are keen to find out how well the ship, which was built using Viking technology and tools, handles in the ocean. From the vikingeskibsmuseet.dk:

"With the ship it will be possible for the first time to test the sailing characteristics of Viking longships, their cargo carrying capacity and the number of men they could transport. This will provide a better understanding of the way in which the Vikings accomplished their expeditions."


That evening, we were invited out with Natalie and some of her Danish work colleagues. We had a few drinks, talked nerdy stuff, and were generally merry. Apparently, the Danes are keen to know how us Aussies found the company that evening. We give the Danish crowd two thumbs up: entertaining and interesting with a very droll sense of humour. In short, our kind of people.

The harbour cruise was a good introduction to the tourist attractions of Copenhagen. On Day 3, we decided to take a closer a look at some of the more interesting sights.

Copenhagen offers a "free bike service" to its tourists. Scattered around the city at a number of locations are tourist bike depots. You can pick up a bike here by inserting 20 kroner into the bike lock. This is a deposit which you get back when you safely return the bike to a depot. We thought that this would be a good way to explore Copenhagen, so our first task for the day was to find a depot and thus our transportation for the day.

Unfortunately, it was nigh impossible to find two tourists bikes. We did find one bike all by its lonesome, but every other depot we passed was devoid of wheels. I was ready to give up after 30 minutes of searching. So, we returned our one bike to a depot and continued on foot. Strike 1 for Copenhagen Tourist Bikes.

Stop 1: Ströget
Ströget is Copenhagen's pedestrian shopping mall. We ambled down Ströget and window shopped along the way. Doing the mental conversion from Kroner into Pounds and then into Aussie Dollars made all the prices pretty steep, so we restrained ourselves from buying too much.

Although it is commonly called Ströget, this is not the name of the street, but its nickname. Ströget is actually five adjoining streets and it is apparently one of the longest pedestrian malls in the world.

The Danes are fond of that phrase "one of...". Append either longest, tallest, or biggest and possibly an "in Europe". They are obviously catering to the Americans who think that things are only worth looking at if they're number one at something. However, I think the glamour is lost when it is only "one of" the longest, biggest or tallest. I reckon the Danes are number one at making Danishes. Maybe they should concentrate on that *G*.

Stop 2: Statue of Bishop Absalon
We thought we'd take a closer look at Copenhagen's founding father. Yup... statue of a man on a horse...still there. You can read more about the statue here and about the man himself, here.

Stop 3: Vor Frelsers Kirke
The church has a spire with a spiral staircase on the outside. If you're daring enough, you can climb up to the observatory deck and then up the spiral staircase to the top of the spire. We'd noticed people climbing the spire, the day before, when we were on the harbour cruise. In a moment of insanity, I'd decided that it was something that I'd like to do. It seemed like a good idea when my feet were flat on the ground. I always seem to forget about my irrational fear of falling from high places.

The weather during the day had been quite strange. We experienced swift rainstorms followed by bright, sunny periods. We waited out one downpour in a bakery, munching on bread rolls and drinking orange juice (which is called Appelsin Juice in Danish).

During a sunny episode, we climbed to the top of Vor Frelsers Kirke. There are 400 steps to the top, including 150 steps around the spire.
The first part of the climb is a staircase. When we reached the level where the glockenspiel and Carillion is located, the path changed and we ascended a series of ladders, the gradient of which increased as we climbed.

Finally, we emerged into bright sunlight onto the observatory platform and were treated to what is probably the best view Copenhagen has to offer. From the Observatory deck, we climbed the spiral staircase that winds its way around the spire, all the way to the very last step at the top of the spire.

Have I mentioned my fear of heights? Well, not a fear of heights exactly, but a fear of tripping and falling down a ladder, a staircase or off the top of a church spire. I held on with both hands while out on the observatory platform. I climbed the Spire's staircase one step at a time, concentrating very hard on where I put my feet. It didn't help that the stairs were wet and slippery from the rain. And the blustery weather meant that it was quite windy at the top. My rain jacket caught the wind like a kite, and I had visions of flying off the top of the spire. I had to force myself to take every step; tempted to just sit down and refuse to go anywhere. Yeh, I'm really good with heights. Here's to climbing more church spires in the future!

Of course, Andrew isn't afraid of anything and he practically skipped up the Spire stairs. Well, he would have, but he's too manly for that. Actually, he swaggered up the stairs.

Although, it was a bit scary for me, it was definitely worth doing! The view of Copenhagen was amazing.


Stop 4: The Little Mermaid
Even though our guidebook says that the Little Mermaid is one of the most over-rated pieces of sculpture in the world, I feel that no visit to Copenhagen is complete without a visit to the melancholy sea princess.

While lunching, we'd noticed a pair of tourist bikes at a depot across the road. That's right, count 'em, TWO tourist bikes... TOGETHER. The Little Mermaid is a bit of a hike from the centre of town so we decided to nab the bikes and ride out to the point. It's been a while since I've ridden a bike, but luckily, it's like riding a bike so it wasn't too hard. Unfortunately, my bike was not in perfect condition. When I turned the wheel to steer, my pedals would catch against the front wheel. As long as I rode in a straight line, and didn't turn any corners, I was fine. I wasn't 100% confident though and the lack of helmet didn't help.

Although many of the roads have bike lanes, everywhere else, you're expected to ride on the road with the cars. The tourist bikes are painted bright colours, so I assume cars know to give them a wide berth. However, I would have felt more comfortable with a bright neon sign proclaiming, in four languages, "Warning! Warning! Erratic behaviour expected. Finds steering and stopping difficult"

My fear of cars meant that we rode mostly along the waterfront to get to the Little Mermaid. On the way we stopped at the house where Hans Christian Anderson lived for a period. We also made a brief stop at Amalienborg Slot, the Queen's residence. We watched the mini-guards walk back and forth for a bit. We never tire of that!

Once at the Little Mermaid we lined up to get the obligatory photo. Andrew climbed out to her perch and cuddled up to her for one extra photo. Tick! We checked the Little Mermaid off our list.


Stop 5: Really cool fountain
On the way home, we noticed this really cool fountain and stopped to have a closer look. We snapped a number of photos, without really knowing much about it. But thanks to Google, here is what I've learnt.

From:visitcopenhagen.com.

The official name is 'Gefion'.

According to an ancient legend, Gefion was the goddess who ploughed the island of Zealand out of Sweden. The Swedish king Gylfe offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she was capable of ploughing within one day and one night.

Gefion received help only from four oxen. She had transformed her four sons into immensely powerful oxen and had them plough so deeply in the ground that they raised the land and pulled it into the sea. This is how the island of Zealand was created.

The lake Vännern in Sweden approximately resembles the shape of Zealand, proving that there must be some truth in the story!




Finished
And our explorations for the day were over. We met Natalie at home and headed out to a local microbrewery for a few refreshing beverages. Andrew tried the Bombay Pale Ale and Natalie and I sampled the Çeske Böhmer, a Pilsner. Jess is drinking beer, Oh my! I am an Oktoberfest success story.