Great Danes and Sweet Swedes

So we left the winter "wonderland" of the Netherlands to move even further north to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. We chose to come here based on several recommendations from random people that we had met on our travels and it came very highly recommended by my brother, Brien. He had gone to Copenhagen last year for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and had an awesome time and told us that Denmark was a "must see". So we decided to head up to one of the three countries that makes up Scandinavia.

City of Copenhagen

We arrived in Denmark and immediately headed to our hotel located near the city center. First thing we noted was the horrible, bitter cold. I'm not sure which was colder, the Netherlands or Denmark but who cares? Everyone knows that I HATE COLD! Our hotel was interesting at best because it was more like someone's house than a hotel. The "desk" was never attended and they didn't have any hotel staff other than a couple of desk clerks (once again, never around) and some maids. The most interesting thing about the hotel was the configuration of our bathroom. I wish I had taken a picure but the shower! It was actually just a faucet,  stuck in the wall and there was a curtain to partition the "shower" from the toilet. There was nothing to step into, no rim--nothing to prevent water from going onto the unlucky soul sitting on the toilet while you took your shower. The partition created by the shower curtain gave you just enough room to turn around--but only if you held your arms down, sucked in your belly and tucked your ass in....ugh...So everytime you took a shower, the entire bathroom floor would have water all over it. Needless to say, showering was a complete pain in the ass.
The plus was that we had windows that opened so we could get some fresh, frozen Danish air in in the room. Yes, you are right, I said it was cold outside but for some reason the hotel decided to combat the cold by turning the heat on to the "Fires of Hell" setting so we were suffocating at night. The windows being able to open was the only thing that saved us from heat stroke...

Ok, so now we decided to bundle up and head out and see what the city of Copenhagen has to offer. Copenhagen, like most other European cities is incredibly well planned out. You can walk/bike or take public transportation eveywhere. It is so nice to go visit somewhere and not once have to worry about how to find a cab or rent a car. We struck out and walked downtown to the famed Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the world. Of course they have replaced a lot of rides over the years, but the park still sits on the same spot as it did over the past hundreds of years. Unfortunately, we arrived just two short weeks before the opening of the amusement park.

Tivoli Gardens

Walking around the city, we noticed a couple of things: 1) Copenhagen is a very cosmopolitan, sleek city. It has the best of old and new but because it is the heart of commerce and business it is super automated and very modern. You really feel that you are in any big city in the US. 2) The city is more diverse than we ever expected. Copenhagen is a very multiethnic city. We met people from Turkey, Estonia, Thailand, Africa, etc. Anywhere you can imagine. They all told us that they felt very welcome and easily found jobs. I was most impressed with a waitress at a Thai restauraunt that we met. Not only does she speak Thai but she is also fluent in English and Dutch. This is not uncommon in Europe. Most people that we meet speak on average two sometimes three or more languages!!! It really makes me feel stupid. I figured that I can speak 1.5 languages (according to Bruce, my English is debatable) but the idea of people knowing two and three languages fluently is impressive! Danish is a Scandinavian language which sounds a hell of a lot like German and Dutch to me (a lot of gutteral sounds and coughing) but it isn't. From what I've been told that people from Norway and Sweden can all understand each other since the languages have the same common development. I'm always impressed with people that can speak multiple languages.

Another thing that Copenhagen is famous for is their love of jazz and blues. They put on one of the largest Jazz Festivals in Europe in July every year. I wish we were able to go but alas, we have to be here now. We did see quite a few jazz and blues clubs all thru downtown.
We also got the chance to see the Hans Christian Anderson park and saw the famous statue, "The Little Mermaid".

The Little Mermaid statue

In front of the Queen's residence...Where is the security?!

The most intersting thing was going to see the Royal Palace with the changing of the guard. Now, I"m not a big Palace person and honestly, I forgot that Denmark was a constitutional monarchy. Their current Queen is Queen Margrethe. She is elderly and it looks like her son, Crown Prince Frederik is about to get the "keys to the kingdom".  Anyway, we go to see the changing of the guard and we're standing there and we're told that we are standing in front of the queen's residence. Ok, I saw NO serious security. I could see into some of the rooms!!! (By the way, that's a nice lamp you have on the table there, Queen) I can't believe how lax they are about security!  I guess it must be nice to be royal when you know that no one is out to get you!!!

Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is very similar to Amsterdam in that the vast majority of the population prefers the bike as the main type of transportation. Copenhagen prides itself on being very "green" and the entire city has very big bike lanes for commuters to use.

"Green" electric car..plugs are found all over the city for these

In fact, we noticed that bicycles have lanes and sometimes pedestrians don't!!! The bike lanes are serious, too. They have turn lanes, thier own stoplights and even a "passing" lane!!!  For whatever dumb reason, we decided that we could see the city more effectively if we had bikes. So we rented a couple and set off for a drive around the city. Now, I used to be a serious bicycle queen. USED to be! I thought about it, i think it had been almost 20 years since I had been on a bike!! So, probably not a good idea to put my wobbly ass on a bike in "rush hour" bike traffice with the scary Danish people flying past me going 40+mph!!! Oh, and did I mention it was cold? We got suckered like other Europeans, we saw a little sun come out and assumed that the temperature went up...WRONG! It was still about 0 degrees, maybe 1 and sunny. That was the only difference. So riding around the city on a bike while the wind is ripping your face off wasn't such a good idea. I was wobbly, scared and slow and almost caused a fare share of accidents. Plus, it didn't help that we didn't know where we were going. Every couple of miles, we'd stop, look at a map and then have to turn around or head in a different direction.

Bruce using pedal power

After two days of racing around Copenhagen, we decided to do a little country hopping. Anyone who has ever been to Europe knows that it is very easy to cross borders and go somewhere else. We learned that Sweden was just a bus/train ride away. In fact, a lot of Danish lived in Sweden because it was cheaper (much cheaper) than living in Denmark and many Swedes come over and work in Denmark because the wages are higher. So we head to the train station to take the quick 30 min train ride over to Sweden. First of all, the train system in Denmark is not at all as user friendly as the trains in Asia. In fact, its easier to take the train in Japan than it is in Denmark!!! Why? Well, first of all the Danish aren't big fans of the English language. The signs are all in Danish, the announcements are in Danish, NOTHING is written or spoken in English. So taking the train to Sweden took all of our collective intelligence to get from point A to point B. We accidently got off at the wrong stop but thankfully, ended up in the town square of Malmo, Sweden.

Arriving in Malmo, Sweden

And we thought our parking lots were full!

Street scene in downtown Malmo, Sweden

Malmo is the third biggest city in Sweden--Stockholm being the largest and the capital. Upon arriving to Malmo, we immediately noticed that it was actually more diverse than Copenhagen and the people were generally nicer. Everyone we met smiled at us and several went out of their way to help us with directions, etc. We decided to have a hot chocolate at a cafe and were met with warm welcomes and smiles. What was more hilarious was that the girls behind the counter had their ipod playing "This is Why I"m Hot" by MIMS. So here I am, in Sweden, light years away from my home and the cafe is blasting rap music! Wow! Shows you how small the world is now!!! The most embarrasing thing was was that Bruce and I are so old and out of touch with "young folk" that we didn't recognize the rapper on the song....God, we are old....
Anyway, after spending the day walking around the town of Malmo, we decided to head back to our temporary "home" of Copenhagen.

I learned a lot of surprising things about Denmark and Sweden on this brief trip. First, I want to come back when it is warmer!!!! I really think that these are very nice countries that seem to be welcoming of immigrants and embrace diversity. The people are nice and I'm sure they get nicer---when they thaw out. Maybe one day, we'll swing back thru and do another tour of Scandinavia!

Check out more pics from Denmark and Sweden by clicking here