Douglas Easton Travel Blog - Douglas Easton Travel

May 02, 2007

Copenhagen, Denmark

What's not to love about Copenhagen? It's a city full of life, surrounded by history and, at least during our stay, blessed with gorgeous spring weather. Under flawless skies we've explored the city on foot.

The first thing that strikes one is that, although busy, the Danes don't rush. People stop to talk with each other, enjoy a mid-day beer and luxuriate in the spring's lengthening daylight hours. We've become one of the locals, having taken an apartment in the city center. Within easy walking distance, we've found neighborhood markets, bakeries, restaurants and an extremely impressive gym. From our flat, it's also only one block to the famous Stroget,a pedestrian walking street and a shopper's delight. Boutiques and designers' shops align are packed wall to wall.

Copenhagen's sparkling canals are lined with brightly-colored, 17th-century buildings, home to numerous restaurants and cafes. It's a pleasure to stop in this cheery milieu for a tall mug of the local Tuborg, drink in the radiant afternoon sun and listen to jazz musicians playing for tips.

Of course, checking out the local tourist attractions is a must, and our first stop was to Tivoli, a garden and amusement park built during the turn of the century. Unlike its American rivals, this park has an almost "pure" quality to it. Advertisement signs and billboardsis are almost non-existent within, in stark contrast to its more commercial American counterparts. And while the rides at Tivoli may be on the same level as at Disneyland, the upside-down-looping rollercoast was still enough to elicit a shriek from John.

We also sought and found the most photographed statue in the world, The Little Mermaid; admired Amalienborg Palace (the Danish monarch Queen Margrethe's city palace); and devoured high tea at the Hotel d'Angleterre, where anyone who's anyone has stayed (from Churchill to Mick Jagger).

Both of us were impressed by the amount of food and drink a typical Dane consumes. They seemingly inhale copious amounts of the local creamy, rich ice cream; ice-cold draft beer; and the local delicacy called smorrebord, which are open-faced sandwiches topped with a variety of meats and fish and washed down with potent shots of aquavit, a firewater resembling vodka flavored with caraway.

We took a step back in time to sample the smorrebrod at one of the city's oldest restaurants, selecting traditional plates of North Sea rock shrimp, cured lamb, beef brisquet, pork tenderloin and curried herring. The aquavit made us glad we weren't driving home.

In the morning we're heading almost to the top of the world to visit Norway's Svalbard Island, located completely within the Arctic circle at 78 degrees North. We're packed for the cold weather and eager anticipate seeing the phenomenon known as "midnight sun," where daylight reigns from April to August, 24 hours a day!

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