We met our host at the train station Sunday morning to return her keys and chat for a bit about our time in the city. She told us more of what had happened the night before and how she had to sleep at her work place because of missing the train. We gave her our bus cards so she could at least get a free ride home and ran to our train. The bridge across the bay is called the Øresund Bridge. It measures almost five miles across and hosts a four lane highway and a second level for the train tracks. It crosses the Øresund Strait, thus the basis of its name. Upon its completion in 1999, the Prince of Denmark and Princess of Sweden met in the middle to celebrate the completion only to be outdone by the King of Sweden and the Queen of Denmark having an official ceremony the following July. The view is awesome because you can see both Sweden and Denmark from a distance. We were told the middle of the bridge is the highest point in Denmark. The Danish have a put a huge windmill farm out in the water and the wind really creates a lot of energy there. The interesting thing about traveling in Denmark is that our ticket from Malmö to Copenhagen also allowed us to catch a bus in the city to where we were staying. We asked the girl we were staying with about this and she told us that for some reason, when you purchase a train ticket for a day in Denmark, it also works on public transport as well. Great thing to know. We stayed with another girl we found on couchsurfing in a part of the city called Norreport.
After settling in for a few minutes and getting some maps and advice from our new host, we headed into town. She was very kind and let us use two bikes that she had. Bike riding is one of the most common forms of transport. Almost half of the people of Copenhagen get around by bicycle and the extensive network of bike lanes available demonstrates the commitment they have to it. Our host told us that the government has been slowly making the car lanes smaller and the bike lanes bigger. The rules of the road are quite simple, stay right, move when you hear a bell, and go with the flow, no matter how scary it might seem. We headed back towards the center of the city and over to the King's Gardens in front of Rosenborg Castle. The castle dates back to 1606 as a summer home for Christian IV and is surrounded by a military installation. The gardens are nice for a walk or to relax on a bench. We saw lots of families out enjoying the sunny Sunday morning playing soccer or having a picnic. We didn't go in the castle but took a few pictures of it. Instead, we went to the Statens Museum because it was free and would be closed the next day. We wandered through it and found some good artwork from Scandinavian artists.
The weather was looking like it could turn bad at any moment as we headed towards the old city. The streets there are winding and lead in all directions. They are lined with tons of old buildings and newer more modern ones side by side. The first place we happened upon is called the Trinitatis Church. It was built in 1637 as a Renaissance project of King Christian IV. The only part we could enter was the tower so we paid the fee and walked up the 210 meter brick paved spiral walkway to the top. Along the way we found little open rooms with artifacts of the place when it was first used and fun facts like how the tower used to smell horrible because of all the people pooing the in the tower bathrooms. A famous Dane listed as a possible pooper of the tower is Hans Christian Andersen, famous for writing "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid" and tons of other fairy tales. It seems its a centuries old secret that the best thinking is ton on the crapper. At the top of the tower is a beautiful 360 degree view of the city. You can see the wind mill farm in the sea, planes taking off, and all of the beautiful rooftops of the city. After viewing the city from above, we walked to Amagertorv and found a nice plaza with lots of people sitting around having coffee and relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. The street was only for pedestrians and lined with fancy shops and some nice fountains and statues.
We rode our bikes through the streets for a bit more winding and twisting and turning as the weather slowly started to deteriorate. The wind blew a little harder and the rain eventually started coming down. We found ourselves out front of the Central Train Station and across the street from it is the ever popular amusement park in Copenhagen called Tivoli Gardens. Needless to say, the smells coming out of the place were great since there were places to buy food all along the edge of the park. The park actually opened over 150 years ago in 1847 and was the project of Georg Carstensen after he successfully convinced the king that the people needed amusement because it would stop them from thinking about politics. The park is famous for its nearly one hundred year old wooden roller coaster that is still in use. On another side of the park is the famous Copenhagen City Hall. It was opened in 1905 and a nice step up from the old city hall in use. It's ornate decoration is part of the National Romantic style and it houses the Jens Olsen's World Clock, a clock that contains over 14,000 parts. While we were walking around the area, we finally broke down and visited one of the many hot dog vendors scattered throughout the city and tried one of their delicious hot dogs with honey mustard sauce. It was tasty.
To finish off the day, we returned to the Amagertorv area because there were some really nice buildings there we wanted to take some pictures of and we had waited hoping that the weather would clear up and give us some better shots but we waited to no avail. The buildings are part of a series of buildings along the canals by Amagertorv and include the old Stock Exchange and Christiansborg Palace, where the national parliament resides. The site has been used since the 12th century and the current building is the most recent design of a set of castles that has been on the site for hundreds of years. The old stock exchange has a spire on top and is one of many that dot the Copenhagen skyline. The other one we wanted to see was a bit of a bike ride and it is part of a church called Church of Our Savior. The spire at the top is a baroque style spire with an outer staircase that offers amazing views of the city. Unfortunatley, we arrived to late to walk up the spire and it was closed the next day due to the bad weather. We didn't feel as bad when we found out they wanted ten bucks to climb it. After visiting the church, we decided to call it a day and rode back to our hosts' house and cooked some dinner for her and us as a way of showing our appreciation for her opening her house up to us.
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