Happy Birthday to our friends Jim Bratton on June 27th, and Jeff Anderson on June 28th.

Still rainy and cool. Big, flat, low-hanging grey-hued clouds continue to dominate the Køpenhavn sky. Everyone, it seems, is complaining about the lack of warm dry weather both in Europe and in Canada. It is even making the local television news at 6. As charming as Køpenhavn is, it is dull and grey. The morning drags and we focus on the mundane chores of organizing laundry and updating the website. I head off to the café to figure out the wireless connection and after some self-translation from Danish to English, I’m on-line.

We have decided to brave the elements and do a self-guided walking tour of the city, one that The Lonely Planet recommends. We start at the Rådhus (the City Hall) in the busy Rådhuspladsen and are to finish eventually, at the Little Mermaid in the harbour.


The Rådhuspladsenin in the rain

We pass through the major pedestrian shopping area (we need more of these in North America!) pass Gammel Torv and Nytorv, the old and new squares, winding down to the Kongens Nytorv, a huge square, under restoration, circled by many glorious old buildings including the Royal Theatre and the Charlottsburg, that houses the Royal Academy of Arts. We then walk to the Nyhavn Canal, home to Hans Christian Anderson, who lived at number 67.


The Nyhavn Canal

Our umbrellas are up and down during this walk. Sometimes it is just a light misting, sometimes a gusty, pounding rain. We head along the harbour and turn into the Amalienborg Plats and the Amalienborg Palace, home of the royal family since 1794. The cobbled square is wet and has that flat, grey magic light that the 18th century French painters captured so well. We move across the deserted circular square, and like many others take refuge in the Frederikskirken, the Marble Church, spending 15 minutes sitting in solitude in the cool dampness.


The Amalienborg Palace and the Dome of the Frederikskirken

The rain drives us back to the Rådhuspladsen and away from the Little Mermaid in the choppy harbour. Many will be disappointed that we did not visit her but we are told that she is disappointing at the best of times or weather, and always covered in gull droppings. Unpopular choices are sometimes made in life and we must live with them.

Naps and laundry beckon as we wander back to our beautiful B&B facing the Sortedams Sø. Pedro and Bjarne have a beautiful apartment overlooking the water and both they and their two very friendly sibling cats have made us feel quite at home.

We have a very average meal in a smoky, crowded restaurant and a quick beer on the walk back to our beds. We don’t have a lot of Dannish Kroner left and don’t want to take any out of the bank machine as we leave for Stockholm tomorrow. Night, night, Erin.


For those who wish…

N 55
E 012
Hamburg to Køpenhavn: 485 Kilometers

As we head north, we drive through a persistent rain – the storm off the North Sea is in full force today. I have a creeping feeling of being cold for the next few weeks considering how fall-like our weather has been since we arrived in Germany last week. I don’t have anything to base this on other than the coolish, 15 degree, rainy and overcast weather that has welcomed us to Europe. Other than that, Europe has been good to us. There is a strange familiarity about it somehow. Our car is now our refuge from weather, baggage-hauling and, if necessary, from potentially overly chatty B&B hosts. Clothing and language are more familiar to us and we are much more self-reliant. Our choices for interesting side trips have increased substantially. Very different from the first phase of our journey.

The real issue we have been struggling with is how to greet people. Everyone it seems approaches and kisses you when they meet you for the first time but the trick is in understanding the sequence and number of kisses that separates the men from the tourists, so to speak...

In Germany, for example, they greet you with two kisses and two kisses only. God forbid you should stray from that hard and fast rule. The Belgians and Dutch kiss three times and many make a distinct “mwu” sound as they move from cheek to cheek. These social rituals appear obligatory; you must greet or say goodbye to everyone you are visiting, out for a drink or sharing dinner with. Even if you are crammed into the back seat of the car you are travelling in you must pull yourself out to say goodnight to everyone you are hitching a ride with. Now, don’t misunderstand me. It is actually very pleasant and familiar. Very un-North American, where a quick and polite shaking of hands is as close as you will get to your new acquaintances.

I am also struggling to comprehend the policy and politics of which cheek is offered first. If you are initiating the greeting, which cheek do you approach? If you are accepting the hello, and say, are left handed (cheeked), which cheek do you offer? If there is a collision mid-greet, do you start again with the first cheek or continue with the cheek you collided on? Can anyone help me with this??

As always, practice makes perfect and practice we must because it is rumoured that in France they greet you with four kisses………

Today we will cross a major bridge, 24 kilometres long, connecting 2 regions of Denmark, Fyn and Sjælland, over the Storebælt. This bridge opened 4 or 5 years ago, at about the same time as another bridge/tunnel of similar length that connects Denmark to Sweden. I am fascinated by bridges, and I have been dreaming about driving across these 2 bridges since I read about them when they opened. Both of these engineering feats have cut hours off their respective journeys, and the toll of 250 Danish kroner, (or just over C$50) is less costly than the ferries used to be.

I am disappointed when we arrive at the bridge, it is virtually invisible, shrouded in the fog and driving rain.

For most of its length, the bridge is merely 10 metres or so above the water, and there is a double train track running alongside. As we get close to the Sjælland side of the bridge, we start rising to go over the shipping channel – but we can’t see the towers because they rise into the fog. The train tracks have disappeared – we learn later that they go through a tunnel under the channel.

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