Dennis & Aimee's Big Gay Paris Adventure

Before I wrap up my Copenhagen memoirs (until the next visit, of course) I'd like to share a few of the better pictures we took. It's hard to capture the spirit of the place in photographs, and I don't feel like we came close to caputuring the intriguing mixture of old and new that blend so seamlessly in that city. I mentioned to Dennis as we took our ferry ride (which we used as a cheap sightseeing tour) that the people (and by extension, the services) in Denmark seem not so mechanically precise as those in Germany, and not so laissez-faire as those in France. It's a nice blend. Things happen efficiently, but with personality and warmth. I really loved it there, and the spartan yet calming Danish design continues to be a pleasure.

The old:

Here's their stock exchange building. The spire is four dragons with their tails intertwined. I seem to remember some kind of fairy tale with this theme, but I was unsuccessful in Googling it.


Awesome copper clad drawbridge tower (we got to see this raise):


Nyhavn harbor, with lots of cute restaurants:


And some new:
The new Copenhagen Opera House donated by the Maersk foundation is really gorgeous.


Here's a view from the waterbus, where modern office buildings blend with sturdy warehouses that are hundreds of years old:


Windows here are huge and most buildings are just covered with them. That should be a warning to me about wintertime.

One of the best things we did was visit Tivoli Gardens, which is very hard to describe. It's an amusement park, but there are more restaurants than rides. It's not too ooky-fake feeling like the amusement parks I've been to in the past, but at the same time, there's a restaurant on a reproduction Danish frigate. There are roller coasters, but only in one small corner of the park can you hear them. The very best part of Tivoli happens at night, when the whole 15 acres (in the center of town, mind you) is lit with beautiful lamps and light effects. It's like walking through a fairytale -- no wonder Hans Christian Andersen hails from here. 15 minutes before closing, they do this every night:




Tivoli was everything they promised and more. The food was good, if a bit more expensive. The environment was unbeatable. Both times we ate there we sat right on the lake in the center of the park, once at a microbrewery and once at a traditional Danish cafe.

Last funny story, in the airport on the way home (beautiful, efficient, modern, yet still warm with beautiful wood floors and glass everywhere), we sat at a cafe and Dennis ordered a beer. They asked "Small, medium, or large?" and Dennis said, "Uh, whatever you're making now." That was a large, and it was .75 liters! In France, most people drink a beer that's .25 liters. A pint is very close to .5 liters. .75 liters is the amount of liquid in an entire bottle of wine. Now *that* is a beer. They seem to like their alcohol up there.

Ok, so. That's Copenhagen for you. Magical I say. Truly magical.

Next stops on our itinerary over the next half year (we predict): Venice, Nice, Chicago, Japan (if we're lucky) and Capetown, South Africa, which is my current obsession. For now, we're looking forward to the three day week next week, because Thursday is Fete Nationale (Bastille Day). We have plans to stay at home!

--Aimee