Weekend Trip to Copenhagen

Day 1, Friday, January 7, 2000 – Keith Johnson, a friend of mine from the U.S. who worked at Oberhausen with me asked me if I would go with him to Copenhagen, Denmark for the weekend. He had to go up there to buy some special shoes for a dance class he is taking, and he wanted someone to go with him.

He had bought tickets on a train leaving Germany at 11:10 p.m. on Friday and arriving in Copenhagen at 10 a.m. Saturday. We were going to catch a local train from his apartment to the main train station, and then transfer to our overnight train. Keith said there was a 10 p.m. train that ran by his house, but when we went out to the train stop, we saw that it actually came by at 10:30, and didn’t arrive at the main station until 11:11, or 1 minute after our night train left. So, we had to run back to his apartment and drive his car to the main station. At the main station, there was no parking to be found anywhere. We ended up parking about 5 blocks from the station on a side street. The sign said no parking during work hours, but we were hoping that didn’t apply for Saturdays and Sundays.

We got to the station and found our train car. The conductor took our tickets and passports (I almost didn’t bring mine because I didn’t think I would need it) for the border crossing. The last three cars of the train were going to Copenhagen, but the rest of the train was going to Berlin. Somewhere during the night, the last three cars would be unhooked and transferred to another train. There were four beds in our compartment, but we were the only ones in there. The beds were very narrow and hard. I stayed up until about midnight, and then put a pair of earplugs in and went to sleep. Sleeping was difficult. I tossed and turned all night, and probably woke up 10-20 times. The train made lots of stops and starts, and it passed through lots of stations where the light would shine brightly into the car. I also had the sensation that we were moving backward at one point. The next morning we were still moving backward, and I realized that our new train had connected us from the opposite end.

Day 2, Saturday, January 8, 2000 – I woke up around 8:15. We were in a very wooded area of Denmark. The countryside looked exactly like southeastern Oklahoma or northeast Texas. At one point, the train got a little bit ahead of schedule. Whenever it would do this, it would just stop on the tracks for a while. Once, when we were stopped on the tracks, I looked out and saw that the land was very swampy and wooded. It looked exactly like lots of areas around Hugo Lake, near where I grew up.

There were some Russians and Germans in the car next to us. They were speaking in English, and they were headed for Moscow. I heard them say that they had at least another day and night of travel before they would arrive in Moscow. I couldn’t imagine two nights in a row on the train.

We pulled into the train station a little bit after 10 and headed straight for tourist information. It was very cold (we were as far north as northern Canada). We picked up some information on what the attractions were, and booked a hotel. After dropping our things off at the hotel (Hotel Savoy), the first item of business was to go get Keith’s shoes. I almost didn’t go with him, because I wanted to start exploring. But, I finally decided to go. It was a 30 minute train ride from the main train station. I saw a pizzeria as we were pulling into our stop, and we went and ate there. I had a huge pizza, and I finally had some caffeine (I was very tired). I have yet to go to an eating place, service station, or food store of any kind in Europe that didn’t have Coca-Cola. Most places don’t have Pepsi, but you can find a Coke anywhere.

After Keith bought his shoes, we headed back to the main train station. We talked about what we wanted to do. I wanted to see the National Museum. It was open until 5, so we would have almost three hours in there. So, we walked there and paid about $5 to enter. Keith and I split up so we could each see what we wanted to see. The museum covered Danish history for the last 10,000 years. The exhibits started at the end of the last ice age. There were exhibits on the kinds of houses people lived in, what they used to hunt and fish with, and some of their artwork. There were also a number of gravesites reproduced, with the actual bones that were uncovered on display. There were a number of young women with infants across their chests. I assumed they died during childbirth, but it didn’t say for sure. It just made me think about how many things we take for granted today with the improvements in medicine and science.

There were also a number of weapons on display. There are large deposits of flint all over Scandinavia, so most of their weapons were of flint. Along this same theme, they had on display the bones of people who had either been murdered or killed in battle. They showed a couple of skulls with holes in them, but the most disturbing was the skull of a young man that still had an arrow sticking in his face, right under where his nose was. He had another arrow stuck through his breastplate. The caption said that this was the fatal wound. Incidentally, all of the captions were in Danish and in English, but no other language.

From there, the displays continued through the dark ages up through the Viking times. There were a number of Viking artifacts on display, but there wasn’t a whole lot that I hadn’t seen in the Viking museum in Oslo, Norway. Most of the displays were of weapons, coins, and a few of those Viking hats with the long horns.

Upstairs were displays on the pre-Renaissance and the Renaissance periods. These displays focused on Danish royalty and the development and spread of the Church in Denmark. There were a number of religious artifacts on display. Also on this floor were exhibits on Greenland, which Denmark owns. On the third floor were Egyptian and Greek exhibits. There were a number of actual Egyptian mummies in their burial boxes. But, by this time I was a little worn out so I rushed through these.

After we left the museum I decided to explore a little. Keith was a little tired, so I gave him the hotel key and he went back to rest. I roamed around Copenhagen at night. The downtown area has several huge squares where people gather. Surrounding the squares were enormous displays of neon lights like you might see in Times Square or in some of the photos I have seen in Tokyo. There were signs for Sony, Fugi Film, Air China, Turkish Air, and hundreds of others. There were also jumbo television displays around the square just like in Times Square.

After walking around for about an hour, I started getting pretty tired and cold and headed back to the hotel. Keith was asleep, and after warming up a little, I decided to go back out and try to find us a place to eat. I roamed around a little more and found a place with a Chinese/Thai buffet. I went back and got Keith, and we had dinner there.

Dinner was excellent. I stuffed myself with calamari and shrimp, and then we decided to explore a little more. Keith wanted to see what I had seen earlier, so we went back to the square. I had walked many miles, and my legs were really getting stiff. There was a huge movie theater there, and we considered seeing a movie and resting a little. There were lots of American movies playing that we hadn’t seen, including The Sixth Sense, End of Days, Bowfinger, and American Pie. But, the lines were very long, so we decided that we would see a matinee the next day if we had time. Instead, we went into a mall for a little while and just hung out and warmed up. We found out that Smashing Pumpkins were playing in Copenhagen on Sunday night. If it had been Saturday night, we would have tried to get tickets. After that, we walked around a little longer and went back to the hotel for the night. It was about 11 p.m. I was asleep within 5 minutes.

Day 3, Sunday, January 9, 2000 – I woke up early and we went down and had breakfast. Our plan for the day was to find some bicycles, and see the rest of the city by bike. My legs were also extremely sore, and I didn’t think I was up to walking around all day. Copenhagen has a public bike system where you can get a bike for the day. There are bike racks around town that are supposed to have public bikes. You put 20 kroner (about $3) into a slot, and the bike is released from the lock. When you bring the bike back, you get your money back. Well, we walked all over the place looking for these public bikes. All the racks were empty. We decided that they had either been put up for the winter, or someone had stolen them all (we did see a few at the bottom of some of the canals). I guess for a bike thief, $3 is not a bad price to pay for a bike.

So, our next plan was to go to a place that rented bicycles for the day for $5. There were two locations: One at the train station and one in the Red Light district. We opted for the train station first, but it was closed. Our guidebook had said that it was open on Sundays. There was a Chinese guy there also wanting to rent a bike. So we headed for the Red Light district, with the Chinese guy following us. This location was also closed. So, despite the fact that our legs were very sore and that we had a long distance to cover, we started walking.

After covering about a half mile, we came upon an art museum (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek) that had free admission on Sunday. We went in there and spent a couple of hours. There were lots of sculptures (including some by Rodin) and Greek and Egyptian art. There were also a number of paintings, including some Van Goghs, Monets, and Renoirs. We spent a couple of hours in there before we continued walking around Copenhagen.

Me at the Little Mermaid Statue

We passed a number of very impressive, old buildings, including the palace where the royal family lives. There were old mansions and castles everywhere. Many of them were topped with copper domes. We came upon an outdoor ice skating rink, and watched the people skate for a while. We walked along the waterfront and passed the ferries headed for Norway and Sweden. Further along the waterfront, we came upon the most famous statue in Copenhagen, The Little Mermaid. We walked passed many canals, and then walked through an old fort that had some canons lying around. Once we stopped to look at our map, and a woman immediately asked us if we needed help. As I learned last summer in Norway, the Scandinavian people are very friendly, and very fluent in English.

By this time, we were getting tired and cold. We decided to check on a movie. On the way, we passed a KFC. We decided to check the movie times and then come back to KFC for lunch. Before we got to the theater, we saw a gathering of several thousand people outdoors in a square. We decided to investigate, so we joined the crowd. Someone said something on a loudspeaker, and the whole crowd started jumping up and down. It was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. I told Keith that I had to find out what was going on, so I turned to a woman behind me. She started laughing because I looked so bewildered and said, “You don’t understand, do you?” I told her no, that my friend and I were Americans. Several of her friends gathered around to explain it to us. It was some kind of outdoor comedy relief, where there were people telling jokes and putting on skits for the crowd. The crowd had just been asked to jump up and down to keep warm. So, having figured that out, we continued.

We wanted to see End of Days, but the only movie that would fit our schedule was The Sixth Sense. It started at 4:30 p.m. and ended around 6:20. Our train back to Germany was to leave at 6:48. We bought the movie tickets, and had about an hour in which to eat. There was a Hard Rock Cafe near the theater, so we ate there instead of going back to KFC. I wasn’t very impressed with the food or the prices, but I bought a couple of shirts there.

After buying a couple of souvenirs for my daughter (a little Danish doll) and my son (a Superman shirt; not very Danish, I know) we went to the theater. This was an interesting experience. There were around 18 different screens. There was a huge crowd that we had to wade through to get to our screen. When we entered the theater, we realized that we had assigned seating, just like at a sporting event or concert. They showed several Danish commercials that I didn’t understand, but I think one was for the Armed Forces. They showed previews for Stigmata, Joan of Arc, and Double Jeopardy. The previews were just like the movie. They were entirely in English, but there were Danish subtitles at the bottom. I guess none of the Scandinavian countries have a large enough population (population of Denmark is 5 million) to economically justify dubbing the movies in their native language. In Germany, for instance, all actors would have been dubbed over in German. I have seen this plenty of times, and it is hilarious to hear Eddie Murphy, Clint Eastwood, Julia Roberts, or even Bart Simpson speaking German. But, this is a major reason the Scandinavians have such a high English fluency (even the panhandlers spoke English to us, and street musicians were singing in English). Almost all of their movies and music are in English.

The theater was packed. The subtitles didn’t bother me at all. I learned a few Danish words; many of the words are similar to German. I knew almost nothing about the movie; just that some kid saw ghosts. Keith and I both thought the first half of the movie was a little slow, but when the first scary scene happened a girl close to us let out a blood-curdling scream. The whole theater started laughing. Towards the end of the movie, I thought it had been a decent movie. Fifteen minutes before the end, I would have rated it three stars on a four star scale. But then the ending stunned me. I never saw it coming. It had the most shocking ending of any movie that I have ever seen. Keith and I both just went “Wow! That was incredible!” Final grade: Four stars, and one I definitely recommend. A little creepy and sad (especially the ending) but overall, very, very good. I doubt anyone who has seen it has guessed the ending if they didn’t already know something about it.

Well, after the movie, we headed to the train station. We had a 6:48 train scheduled to arrive in Germany at 5:58 a.m. This would give me just enough time to rush home and get ready for work. Keith gave the conductor the ticket, and was told “I am sorry, this ticket was for last night.” Keith told the guy that there must be a mistake, but the conductor said there was room for us. We finally figured out that Keith had given him the wrong ticket, and that we did indeed have reservations for that night.

After the train started out, I headed toward the front to see if there was a dining car. After walking through about 10 cars, I finally found it. But, it was pretty much a restaurant, and I was just looking for snacks. I worked my way back to our car (again we were the only two in the car) and read until I got tired. I was reading German Grammar Rules, which put me to sleep pretty quickly. I went to sleep about 9:30, but once again slept poorly. I think I woke up every time the train stopped all night long. Once, when I thought it must be time for us to be there, I looked at my watch. It was only 12:30. Needless to say, it was a very long night. I kept waking up and thinking about the movie. Finally, at about 5, I went ahead and got up. When we got back to Keith’s car, he had a parking ticket on his windshield. But, I did make it to work on time.

Overall, Copenhagen was pretty interesting with some very nice museums and lots of unusual buildings. But, it is so far from Düsseldorf that I will probably not go back while we are here. There is a large amusement park there, and we may take the kids next summer, but only if we are on our way to Norway or Sweden. There are too many other interesting cities, such as Amsterdam, London, Paris, Berlin, Munich, and Prague that are much closer.

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden

We had been in Germany for barely a month when we decided to take our first trip. I still had six weeks of vacation to use, so we decided not to waste any time. I had dreamed of traveling to Norway since I was a kid, so that’s where we decided to go first.

Day 1: Sunday, August 8, 1999: We drove from our home in Düsseldorf to Legoland in Billund, Denmark. It took 7 hours to get there. We stayed at a hotel called the Hovborg Kro, which was about 20 km away from Legoland. I think we could have found something a little closer. Legoland was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed the rides, and the miniature cities, airports, etc., were pretty impressive. The people in Denmark were incredibly polite. After spending several hours there, we left at 9 p.m. for our hotel.

Day 2: We had a ferry to Norway leaving at 11:30. The hotel reception told me that it would take 3.5 hours to get to the ferry departure point at Hirtshals, Denmark. We left at 7, because the ferry company said we should arrive 1 hour early. One the way, it was pretty rainy, and we didn’t make great time. We passed an exit sign for the city of Middelfart. I wanted to stop and take a picture, but we were pressed for time. We made it to the ferry right at 10:30.

We got in line, and drove our minivan onto the ferry. We were down in the lower part of the ship, which was very large. On board the ferry, we had an incident. When we were getting unloaded, I noticed that some grape jelly that we had brought had spilled all over some things. While we were trying to clean it up, there other passengers were going upstairs. Within 15 minutes, there was no one else down with us. We heard an announcement that everyone should proceed to the top, but still we tried to finish cleaning. In a few minutes, the ships engines started up. The noise was incredibly loud. My daughter started crying, and we all proceeded to the door. It was locked! We were locked downstairs near the ships engines for what would be a 2.5-hour ferry ride. I tried to find another way out, or a crew member. No luck. I was almost panicked. Finally, I tried the door again and found that it wasn’t actually locked; it just had an incredible wind blowing against it from an air intake. I would estimate that it was blowing at 80-90 MPH. I finally forced the door open, and we walked through the hurricane-force wind and made it upstairs.

The ferry ride was fine. The water was smooth, so there was no concern of seasickness for any of us. I kept looking out over the water thinking that this was the same water that the Vikings traveled on 1,000 years ago. After a relaxing ride across the water, we arrived in Kristiansand, Norway at 2 p.m.

First, I needed to exchange money. I saw several machines, but I couldn’t find a parking place anywhere. When I found a place to park, it was paid parking, and I had no Norwegian money. So, we parked illegally while I used the cash machine. The first machine didn’t take MasterCard. The second did, but said my card was not valid. I did not know the PIN number for a second card. Finally, I went into a bank and exchanged Deutschmarks for Norwegian Kroner. I had brought 2,000 Deutschmarks (around $1,000) for just such an incident.

We wanted to explore this town, but the kids were both asleep. We decided to proceed down the coast toward Stavanger. We wanted to make it to Bergen, on the west coast, by the next day. We drove until we found a little hotel at Kvinesdal, which was at a high elevation looking down upon a fjord. The view was unbelievable. It also had a large play area for the kids. We stopped here for the night.

The View from Kvinesdal

In the evening, I attempted to call MasterCard because I had also had trouble using it to purchase gas. I assumed that they had put an alert on the card because they thought it may have been stolen. I was going to call using my calling card, but I did not have the AT&T access code for Norway. I went to the reception for help. She could not even tell me how to dial an operator from Norway. She finally found a number for an outside operator; it turned out to be a Sprint operator. I did not know this until I called. They told me that they couldn’t help me. I finally realized that I could call AT&T collect with the Sprint number, and then get the access code. This worked. I called my credit union and asked them to remove the alert from the card.

In the evening, we all took a walk down the mountain. On the way down, we found a bunch of wild strawberries. We gathered a handful and took them back to our room to eat. They were small, but very tasty. After this, we played with kids out in the play area until we were thoroughly worn out.

Day 3: The next morning we had a traditional European breakfast, and then left for Stavanger. We first popped a movie in for the kids, and then headed off. It took about 2 hours to get there. The roads were very winding, and the speed limit was only 50 MPH. In Stavanger, we planned to take a 4.5 hour ferry up to Bergen. At the tourist information, they told us this ferry was only for passengers, not autos. She told us that we would have to drive and take 3 different ferries to get there. We did this, and it took six hours.

On one of the ferries, I met a man who lived there on one of the islands. It was very interesting to talk to him about life there. However, he was more interested in talking about life in America. We ended up doing a bit of both.

In Bergen, we searched out the tourist information. Again, parking was almost impossible. We finally found a parking space and went into the tourist place. I wanted to book a hotel room for two nights, and a tour called Norway in a Nutshell. It involves a train into the mountains, then another down to a fjord, and then a boat ride down the fjord. Finally, a bus and train take you back to Bergen.

The hotel room was hard to get. They were booked up. After a great deal of searching, a place was finally found. We got directions, and then went to Burger King across the street to eat. My wife and I wanted to eat Norwegian food, but we were worried the kids wouldn’t eat anything. When I walked up to the counter, I asked the guy working there if he spoke English. He looked at me like I was crazy, and said “Of course I speak English.” As I would later learn, almost all Norwegians are fluent in English.

After eating, we attempted to find the hotel. It was supposed to be near a hospital, five minutes from the tourist information. After 40 minutes, we found it. It was IN the hospital. It was an extra room in a maternity ward at the hospital (literally pronounced “sick house” in Norwegian). It was usually used by families who had someone in the hospital. The room was a little small, but it sufficed. Just another interesting part of traveling in Europe.

Day 4: We left at 6:40 to catch our train at 7:30. The kids were really excited about riding a train. Unfortunately, all of the nonsmoking cars were booked, so we had to ride in the smoking section. It was O.K. most of the time, but a few times people were smoking near us. We changed trains high in the mountains. The next train stopped by a waterfall, where a woman that appeared to be dressed like a mermaid came out and sang in the mist and fog of the waterfall. It was a little unusual, but my son really liked it. My daughter was upset because she never saw the woman. None of us saw her very well, because she stayed within the mist.

When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we caught a boat for a trip up the fjord. This was awesome. My wife said it was the highlight of her trip. It looked like pictures I have seen of Alaska. I videotaped so much that the battery went dead. We had no way to charge it back up, because we hadn’t brought our charger (which also required a transformer due to the different voltage). I would regret this.

After a bus ride, we came to a train station. We had over an hour until our train left, so we went down to the water, and had an ice cream. A seaplane landed on the water in front of us while we were there, which my son really enjoyed. We also met some Americans there from Kentucky. After our train ride, we were back in Bergen. We went back to the same place we parked the day before to explore downtown. We saw a green van back out of a parking place and smash into another van. He took off, but we got his plate number. We put a note on the window of the car that got hit. We messed around Bergen the rest of the evening, and then back to the hospital.

Day 5: We washed some clothes the day before in the hotel sink and hung them up to dry. They weren’t dry the next morning, so we had to find a dryer. We found one, as well as a washer there that we could have used for free. After the clothes were dry, we headed for Oslo. This was a two-day trip, so we knew we would need to stay overnight somewhere.

On the way, we climbed high into the mountains. We saw a lot of snow. Finally, we came to a place where we had to catch a ferry. My daughter played with a Norwegian girl at a playground while we waited on the ferry. After the ferry, we continued into the mountains. We stopped in one town, and had lunch by the water. We met a group of tourists from Israel, and spoke with them briefly.

In the afternoon, we continued toward Oslo. The scenery was spectacular, and there was snow on the surrounding peaks. Near Eidfjord, we came upon a 600-ft. waterfall called Vøringfoss. We parked at an area with a sheer drop (and no real protection to prevent kids from falling off). High above the waterfall was the scenic Fossli Hotel. We found a campsite in the area, and decided to stop and see if they had any cabins available. They did, and the cost was only about $30. Our hotels had been averaging $120-$140 a night, and we found this cabin high in the mountains for $30. After unloading our luggage, we all hiked a little ways up in the mountains before turning back. I decided to try and climb the mountain the next day, because the climb didn’t look too bad.

Robert and Kids with Fossli Hotel Behind Us

Day 6: I got up at 5 a.m. and started up the mountain. The climb had some steep parts, but I was never in danger of tumbling down the mountain. After 2 hours, I reached the top. The view was unbelievable. There was our cabin way down at the base. I could not believe how high I had climbed. I was higher than anything else around me. I never saw another person. I was above the tree line, and there was nothing but scrubby grass growing up there. I was soaking wet due to a little rain and knee-deep grass, but the view from here was definitely the highlight of my trip. I wished so much that I had my video camera. I made up my mind that someday I would come back to this spot.

After hiking back down the mountain, we continued toward Oslo. We stopped on the way at the Torpo stave church which dates back to the 1200’s. We also stopped and let the kids play in the snow a little. We weren’t really dressed for it, though. After we made it back to Oslo, we again tried to find the tourist information. After driving around for awhile, my wife spotted it. We parked and went in to book a hotel room. They were pretty booked, but they found one near the city center at a good price. It was difficult to get to, but we finally arrived. When we got there, we found out that they had no parking available. I had to pay an additional $35 in a parking garage to park the van. Suddenly, the room was not so cheap. Also, I had to pay cash for the parking, and it consumed every bit I had. I went to a cash machine and again it said my MasterCard was invalid. There was a couple from California there having the same problem.

Day 7: We had an ambitious agenda on this day. We wanted to see several museums, and then an amusement park in the afternoon. We went to the Norsk Folkemuseum in the morning. This open-air museum displayed buildings from all over Norway dating back to the 1200’s. They had been moved from all over Norway to this museum. This was very interesting, but we rushed through it. Next time we spend a bit more time there.

Then we went to the Viking Ship Museum, which housed ships that they had found sunken near Oslo. It was hard to believe that these ships were over 1,000 years old. At this museum we realized we didn’t have time for half the things we wanted to do. My son fell asleep on my back, and we laid him down on a couch. My wife stayed with him while my daughter and I looked around. My wife met more people from Israel who wanted to know all about life in Texas. After we finished in the museum, we spent some time walking around the streets of Oslo. We spent some time on the grounds of theRoyal Palace, but we didn’t have nearly enough time to cover everything. If I had it to do again, I would plan at least 3 days for Oslo.

We left Oslo in the afternoon, and headed toward Sweden. We crossed the border in the evening. We nearly hit two moose standing in the road. We found another nice campsite near a beach outside Tanum, and we rented another cabin. Directly across from the campsite were some 3,000 Bronze Age rock carvings. We found out that this was a World Heritage Sight, which includes things like the Pyramids in Egypt and the Taj Mahal. We also visited the Vitlycke museum which had a very cool reconstruction of a Bronze Age farm. We decided to spend the rest of the day in the area, and then proceed to Denmark the next day.

Day 8: We got up the next morning and explored the open-air museum, and then went to see the rock carvings. It was very interesting to see the depiction of life from 3,000 years ago. We spent about half the day there, and then headed on toward Denmark. In the afternoon, we caught a short ferry from Sweden to Denmark. After quite a bit of searching, we found a very unique hotel in Helsingor, Denmark. Helsingor is the site of Kronborg Castle, the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, once again there was no parking at the hotel. The reception was not much help, but we parked down the street in a public parking area. They told us that we “probably” wouldn’t get a parking ticket there.

Day 9: We got up early and went to tour the castle. We crossed the moat and explored the courtyard. We would have killed a couple of hours had we gone inside, but decided we didn’t have time. After half an hour, we headed toward Copenhagen. Today’s plan was to do things for the kids, and we planned on visiting a large amusement park in Copenhagen. However, it was raining, so we proceeded to Plan B. This was an indoor place for the kids to play near Ringsted, called Fantasy World. We spent most of the rest of the day there. The kids played, and we walked through Santa Land, which had moving figures everywhere. The kids really liked it, and didn’t want to leave.

Finally, we proceeded toward home. One thing I will always remember about driving through Denmark is that there were so many wind turbines. I had always heard about Denmark’s wind industry, but you have to see it to appreciate it. We finally caught a ferry to Germany in the afternoon, and then drove until 11 p.m. to get home. All in all, an incredible trip. It was not, however, long enough. We did learn a lot of do’s and don’ts for the future, which would come in handy on our next trip.