We arrived at 7am after an overnight flight with barely any sleep. Erin told me the people here are beautiful looking and I got to experience that the minute we walked off the plane: the baggage handling guys on the jetway were not the out of shape blue collar type we see, they were handsome, young men who looked like they stepped off a Danish runway. Nice greeting!
The airport is only a 10-15 minute train ride from downtown and was very clean and convenient.
We are staying at the Tivoli Hotel along the canals so we just had to walk past the Tivoli Park to our hotel which is very modern and new with a funhouse theme. Not my style but comfortable and clean.
We are so tired but we are eager to get out and see the city. We rented bikes from the hotel. Everyone here rides bikes. There are designated lanes on almost every road for them and you see women riding in heels and skirts! It was a perfect way to get around this very small and easily navigable city.
We rode past Tivoli and right through Christianborg Palace. We went on to the base of Nyhavn where we took a boat tour of the canals through the city under the extremely low bridges and past the Little Mermaid. Nyhavn is stunning with its multicolored buildings and outdoor cafes. Hans Christian Anderson lived here and many of the buildings are hundreds of years old.
We rode on to Store Kongensgade (street name) where we ate pastries at Reinh van Hauen, a famous bakery: A typical Danish with chocolate and a vanilla bean cream filled pastry.
Next we rode around the moat surrounded Citadel to see the Little Mermaid from the front side. Very anticlimactic! At least we can say we have seen it!
It started sprinkling as we rode on and got progressively harder. We stopped in an archway at Amaliehaven, part of the Queen's palace along the river, but decided to continue on until we were completely soaked and it was thundering and lightning. We stopped next at the ancient underground ruins of Christianborg. We decided to just go back to the hotel after that since we were soaked and needed a nap anyway.
We cleaned up and met Andrew's coworkers in the lobby to catch a taxi to the restaurant for dinner. We were a multicultural group: German, Japanese, Danish, Norwegian and all parts of the USA.
Our French meal was excellent at Le Sommelier on Borgergade. See Evernote Food.
We tried walking home because the skies looked clear but we have quickly learned that the rain clouds roll in within seconds and we caught a taxi back to the hotel near Nyhavn.
At 4:30am Andrew's phone rang and because it was 10:30 at home, we realized it was Sam calling because he missed us. Except no one knew he was calling and the call didn't come through properly on his end.