Scandinavia

After we had put all our luggage into our room and had a rest from the long journey, we walked to the station of the S-bana (city train), a walk of about ten minutes from our hotel. We took the train and went to centre of Copenhagen. We bought a 10-ride ticket which is much cheaper than 8 separate tickets (2 days, 2 persons, double trip), even when two of the rides are not used. Ciska still travels for free. After a 20-minute ride we arrived at Copenhagen central station and we went to the Tourist Info, opposite the station. When we had gathered all information we walked to the large City Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen). We looked around at this large square and from there we walked back to the Hard Rock Café to have something to eat. There were a lot of young girls in and around the café, they had come to see a performance of a famous Danish boy-band, the B-boys. This Hard Rock Café, by the way, is the only one we'll visit this vacation. The one in Stockholm we had already visited a few years ago and in Helsinki there is no Hard Rock Café. After dinner we went to the famous Tivoli park, next to the Hard Rock Café. Tivoli is a kind of amusement park, but is also has a lot of restaurants and other attractions. You pay an entrance fee to enter the park and you also have to pay a separate fee for every ride. This means that when you only want to visit the park to feel the atmosphere, like us, it won't cost you too much. Ciska however did some of the smaller, children's, rides. When the sun sets, the whole park becomes illuminated by thousands of small lights which gives the park a fairy-like atmosphere. At about half past ten we walked back to the station, opposite the park, and took the train back to our hotel.

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we walked to the station again to take the train into town. We are only one whole day in this city and to see as much as possible we decided to take a citytour with a so-called hop-on hop-off bus. These busses stop at a number of tourist sites at which you can get off. After half an hour, or each multiple, you may get on again. The top of the bus is open (closed when it rains :-)) so you are able to enjoy the sun as well as the city. There are three lines, the blue, the red and the yellow line, each driving a different route. We took the blue line. The tour starts in front of the Palace Hotel at the City Hall Square, but you may start at any of the stops. Of course will you stop at the famous mermaid, we got off the bus there to take some pictures and have something to eat. After half and hour we continued and our next stop was at Nyhavn. Nearby there is a building, under which you will go with the bus, that has a number of splendid mosaics on the ceiling. After admiring the mosaics and Nyhavn we hopped on the bus again an hour later to return to the starting point in front of the Palace Hotel. At the hotel we had something to drink and after that we went out to explore the Strøget shopping area, a pedestrian zone. We rummaged around through this area, had something to eat and drink now and then and did some shopping. In a leaflet Hilleke had seen an ad for a Scandinavian restaurant and to end our (Scandinavian) holiday in style we wanted to go there to have dinner. It only turned out to be quite a walk.

When we finally arrived at the restaurant it turned out that we were the first guests. We really had a delicious meal, only the service was rather slow. We arrived at the restaurant at half past six and left at nine. So we arrived in our hotel not before 10 pm. Much later than we had planned. We had planned to pack our luggage this evening and put it already in the car so we can leave tomorrow immediately after breakfast at 7 am. We have a long journey ahead. But now we only managed to pack all our luggage, so tomorrow we have to put it in the car. After we had set the alarm at 6 am we went to bed for the last night of this vacation.