Copenhagen take two - by Dale

I still can't tell which direction to locate things now that I'm in Copenhagen for the second time. The first time my senses were overwhelmed and let me down whenever we set out to go somewhere. This time I had some general landmarks and knew the names of some places which helped. Beyond that I just had to assume that we would make corrections along the way and figure out where we needed to be eventually. As Jeff reminded us in London, you aren't lost, you just need to figure out where you are.

We weren't sure how long we would have in Copenhagen this time. We split the difference with our time on the west side of Denmark and that gave a little more time here. I'm glad and I still think with enough time I would sort things out better or at least cover more ground trying. Copenhagen is a very walkable city but I have never seen such a density and maze of streets and they all have very long and similar looking names. It also seems that street numbering varies on different sides of the same street. Vester means west, Norre means north, Oster means east (I think) and while there isn't any sort of grid you can at least determine which area of the city you don't know where you are in and that makes for tighter circles as you search.

It looks a lot easier on paper...

We had hoped to return to Tivoli to see the night lights. We could see it was all decorated for Halloween but unfortunately it would not re-open until the 11th when we would be long gone. We did finally figure out that the National Museum was nearby in spite of it not being shown on or maps or easily spotted with Google. Likewise, the small Larry vs. Harry bike shop we had walked past on our earlier visit. We were on a quest to get back this shop where Ellie's famous bike comes from. We hoped to surprise here with a t-shirt or small gift from there. We spent part of our first day back searching for it with Google's help and headed back stumped. Yesterday was our last chance to get to both of these locations as well as make it too the great Design Museum for some shopping and finally on to the tasty Ethiopian Resturant we found near Norrebro so that we could end our trip with a meal and visit with our new friend Carol. A long list but we were motivated.

There were cycles everywhere and some really stood out.

We made a clever decision to get a 24 hour city transport pass for all buses and metro trains. That made all the difference. First up we had to find Cafe Emma where we had a much needed breakfast and regrouped on our earlie visit. That was easy and gave us confidence too. We were able to walk to the National Museum and enjoyed the full three hours we cold spare as we studied the prehistoric exhibits spanning stone, bronze, and iron ages and much Viking emphasis. We squeezed in time for the separate and very creative and interactiveViking exhibit. We also found some of the heads and other items from our time with the Parthenon installation at the British Museum. This information is beginning to make sense now. 

The National Museum is well worth a visit or two.

Next we used a combination of buses and walking to get back to where we thought the bike shop would be. We were stumped again and applied every trick and street spelling variation we could think of without any luck. Our last effort was overheard by a passing cyclist who gave us another clue and we arrived there a few minutes later. The shop was locked so we took a few photos to document our efforts and success when someone rode up and turned out to be Harry who opened the shop to make our day complete. We talked bike transport and shared Elle's efforts which were very well received and we went off with great gifts too.

Well worn tracks to somewhere...

Our list was nearly complete and we were at Ma'de, the Ethiopian Resturant a short walk later waiting for Carol who is sometimes late. She arrived as we finished drinks and was game for her first Ethiopian food experience. We enjoyed a feast and visited into the evening. When it was time to go she insisted on treating which was so sweet and much appreciated. We quickly caught another bus and soon landed within blocks of our hotel, happy and amazed that we had navigated so well and accomplished all the things we had on our list. Our map was worn out but got us through this special day. 

Found it now if they were only open.

The rest of the evening was spent packing, resting, and thinking about how we had come to be here now. 

We can pack very well after over 6 weeks of practice.