Now class, it’s time for our lesson on the 5 B’s of Copenhagen. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out the first B – bikes. They rule! Most bikes that carry cargo – precious or not – carry it in the front.
Next there’s beer. Of course the home of Carlsberg is here and Tuborg as well. But, it’s more about when the beer is drunk, like from first thing in the morning, to walking along the canals, beer in hand, to…well… beer the rest of the day. It is usually accompanied by a blast – any manner of Danish fire water – aquavit, schnapps, etc. That’s two B’s isn’t it?
Then there’s boobs on balconies. What do you know? 2 B’s again. Apparently the free spirit runs wild here, since toplessness on urban balconies is freely displayed.
With so much water to navigate in this city, the next B must be boats. In many cases the majority of masted schooners and smaller sail boats were parked 4 to 6 abreast. Today, being the fabulous day it was, many of them also left their docks and wandered out into the Baltic for a wee cruise. Boats in the Baltic might be two B’s as well, but who’s counting.
Finally there’s Bill – me. Hey, I had three kinds of herring for lunch today, which must place me in that category of Copenhagen B’s.
OK class, test to follow.
After yesterday’s major hoof-fest, we weren’t sure we were up to another one today, yet off we went and walk we did. This time we headed towards the Christianshavn section of the city that has, among some nice churches, a totally autonomous hippie commune that the city of Copenhagen has allowed to rule itself. This area has never escaped the 70’s, with it’s back to nature surrounding, drug paraphernalia selling merchants and graffiti strewn walls – some of it actually qualified as art.
If you noticed the elephants in one of my last posts, you might be wondering. If you went to Toronto and noticed a moose on every corner you might be wondering too. As it turns out, each elephant was created by a local artist and will be sold for charity.
Our last stop in Copenhagen before my herring lunch, was to buy some wine for the ship. The wine shop happened to be adjacent to the Guiness Book of World Records building with the eight foot eleven inch world’s tallest man statue standing out front.
Finally it was time to quit Copenhagen and head to the berth of Marina, our ship for the next leg of our journey. This ship is only four months old and is the largest of the Oceania fleet. It has many of the amenities of the last Oceania ship we were on, only on a larger scale. Our room was bigger, the bathroom was bigger, with a tub and shower this time, all the dining rooms were bigger – well, you get the idea.
Oh yeah. The pool was larger too.
The number of specialty restaurants, for which you have to reserve is also larger. This evening we opted for Jacques, named after the executive chef of Oceania – Jacques Pepin. This, of course was a French Bistro themed restaurant and for our first culinary experience on the ship, what could be better? Tonight’s dinner included foie gras pate and sautéed foie gras, escargots, escalope de veau, gambas, coquille St. Jacques, framboise feuille and pots de crème. Wow! Loved it! This ship really is “gourmet on the go”.
We still haven’t adjusted to the additional light here as we departed at 10 o’clock and we could still watch everything for another hour, as shown above. Talk about the longest day!
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