Blog 4, Copenhagen

The trip to Copenhagen started off with a slight adventure. We were standing on the platform as our train was arriving, waiting for car 194. As they started going by, we saw 192, 193, then 195, then the end of the train. As we had special reserved spots in car 194, we were slightly concerned. I talked to the ticket man and he said no problem, and upgraded us to a different car with better compartments. We got to stay in these little rooms with 2 bunk beds in them, with a sink and everything. It was kind of like a very small hotel room. Dr. Wasser had told us about these rooms and had been anxious to try one, but we beat him to it. They weren’t much for space, but I got a full 8 hours of sleep on the train.

Arriving in Copenhagen, we were a bit depressed by how foggy and grey it was outside. We decided to head to the castle as the first thing of the day, since it closes in the early afternoon. The castle was perhaps less impressive on the outside than other castles, but the inside definitely made up for it. The inside has almost all of the original furniture and a lot of items that belonged to the monarchs that have lived there in the past. The most impressive part was the giant gold lion statues that sat in the throne room and the treasury in the basement of the castle. The treasury contained all kinds of guns, swords, jewelry, statues, and crowns. There was a pair of very classic colt revolvers there that were given to a member of the royal family as a gift. They were beautifully engraved and one of my favorite parts. The crowns that the king and queen wore were also there in the treasury. I had never really seen an ornate crown up close before, so I was pretty impressed. After the castle visit, we took a walk around the pedestrian only part of the city, which has many shops and stands around selling all sorts of things. We made our way to the hostels eventually, where we were met with a guy at the café downstairs that was completely thrilled that we were from Texas. It seems that everyone in Europe likes Texas as their favorite state for some reason. Later that night, after dinner, a few of us went to the Library Bar. It is ranked as one of the best bars in the world online. It has a bit of a different atmosphere than the typical European bar. There are big leather chairs everywhere, lots of leather-bound books, a big piano in the middle of the room, and soft jazz music playing. Everyone there was much older than us, and it was very dimly lit and quiet. Despite the drinks being infinitely expensive, it was a really cool place to hang out for a bit.

On Sunday, we woke up and took a walking tour of the city. We kind of took a big loop around, walking some of the pieces that we’d walked before, but also going much further. The end of the walk took us to the famous mermaid statue. It was much smaller than we all thought it would be, but still a very nice statue. It is right on the water, so it made for some good pictures. The group kind of came to the conclusion together that Copenhagen is a nice city, but one that might be better visited in the summer time. I think just the combination of the fog and it being on the water kind of made us think this way. Later in the afternoon, we had to start on our way back to Germany. The best part of the ride back was the train going on the ferry to cross the water. I had no idea that entire trains can park on ferries and be taken across the water. While the train is on the ferry, everyone has to get out and walk around the ship. They had a store with lots of cheap stuff and two different restaurants. Quite a ferry.