A loooong road to Berlin

Yesterday we had a long day as we had to catch the train from Horsens to Copenhagen (2 and a half hours), and another train to the airport (just a week 10 minute ride), then a plane ride to Berlin, another train to town, then the tube to the place we are staying.
What do you do when you have a long time to do nothing but play silly buggars...

When you get to Copenhagen airport, it is this narrow, overcrowded small space that is a bit nasty right now as half of it is blocked off with developments happening. We went through security to the international part and then we saw that actually the airport is quite large and there were heaps of good shops to look at and cafes to sit at so we had a nice time just exploring and looking around. I bought a Hans Christian Andersen book of fairy tales and Lynnie bought some make up. and we tried out best not to be gormless idiots!

Not for the gormless obviously

When our gate finally came up, it was literally the very furthermost gate in the place on a far wing so we had a long hike to get to it. And finally it was time to board.

Byebye Denmark, the bridge and Sweden in the back there

We arrived less than an hour later to a Sunny and considerably warmer-than-Horsens  Berlin

Meanwhile a steam train went past...

We are staying in an Airbnb in Mitte and we had no trouble finding the place but when we got here there was a list of 20 apartments with surnames, none of which meant anything, and we had no phone or internet to message the host so had no choice but to ring the door bells and ask for the host. We were successful after the fourth attempt (which was pretty good we thought) and finally managed to find our beds. Yah.

Biking like a local

Barry put out a message to his peeps and we got a bike for Lynnie for the day. It was very cool and grey this morning but we showed her the pedestrian shopping area that is popular on Saturdays with all the shops putting their stalls out, and a few other stall holders, a fundraising group spinning their wheels on bike trainers and many dogs on leads. There was also a carving symposium going on where people were carving out sculptures from wood using chainsaws. Impressive too. And we also saw a bunch of true blue Vikings.
The sun shone in the afternoon so we took a ride by the beach and bought some divine weinerbrøds to snack on.

Spring flowers

On our bikes, bikes everywhere

The vikings are in town

Carving wood with chainsaws

A boy in a viking ship chair with a wooden sword

A spooky companion

Clever carving

A viking and a local

A fine afternoon

Lynnie on the bike

We're off to Berlin tomorrow!

A big walk, a horse, a cat, a puppy and some birds standing to attention

I took Lynnie around the walkways behind our place, next to the fjord and to the only place I've actually seen horses. It's a wee suburb beside us called Stensballe and has lots of cute houses with lovely spring gardens. We met a lovely cat, a very happy puppy, a funny pony and a couple of Danes along the way.

Our walk. It's prettier in the flesh than from the sky.

Lynnie and Barry on top of the tallest building at VIA university

Lynnie and meself on same roof

A bird

Lynnie sporting her puffer jacket look

A very cute little Danish house with spring garden

A very friendly cat

Another spring garden in a thatched roof house

A very wonky wall on a  house that is likely a few hundred years old

Another bird

A funny pony

A VERY excited puppy

I managed to snap this in a moment of stillness

A pretty spot.

Birds standing to attention

And a house the same age as you Dad!

2 Kiwis in town

LYNNIE ARRIVED TODAY! Whoop!
I took the train down to Copenhagen to meet her and it was so crowded at the airport, I was struggling to get a view of the arrivals but then I spotted her and it was so good to see my darling friend  from home. 5 minutes later and it was as if we had never been apart. We didn't see anything of Copenhagen - just a train ride there, another train to the airport, and reverse. That was a whole day gone! (It's a 2.5 to 3 hour journey on the train to Copenhagen).
We got back tonight to a sparkly clean flat (Bazza did the honours), and Lynnie? She's crashed! It was a loooooong trip from NZ and a new timezone and loss of a day to boot.
Tomorrow we will chill and potter around here, while she adjusts to the new timezone.
Of course I grabbed a few photos today. As I do. ...

Our pencils in Horsens. Train Station in the background.

Selfie on the train, passing pretty fields.

My sleeping neighbour. Must have had a hard week - he slept the whole way!

Køpenhagen Platform

She made it! As is very thankful she borrowed a puffer jacket! Its a tad cooler here (7 degrees today).

Pre-Lynnie, Berlin, Prague, and London

We have three more days before we have our first visitor from New Zealand. My dear friend Lynnie is here on Thursday and then we will be heading off to Berlin, Prague, and London.
Watch this space.
In the meantime, we headed out for a coffee this morning at our favourite cafe, and the gorgeous girls there gave us some leftovers as we were leaving. Four Almond pastries.
Yum!

Our bikes resting against the cafe

I love my bike. Even though its a bit of a rusty old thing.

København

We spend a few days in Copenhagen or København as its spelt in Danishland.
We visited Tivoli Gardens, a few churches, some palaces, loads of narrow streets with cute multi-coloured houses, Nyhavn, a few cafes, some shops, the little mermaid, a couple of malls (on a really wet day), and the 'rundetaarn' the round tower built in 1642 with panoramic views of the city.
In total I took some 500 photos, but here are just 32 of them...

Me on a walkway towards the Little Mermaid

The lovely panels on the toilet doors at Tivoli gardens

A wee street in Tivoli Gardens

A selfie in Nyhavn

Nyhavn - pretty much every building on the right has a street front bar/cafe/restaurant

Another selfie, this time with the Little Mermaid

One of the entrances to Christiania, 'Free Town' where people can freely smoke dope and drink alcohol, sell dope, etc... you aren't supposed to take photos so this is the only one I took (very difficult for me, that was)

A bit of street artwork that reminded me of Dad's scraperboard works.

Part of the road/bridge that spans between Denmark and Sweden

One of the many magnificent swans that swim around the seas around Copenhagen

At the palace, Barry standing guard

Inside the palace. This poor fella has been holding up the roof for 100s of years. No wonder he has a headache and looks grumpy.

Back to Tivoli gardens, some weird but very pretty flowers

Some rose lollies in a candy shop

A camel in Tivoli Gardens. I thought of you Bernie!

Spring in Tivoli Gardens

Easter at Tivoli Gardens

These were on the street lamps. I was impressed by the meticulous paint job.

A window scene for Hermes handbags.

Me at Nyhavn

Another shot of Nyhavn

A dragon at the bottom of a column bay window thingee

Another dragon, on a lamp. It reminded me of 'The Green Dragon' in The Hobbitt

One of the many churches

Beautiful blossoms

And ducklings. So cute.

The little mermaid

From the star shaped embankment surrounding 'Kastellet Copenhagen'

Me in front of the Palm house at the Botanic Gardens

Lots of these wee cafe booths around the place. They serve nice coffee too.

One of the oldest fountain in Copenhagen, built in 1608

A view from the top of the 'rundetaarn'