Monday, July 12,
1982
Arrived in
Hamburg at 3:30 where we got shuffled around to join a longer train. We were
joined by a couple speaking in English but I automatically answered in German.
Left at 4:00, sleeping our way to Puttgarden. At 6:00 the train was loaded onto
a ferry, and Sue and I stayed in the train compartment to sleep. At about 7:30
the train was unloaded in Rødby, Danmark/Denmark.
We ate breakfast and washed up in the lavatory. In the next compartment was a
group of hardy-har-har Americans, the type with whom we don’t want to
associate.
We expected to be
in to København/Copenhagen at 9:09
but arrived an hour late. We put our bags in a locker for 3.5 Danish krone
(DEK)/40 cents. We couldn’t find any tourist information booth, so started
towards the National Museum by walking around Tivoli, where we found the Tivoli
info booth. We picked up a free map and information about two breweries. We
decided to do the Tuborg Brewery first, and paid 4 DEK/50 cents to take the No.
1 bus for quite a long ride.
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| Copenhagen bus ticket |
At the brewery entrance we had to register as to
nationality, yep, two from the U.S. After several minutes, a guide came to take
a group, speaking in Danish and English, with a few footnotes in German. The
first room gave us a pictorial view of the process of making beer, and in the
next we saw the collection and fermenting vats. Before you even entered the
brewery, you could smell the barley and hops. There was a model of the 90-acre
grounds of the brewery, not including the Carlsberg plant which is jointly
owned. The final aging tanks were in a freezing-temperature room. Outside we
were taken by bus to the bottling area, where we had a slide presentation
before actually seeing the real thing. Millions of bottles being washed,
filled, capped, labeled, and packed. The bus took us back to the visitors
center which has a souvenir shop, but more importantly, a large area of tables
and chairs with bottles of beer set out for tasting. Sue and I, and the kids,
went for the Tuborg soft drinks.
We took the No. 1
bus back to the city. I gave the driver 4 DEK in change, and he put the coins
in slots according to value. But he didn’t have slots for the 1 and 2 øre coins.
We got off at the Langelinie S-Tog/S-Train commuter station and walked
around the military windmill installation until we found den lille havfrue/the little mermaid. It looked like an Italian
family was picnicking at her base. We walked farther around the park, past the
refreshing Gefionspringvandet/Gefion Fountain
(lots of spraying water), then straight down the road to Amalienborg Slot/Castle. There we saw the two guards
who, because they marched slowly, appeared to be casually strolling along, but
then would make sharp crisp turns. Off to one side were a pair of fuzzy-hatted
officers with three guards. At the stroke of 14:00, two of the regulars marched
over to relieve the two strolling guards, and the fuzzy hats turned around and
went into the building.
By now I was faint with hunger, so we made our way to the Strøget, a
pedestrian shopping street, and checked the menus of a couple places before
finding one selling smørrebrød/danish open sandwich. I was a little disappointed with the “heaping” open sandwich at
Brasilka, as I received a tiny thin piece of black bread lavishly
covered with butter, alongside two thin fillets of plaice/sole fish breaded and
fried, several tiny but succulent shrimp, a little lettuce, one wedge of tomato,
and a generous dab of mayonnaise. Sue ordered a mussel dish served on a half
shell, with mussels and chopped egg in a spicy (though not very spicy) sauce
with a small piece of “flute/miniature French baguette.” Sue had an apple
limonade and I had lemon limonade (limonade equals soda). We also had a couple
glasses of water to ward off dehydration. Although still hot and sweaty, I felt
much, much better. We continued up the Strøget,
turning off for the National Museum, only to discover it is closed on Mondays!
We went to Tivoli, paying the 12 DEK/$1.40 to enter the amusement park. It was
very crowded with people of all ages and the slot machines were busy, the rides
were twirling, the arcade games were popping, and food was frying. We really
explored the place this time, and determined we would miss all the shows
because of the time we were leaving. At about 18:00 we found a place to eat,
getting very sweet chocolate milkshakes. Sue had a Croque Monsieur/grilled ham
and cheese sandwich with sauce on top, and I had a bøf/steak sandwich that tasted like a sausage patty with everything
on it: cucumbers, cooked onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, and a hot mustard. The
condiments were good!
A circus was being set up, and at 19:00 an acrobatic troupe came out to
swing to the music of a band, then a tightrope act with a clown, and a
balancing act by a big family. At 19:30 we went to the Peacock Theater to see a
pantomime with Pierrot and Harlequin. Pierrot wears all white with big puffball
buttons and Harlequin wears a black and red diamond pattern outfit. Because of the large standing crowd, they were renting cardboard
periscopes for kids and short people to be able to see over taller heads.
Retrieved our bags from the locker and went to track #2 for the 20:49
train to Oslo. The only 1st class was a half car at the very end of
the train. We got a compartment with an elderly couple speaking German and a
young man speaking English. We left two minutes late. At 21:30 in Helsingør,
the train boarded a ferry, so that it was 22:00 when we crossed into Sweden.
The sky was sunset colors, as our passports were checked, our tickets were
checked, and then the light was put out.[I was in København/Copenhagen in 1979 (no pics) and 1980.]
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