The flammable city of København

Ok, so I have signed us up for free walking tours in each city we are going to visit.  The concept being that if the tour is good, you tip well...if you don't enjoy the tour - well, maybe no tip.  In other words, they are supposed to be pretty good/fun tours because the only way the guide gets paid is if he does a really good job.  Today we met for our 3 hour walking tour of Copenhagen...but let's just cut to the end of the day...here is Gary back in the room sitting with his feet up (and I'm doing the same!). We covered a lot of ground and saw a lot, but not all, of Copenhagen (or København as the Danes call it)...we are now jet lagged and have tired feet!

Gary resting his tired dogs!

Currently Gary is researching where to go for dinner...that's usually his job when we travel, and he has found some pretty good spots for us over the years! (spoiler alert...tonight is no exception!)

Anyway, back to our tour.  James was the guide for our group of 17.  One girl from LA, a guy from SF, and the rest of the group was like role call at the UN...Uzbekistan, Germany, Poland, Chile, India, SriLanka, Greece, and Japan!!  There was a whole theme of "fire" to the tour...(fire and beer actually)...as James told us "Copenhagen is a very flammable city!"  And Danes love beer...he wove those two themes through the 3 hours we spent together!  There have been 4 "great fires" over the years that spread through various parts of the city demolishing City Hall 4 times (they finally  built City Hall #5 out of bricks!), burning the Parliament buildings several times, and even the Royal Palace a few times!  James injected humor and audience participation in his history lessons!

city hall #5

Tour guide James

That's James on the right...I think he was talking about Denmark being #3 on the World Happiness Scale (They dropped this year, after holding the #1 spot for 10 years)...they are ok with being number #3 - behind Finland and Norway...the important thing is that they are way ahead of Sweden who is in the #8 spot.  The 2 countries are connected by a bridge...and apparently there is quite a rivalry.  Some facts we learned abut Denmark:  Education is free...the country is highly educated because many people get several post doc degrees - no student loans, in fact they even pay a monthly stipend to students for living expenses!  For new mothers, there is 6 months maternity leave at 100% of your salary and 6 more months at 85% of your salary! (And they subsidize child care because they want you to return to your well paying job, so you can continue to pay your taxes!)  All medical care is free.  Nothing is really free though...so taxes are very high here.  The Danes don't mind though, wages are high and they feel they get a lot back for their high taxes (and I tend to agree!). Bikes rule...don't get in their way.  Cars are taxed at the ungodly rate of 180% which explains the abundance of bikes and the scarcity of cars on the roads. There are bikes everywhere...I think this is just getting us prepped for Amsterdam though!  (I really don't know how people find their bikes in these super crowded bike racks!)

 Lots of bikes have large buckets almost like a wheelbarrow in front.  It was not uncommon to see a few toddlers in the buckets! Very few riders wear helmets.  The youngest rider we saw was this baby that was about 4 months old with a little helmet and a padded bumper in front:

We saw the royal palace at Ameilenborg...actually 4 identical palaces around a courtyard...different members of the royal family live in the 4 different palaces.  The queen was not in residence...no flag flying atop her palace.  Queen Margrethe is 78  years old and smokes 60 cigarettes a day!  She is an accomplished artist, designs and sews her own clothes, and she herself translated The Lord of the Rings from English into Danish so her people could read it!  She sounds like a character and I wish we could have seen a glimpse of her.  However we did see a "royal"... The Crown Prince's dog was being taken out for a walk...that's as close as we came to royalty!  He was cute...but couldn't hold a candle to Hamlet!

one of the 4 royal residences at Ameilenborg

James explained to us that there are 7 political parties represented in Parliament...it was all very confusing...the Radical party is conservative, the Green Party is not eco-minded...they just picked a color, the Far Left party is really right-wing...nobody has had a majority in 40 years, but they have all learned how to work together to get things done...something that some 2 party governments are currently unable to do (at which point he looked directly at us and shrugged!!  Laughs all around...but much truth in his words!)

For anybody who read my blog from Norway, I mentioned how quiet the Norwegian cities were...we just heard a police/ambulance siren and commented that it is the first one we have heard her in Copenhagen!  Also no horns honking, only quiet music playing in restaurants, and no music playing in stores...so I can only assume that all Scandanavian countries are quiet (well maybe those Swedes at #8 are loud and rowdy!) 

I'm no opera buff, but apparently the Scandanavian people are...we saw an amazing opera house in Oslo a few years back, but the Danes are pretty proud of theirs...entirely funded by Maersk Moller, the owner of Maersk Shipping.  It cost well over $500 million dollars to build, making it the most expensive opera house in the world. What you see in this picture below is 2/3 of the Opera House...1/3 is below the water level!  

With the tour over, we were left to fend for ourselves as we navigated back to our hotel.  I am embarrassed to admit that we stopped in McDonalds...I honestly can't say when the last time I ate at McDonalds was...however, this was purely for "research purposes"...Gary had heard that they had gluten free buns at European Mickey D's...and we found out it is true!

     

gluten free quarter pounder is on the right

We passed the famous Tivoli Garden but did not go in...perhaps tomorrow.  This botanical garden and amusement park was the original inspiration for Walt Disney to build Disney Land...we have been told that it is beautiful, and even if you don't want to go on the rides, it is work checking out the beautiful gardens...we'll see!  Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy...so it might be a better museum day than a garden day.

OK...after that late (and embarrassing) lunch, we had something special up or sleeve for dinner so stay tuned.  We headed back to the hotel to  regroup (and hit "wine hour") before heading out for a fabulous and very special dinner!