Copenhagen Thursday 14 August

By the time we took off it was 2.30am Sydney time; after the walk through the terminal, I sat in my seat and started dozing off but I wanted to stay awake till they served dinner. Thankfully, I managed that pretty soon and then I did my shutdown for the night: eye patch, bag on the floor as a footstool, seatbelt over my blanket and then I drifted in and out of sleep, changing position now and again, when I heard “hot towel?” I had managed what I needed – 8 hours of “sleep/rest” without getting up! Praise God! Thanks, everyone, for the prayers. 

The flight path was interesting, dictated, of course, by the Malaysia tragedy. We flew over Calcutta, Bahrain, Ankara, along the south border of Tehran, then along the southern border of the Black Sea, which I imagine is Russian territory. We flew between Bucharest and Budapest, over Poland south of Warsaw, then turning slightly more south west on a direct line towards Copenhagen between Warsaw and Berlin. Breakfast was huge, especially as I still feeling full from dinner 9 hours earlier. I packed away a few of the portable bits to keep me going till I settle into my hotel room.

Taxi was the only feasible means of getting me and my luggage to the hotel. I dropped the bags after checking in, the stood outside with a map, totally befuddled for a minute. However, my brain finally kicked in and I walked along the “Crown Princess Street” and then around the corner was the beginning of the shopping district. Quite typical European style, with little shops and little streets everywhere. I found a cafe where I got a very good large coffee (35dkn $A5.20) and settled in for some free wifi, with the muffin I’d kept from breakfast. 

Then a long walk, managing to find my way back to the park I’d started at, around the corner from the hotel. It reminds me a little of Central Park in New York, except on a smaller scale. I sat there for a while in a shady avenue of trees, watching nannies (I assume) walking their charges in groups or pushing them in multi-kid stroller trolley things. It’s not very warm, probably no more than about 16 or 17, so I kept moving.

Lunch was again leftovers from the breakfast, with a very large cup of green tea, sitting in the square watching the world go by. There are lots of people everywhere, but it’s still summer holidays over here, so that’s not surprising.

I stopped into "Holy Trinity Church" (my interpretation! Probably related to Anglican? magnificent creativity and currently has worshipping community. It has a very famous old tower which tourists can climb - at no charge. I'm not sure what I thought about the church, but I did feel a Presence there, even dispite the huge distraction of the opulent surroundings.

Back in the hotel, I checked out an email from Holland America and would you believe, one day before sailing, I’ve been upgraded from almost the cheapest obstructed ocean view cabin (single occupancy makes even that quite expensive) to a verandah suite! Praise God! What a lovely gift! 

By 5.45, I was wilting and I wanted to stay awake for a little bit longer, so I went for a walk around couple of blocks I hadn’t seen earlier; as I didn’t bring my street map with me, and the light was softening, I decided not to go too far afield. This proved a good thing – it started spitting and by the time I got back to the hotel, the rain was beginning to settle in. I was struck again by how quiet this city is: there’s so little traffic noise, even though there’s a reasonably steady flow of cars; even though there are people purposefully heading everywhere, it’s just not noisy.

I took some more pictures of the apartment buildings: city living is popular here too. Their little apartments, all so very similar look very different to what we’re building in Sydney. Similarly, Hotel Christian IV is nice, a typical little European style: small but adequate rooms; no tea facilities but there’s 24/7 tea, coffee, fruit, cake, biscuits in the lounge room.