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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2007-->Scandinavia.-->Day 24

Day 24-1. Copenhagen; sightseeing.

We awoke and got ourselves up and about. We had brought our bags up with us so after a quick breakfast made our way towards the end of the ship where our bikes were. This was of course the other end of the ship from where our cabin was. Ho hum. Still Damae had slept well and it was now gone half nine so there should be some life in the city.

Getting off the ferry was no big deal, the usual clouds of exhaust fumes swirling round and we were out. Then the advantage of a bicycle as we passed the cars queueing to get out of the terminal. Not being quite sure what to do we dithered a little and while we were busy procrastinating, the spitting rain turned into a torrential downpour. Now we were suffering from one of the disadvantages of a bicycle. We sought shelter in the only place available, a row of bus shelters which were already full of people waiting for a bus to the centre or their hotel. It was all a bit chaotic as some people looked for their bus whilst others tried to stow their luggage and get on as quickly as possible.

My overriding impression of Copenhagen from my previous visit was 'another Northern European capital city in the rain'. Today Copenhagen was living up to my expectations. With the worst of the downpour over we pulled on our rain gear and guessing which way town was set out. We started on a main road which like many that lead to a ferry terminal ran through rather run down areas of town. Hrrrrumph. Where was the cute 'olde worlde' Copenhagen I remembered from a whistle stop tour through Scandinavia twenty years earlier. Neither of us felt particularly full of energy so as the rain picked up again we sheltered under a conveniently placed bridge and snacked on some of our duty free Norwegian chocolate.

Then we headed on to the centre and after a bit of a diversion managed to orient ourselves and find the station area. It was still drizzling a bit, on and off so we hit the tourist information to find ourselves a last minute deal at a nearby hotel. Damae went inside and I stayed outside looking after the bikes. Luckily for me the weather cleared up and luckily for us there was a hotel that was cheap enough a short cycle away and even better we could check in straight away. When we arrived we discovered that they also had a courtyard hidden behind a substantial gate with a proper lock, where we could lock our bikes up out of harms way. Admittedly the area around the hotel was one of those 'improving neighbourhoods' so it wasn't the prettiest but were not to suffer from any problems.

We had to check in first to discover all this so again I waited with the bikes and a couple of minutes later Damae came out and grabbed the bags off the bikes. We left them by the reception while we locked up our bikes. Our room was on the third floor and the lift was not only tiny but in great demand as people checked out at the same time as people checked in. In the end we walked up the three flights of stairs to our room and dumped the bags before flumping onto the bed. We had a room with a view of the courtyard which actually suited us fine. We could see our bikes and we were sheltered from much of the noise of the city.

It was time to take stock and have a cuppa. Damae had also picked up a couple of brochures whilst waiting in the queue at the Tourist Information. We leafed through these and tried to formulate a plan for today and tomorrow. We were a bit off balance by the early start, the rain and the fact that we were finally here. Seasoned travellers would probably have already scoured several guides for the coolest things to do in Copenhagen but we had hit aimless end of holiday. We'd also arrived on a Sunday which meant a lot of the things we would liked to have visited would not be open today and some of them would not be open tomorrow either. Ho hum.

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