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Originally published 29 December 2016
The third best pub!
We rose today and had to move out of our apartment. A wonderful place but it's time to move on. We don our packs and head to the neighborhood train station. Instead of the metro this time, we take the surface train to the central station. We put our packs in a locker so we can travel light for the day.
We wander out of the train station into one of Copehagen's more borderline areas. Not unsafe, but not tourist central either. Afghani markets, Asian markets, and then we wind up in an area that looks like very old barns. Turns out it was the meat packing district.
A lot of stuff is moving into the meat packing district, but a lot of it is still devoted to the totally unexpected task of....packing meat. While wandering through it we saw a place called "Warpigs". Turns out it is a BBQ place! Okay...this we gotta check out.
We had eaten in the not too distant past, but this was too interesting to pass up. We got BBQ, sides, and beer from their onsite brewery. We split the BBQ just to check it out. Turns out it's pretty well done. Turns out the head chef hails from.........the states. That explains it! From here, we head to Kastellet, or the star fortress.
Laurie at Warpigs BBQ, Copenhagen
The Kastellet had been there since the 1600's and is known as the "star fortress"....well.......because it looks like a star! It is still an operating Danish military facility. You can walk on the ramparts and down the main street, but are told to stay out of other areas. Soldiers, assumed to be officers, live in some of the housing along the main street, and from what one can see, it's very nice.
We wander down the main street to the end where you exit the fort. Off to one side is a very nicely done monument. Upon investigation, it is a monument to Danes presently deployed with an eternal flame. It is a group of walls, and on the last set of walls is a list of the fallen.
It is obviously a sacred place and it's quite powerful in it's simplicity. It had three simple lines inscribed on one of the walls: "En tid, Et sted, Et menneske". The best translation I could muster (not speaking Danish) was "One time, One place, One man". After spending a few moments pondering this very well done memorial, we moved on.
From here, Laurie insists we go see the little mermaid statue that apparently everyone that comes to Copenhagen is required by law to view. (This is sarcasm.) To paraphrase what I said about the windmill yesterday......little mermaid, BIG disappointment. ZZZZZZZ. A statue on a rock surrounded by tourists eating ice cream from a stand right at it in the middle of winter. After what seemed like much longer but was in reality about 3 minutes, we moved on.
One last glogg before we leave Denmark
We stopped at the little coffee shop we visited a few nights before. It's a little hole in the wall and like many of the spaces in a lot of these old European buildings, they would give the Fire Marshall who inspects my jobsites a stroke. You walk through a storage area/kitchen to get to the bathroom, the electrical system seems cobbled together, absolutely no ADA access of any sort, and i'm pretty sure most of the doorways, stairs, and handrails meet no building code known to man. These buildings are often hundreds of years old and just can't be retrofitted.
While sitting in the coffee shop, we plot our next move. We only have a couple of hours before we have to be at the train station to get our packs and head to the airport. I make a decision on where to go. I want to go out and mix and mingle with the locals, see what they like and what they do. We catch the train and go a few stops south to.........the mall!
We get off the train, and right at the mall we pass the car parking garage, along with a bicycle parking garage. We go in and wander around. For the most part, it's like a mall anywhere else in the world. There are, however, subtle differences that make you realize you're somewhere other than home.
The bicycle garage is a starter, you don't see those at home. Then there are things that have names the same or similar to those in the states, but aren't quite the same. We wander through a baby store and check out the cool baby stuff they have, then stop in the Carhartt store.
In the states, we buy Carhartt work clothes at the feed store or the farmer's co-op. They're sturdy, rugged, and functional. In Europe, they're a "brand". They have T shirts, back packs, trendy clothes, a jacket similar to those in the states but somewhat different. The weirdest thing we saw was a set of Carhartt pajamas. Carhartt is viewed as something like Aeropostal or Ed Hardy here. It's chic....not work clothes.
I have to admit it is a pretty impressive mall
We eat dinner at a buffet, with lots of different Danish foods. We figure this is a cool way to try lots of different things the locals eat. We put small samples of lots of different dishes and try them all. Some we like, some we don't. Sort of like Golden Corral in the states, but with a bar, really good salads, and huge pieces of baked salmon on the buffet.
Mall time is now over and it's time to move. We pick our packs up at the train station, go to the airport, and wind up in some terminal that used to be a cargo warehouse. While a 15 minute walk from the main terminal and not the snazziest place, it's functional and services the discount airlines.
The discount airlines are low buck and no frills. They are also efficient and CHEAP. We flew from Denmark, the length of Germany to Munich. I had to pay extra to check two bags (one for each of us). Total cost for both of us on a 1.5 hour flight, 120 euros, or about 130 dollars. That's a bargain.
We're in our hotel at the Munich airport now. Tomorrow, we head to the mountains! Copenhagen Day 4 Slide Show
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I'm Bill. My wife Laurie and I love to travel and share our stories. We especially love it when we have been able to motivate our readers to start traveling on their own, and making their own stories.
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