We took to the bikes and headed into Copenhagen today. Well, I say we headed into Copenhagen, we didn’t really do very much of the city itself.
We had a quick look round part of the Glyptoteket art museum, a fabulous building with a slightly off collection of ancient art – lots of statues missing various body parts, a gallery of disembodied head and a selection of fake-noses. Oh, and a mummy or two. We decided it would have made an excellent setting for a creepy Doctor Who episode….
After that we headed off on the harbour route by bike, including a quick trip over the snake bridge. It was a nice ride, water is a great addition to any city. We ended up in a nature area, accessed via a part of town that looked like something between a series of holiday cabins and a shanty town – felt a bit odd to cycle through! Our route back took as past a church with a weird twisty tower. Only captured an image up close, where you can’t really see the effect properly unfortunately. We had a quick look inside, it was ornate but a bit odd feeling – hard to explain but didn’t have anything like the positive feel of the church in Malmo. We then carried on to the Little Mermaid statue, which I think is obligatory to visit. I just asked Susan for her thoughts on this and got a one-word answer – “underwhelming” – which neatly summarises my feelings. We then headed back to the van via Netto (using one of my special “let’s-do-some-inadvertent-extra-cycling” routes).
What we had failed to do was a beer and lunch/cake/something stop, which Susan had really wanted to do, but we just never managed to be in the right place at the right time. So, we decided we’d eat at the restaurant at the Marina. I could tell this wasn’t quite compensating for the loss, but hoped all would be well once we were there. In the meantime we decided to go for a swim from the swimming platform Susan had spotted the day before. It had been a super hot day, and still was, and so there were lots of people out, but mostly they were now sunning themselves on the walkway and greens around the platform, and while there were quite a few people in the water there was a lot of water. I had a quick and enjoyable swim but I don’t float, so if I stop swimming I just sink like a stone. My swimming capacity without a break is limited, and so I left Susan to it and headed in for a shower. I came back to find her still going. Equilibrium, had been restored. A good day had been topped off perfectly with a great swim in clear, still waters.
We had a great dinner in the restaurant, and were even happy with the size of the bill. Sitting out in the sun eating a and drinking was a great end to the day. Well, almost an end. I decided later on that I’d have a second swim in the dark, having had a “will I won’t I” 5 minutes. It struck me there would be no further opportunity to swim in Scandinavian waters for some time, so I should just get on with it. Susan came and watched as I stumbled through the darkness and joined a group of skinny-dipping youths swimming in the harbour. They didn’t seem to resent my intrusion into their evening, even joking with me about my cautious entry into the slightly chilly water. In English of course. The social space really seems to be a big thing, quite the contrast from us Brits with our desire to have our own little isolated space, even out in public.
In all a great day. Not sure we really “did Copenhagen” but it will still be there another time.