Day #143 - Hamburg to Copenhagen, Denmark

Streets of Copenhagen, Denmark

Lake I ran around

Entrance to Tivoli Gardens (Amusement Park)

Wednesday, August 4th

This morning I took a 9:28am train out of Hamburg to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a 5 hour journey - arriving at 2:12pm. It's really not that far but there were a few stops along the way. We also had to take a boat at one point. I've never done this before. We actually took the train onto the boat - where we were required to get off and go atop the boat - for a 45 minute cruise. Exactly like a car ferry - this was a train ferry across the waterway. Very interesting. I couldn't really tell how they did this. They must have connected the rails to the boat in some way.

One thing I wanted to mention is how the names of the cities in Europe are often spelled differently than what we are familiar with in the states. For example, I'm currently in Copenhagen (or Kobenhavn). Cologne is Koln. Vienna is Wien. Munich is Munchen. Rome is Roma. Milan is Milano. Generally it's pretty easy - but sometimes is can throw you off.

I really took it easy today. I got off the train and booked a hotel within walking distance. I chilled during the afternoon and then went for a run toward the evening and grabbed a couple pictures. The city is impressive. Neat. Clean. Alot of the action is right near the main train station. Across the street is the famous Tivoli Gardens. This is the fabled amusement park. It sits on 20 acres of land and includes carnival games and amusement rides. I didn't go in today - maybe later in the week - but it appears more like a small town carnival atmosphere. Tivoli is said to have inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland. Disneyland being light years ahead in technology. Right next to Tivoli Gardens is the Hard Rock Cafe. A ton of restaurants and pubs lined the streets. People seemed to be extraordinarily friendly. I even turned 2 people away asking to help on map directions.

Denmark has different money - the Danish Krone. 1 US dollar is roughly 5.7 Krone. My hotel bill for 3 days was $1600 Krone. I found out quickly what the exchange rate really was in this place. I'm not a fan of continually changing money I must admit. I used my credit card all day today - but will need some money to effectively get around the next few days.

The temperature here is perfectly comfortable. I haven't seen numbers - but I'd put it at 60-70's. Comfortable for me to run in shorts and a t-shirt. I plan to take the next couple days at a leisurely pace in Copenhagen. I know there are some spots I want to get to on day trips - but this will be over the weekend.

Goodnight for now. Much more to come from Denmark.