Our time in Copenhagen was really really short (24 hours and 30 minutes from landing to takeoff).  Even though we barely explored Copenhagen, we did get to take in lots of sights while we were here.  We covered at least 8 km walking (Beta’s feet says it’s more like 20 miles).  We also had the chance to dine at a few places with food that we haven’t really had before.  It’s hard to say what is the “Scandinavian” style of food.  There does seem to be a lot of open-faced sandwiches and lots of sausages/hotdogs.

As I sit here in this turbulent 737-800 on our way to Oslo, I can’t help but think that the most charming aspect of Copenhagen is really it’s people and the environment.  Culturally, we didn’t see much difference from other European urban cities.  Shops with the top brands, fast food chains (though fewer) dot the map in all directions.  The most noticeable difference is in the people, they are far more active.  They bike everywhere, and jog, and walk.  In fact, the city feels much quieter because there are fewer cars driving around.  It’s almost jarring to hear a loud truck come down the cobblestone side streets because the nominal noise level is much lower.

Copenhagen is very clean (compared to someplace like LA), and at no time did we feel anything but safe.  The most shady part that we walked through was about as a bad as a park back home where some kids ditching school might go to.  You can tell how safe things are by the hundreds of bicycles that aren’t locked up and just leaning on the buildings wherever you walk.

I think our only critiques were that it was really really hot in the tram and the ticket booths at the small stations are annoying in how limited their payment options were for us.  It’s probably normal here because when the weather is colder (most of the year), so it would be nice to be in a warm tram.  We just felt like it wouldn’t have hurt to have an open window or two in those tram cars.  Aside from that, the trams were really efficient with no drivers needed.

The ticket booth issue was really annoying.  The automated ticket machines at the tram station that was close to our hotel didn’t take bills, only coins.  The credit cards I tried to use all asked for a PIN code, that I didn’t have.  That meant I needed to walk into the supermarket next door (at least it was just 30 feet from the ticketing machines), to ask 2 different cashiers before I was directed to the convenience-store looking area, so I could break my bill.

All said, Copenhagen is a really nice city.  The weather and people just invite you to get outside and go places, either by foot, or bike.  We might have exhausted the major highlights just in a day, though we didn’t do any detailed tours of the sites or canals.  I think we’ll come back to Copenhagen one day, but for now, our list of places to go doesn’t have fun much room for repeating destinations.  Check out the full Copenhagen page for details on our Copenhagen experience.

The wait at CPH before leaving for OSL was a pretty normal airport wait.  We sat down at a little restaurant bar called Aamann’s, check out the page for more info.

Leaving Copenhagen