After a busy three weeks filled with social activities and visits in The Netherlands it was time for another road trip in Ada’s little red Corsa. Our first stop was Dusseldorf in Germany to visit friends Christoph and Brigette.  Christoph is German and Brigette is a New Zealander. They got married at the start of the year, and travelled around Asia for a few months before coming to Europe with the news that a baby would also be joining them later this year.  We arrived at their place early afternoon and hellos, hugs and gifts were given. They showed us our room for the night which turned out to be in a bed and breakfast which Christoph’s parents own.  They host people who come to Dusseldorf for one of its many trade fairs. Spotless, comfortable and quiet, what a treat! 

After a quick drink of water back in Christoph and Brigette’s apartment, some bikes were organised for the 12km scenic cycle into town via the Rhine.  The day had the feeling of being the last warm and sunny day of autumn and so everywhere it was busy with people enjoying the last of the sun.  We visited and had a cold drink at Media Harbour (the redevelopment of the old industrialised harbour area), and then did a quick tour around the old part of the city centre before sampling the regional Altbier and Weissbier at a traditional German pub.  In the evening we ate delicious home made Kiwi fare a la Brigette and care of Annabel Langbein (Kiwi celebrity chef).  The next morning breakfast traditional German style, a big spread of different types of breads, meats, salmon, spreads, cheeses, jams and yogurt.  There is quite a ceremony to this style of breakfast and it’s a nice way to experience the start of the day.  After breakfast it was time to hit the road as it was still quite a way to get to Denmark.

It was a long day in the car and we broke the journey by spending the night in a village called Jesteburg, about twenty minutes south of Hamburg. There was just enough time to go for a run on the forest trails surrounding the village before it got dark. The next day was another long day in the car as we made distance north of Germany and into the mainland of Denmark (Jutland) before crossing the bridge to the island of Funen where we arrived in the city of Odense in the late afternoon. Here we had a quiet night in our bed and breakfast after a walk into the city centre for a cheap and cheerful kebab dinner.

In the morning we made for Funen Village, an open air museum which features buildings from the island from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  The project to build the village began in 1942 during the German occupation of Denmark and was opened in 1946.  Apparently when the village first opened things looked a bit odd as all the trees were planted new so the old buildings and new trees were mismatched.  Now, many years later the trees tower high above the buildings and before we knew the history of the Village we thought it had always been there! We had a great day wandering around and looking inside all the old buildings and at the animals. It was a cold day however and we were freezing even with wearing all our layers.  So after we’d seen all the buildings we headed to village inn, a real Danish inn from 18^th century. There we had a plunger of coffee with a piece of Danish Layer Rye Cake with quince and vanilla butter icing.  It was maybe the most unique tasting cake I’ve had in a long time and we liked it enough to go back to the lady on the till to ask her for the recipe!

 

The next day we headed to a different island in Denmark, Zealand.  Part of the drive involved crossing the Great Belt Bridge which is a suspension bridge which has the world’s third longest main span (1.6km) and is the longest bridge outside of Asia. The bridge is Denmark’s link with mainland Europe and is impressive and expensive to cross, at 33 Euros.  On Zealand we visited Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød.  The castle was built for King Christian IV and used as a residence for the royal family until it was turned into a national history museum.  The castle itself is grand looking, and the rooms are all impressively decorated. But overall we found the experience a bit dull. It is a museum filled with paintings and furniture from history, and while these are all impressive, there is something lacking. The audio tour we did was quite dry and nowhere near as interesting as the one we did in Palace Het Loo. I missed the exciting background stories you get with castles, instead only hearing about the great wealth of Denmark’s royal ancestors and the museum’s founder. From the castle we drove to our accommodation for the night in Helsingør, a town by the sea, in sight of Sweden which is across the water, a 20 minute ferry ride away.

The coastal road from Helsingør to Copenhagen came highly recommended and so we decided to drive this way to Copenhagen the next morning.  Everything is surprisingly close on Zealand so it was a short drive though we saw nice coastal scenery.  Our destination for the day was the Copenhagen Zoo.  We arrived just in time to watch the penguin version of lunch time, so we watched the penguins getting fed. Other highlights included seeing lion cubs, tiger cubs and a baby elephant. It was another cold day in Denmark so we had a couple of hot drinks while to keep warm.

In the late afternoon we met Mike, a friend of ours from Wellington who has been working at a design company in Copenhagen since last year.  His apartment in the Nørrebro district is reasonably central and was our base for the weekend.  Mike took us to his favourite pizza place to pick up takeaways for dinner, and then to one of his favourite bars, a sort of bluesy bar which is cosy and welcoming. We had a couple of Mike’s favourite beers and passed the evening hearing about Mike’s new life in Copenhagen, a beautiful city from first impressions!

The next morning we walked across the bridge to the bike shop and rented a couple of Raleigh bikes which were to be our main form of transport over the following days. Mike had planned out a tour of Copenhagen by bike and so began our flying tour of Copenhagen to show us the main highlights of the city in one day.  It was a nice tour, and the dark clouds hung over the city only made a small splash here and there.

Mike, knowing the best places to eat and drink, took us to Aamanns, a deli style café that specialises in Danish smørrebrød.  What came out was something more than just an open faced rye sandwich!  I had a smørrebrød of spiced herring with potatoes, cooked in dill vinaigrette with pickled mustard seeds, capers and red onion.  I have never seen what is basically an open face sandwich done in such a fancy or tasty way!  Richard and Mike also had equally amazing looking smørrebrød, with Richard’s being one of  smoked mackerel and tomato compote, fennel, mayonnaise and crudite, and Mike’s a smørrebrød with sliced potatoes, smoked cheese, radish, pickled cucumber, chervil and rye crumbs. We all had second smørrebrøds, different ones from the first but for all of us our first ones were the most tasty, so I won’t write about them here.

Once our late lunch was done it was time to make our way to the Irish pub to watch the rugby!  Mike is a big rugby fan and was keen to see the finals of the Rugby Championship between New Zealand and South Africa.  We hadn’t watched a rugby game in a long time and were happy to keep Mike company in the pub.  It was fun to watch the game and do some people watching.  It was funny to see so many Kiwis in one place (which is still a small number) as I can count on one hand how many Kiwis we’ve run into while we’ve been travelling this year!  It was also especially funny watching the most patriotic Kiwis getting angry when things didn’t go our way during the game.  In the end New Zealand won, and Mike and everybody except for the one South African in the pub were happy.

In the evening we accompanied Mike to another hip bar near his apartment where he was meeting his friend for a drink, but feeling tired we had one drink and made for our thermarests early.

The next day we visited the National Museum of Denmark.  The museum is massive, and so we were only able to visit two of the countless exhibitions it has on display.  Although the Viking exhibition was the most popular and the one we had to book to see, the exhibition about Danish pre-history was our favourite.  It had lots of historical artefacts from the bronze and iron ages.  Maybe one day we’ll return to see the rest of the museum!

Our last night was spent quietly at Mike’s apartment having pasta takeaways from down the road followed by a couple of quiet drinks at another one of Mike’s favourite bars, The Barking Dog.

The next morning it was time to drive back home to Almkerk, a two day trip in the car.  Instead of taking the expensive toll bridge back across Funen island, and then the long way round via Jutland, we decided to get the ferry in the south of Zealand island to Germany which saved us 130kms of driving.  It was a smooth day’s drive and we arrived at Robert and Vera’s apartment in Hamburg around 4pm in the afternoon.  Robert is a friend of Richard’s from his time in Canada.  Robert was living in Canada while his daughter went to school on Vancouver Island for a year and the two met each other in Quebec and had a rather big night out on the town.  A good bond was formed then, and while Richard was living in Canmore they met up every now and then.  And now again 6.5 years later.  Upon arrival we had a much needed coffee in the sun room and caught up on all the news.  Then Robert and Vera took us for a stroll to the park which backs onto a major lake near the centre of Hamburg.  We were impressed with the look of this big German city which seemed to have plenty of green spaces and enjoyed the opportunity to stretch our legs after a full day in the car.  When we arrived back at Robert and Vera’s apartment,  Robert’s daughter, Marie, her partner, Christian, and their young daughter, Lena were arriving back from holidays in Poland.  It was funny because before we’d gone out for a walk they were over 200kms away from Hamburg.  And in the space of less than an hour they were back.  That’s the autobahn and driving at plus 200kms an hour for you!

Marie, Christian and Lena stayed for dinner and so a merry meal was had with them and Robert and Vera talking and telling stories.  It was a lovely night, and we were happy to have been able to see them.

The next day, while sitting in the car on the drive home, we felt happy to be going back to The Netherlands.  We discussed with each other about how while it was a nice road trip, it had been too quick, covering too many destinations in such a short amount of time.  Also, Denmark was a lot further away than what we assumed when we decided to go for a visit.  On reflection, Denmark itself as a country is nice, but didn’t take my breath away or have that special joy de vivre that other places on our trip have had.  Copenhagen is worth a visit and has to be admired for being such a liveable city despite it’s location in a dreary part of Europe.  However while I have nothing personal against Denmark, or Copenhagen for that matter, it just wasn’t the country that how shall we say it ‘pushed my buttons’.