Copenhagen, Denmark

This town was our favorite of this Scandanavian swing. Everything we expected in some of the other cities was to be found in Copenhagen. The city - very manageable, best discovered by bikes (this is the 2nd most biked city in Europe, sitting behind Amsterdam). The people - extremely nice, probably the most friendly of our trip and quite frankly beautiful. The food - while we didn't try all of the traditional fare, we had a good dose of seafood before we hit the Europen mainland again and it was fantastic. The weather - sunny skies both days made the 30s seem more then beareable. Some highlights of the weekend:

• The Bike Tour - according to our brochure, Copenhagen has a bike tour leaving every morning at 10:15. After ripping threw town to make the 10:15 departure, we arrive to a "Rickshaw" stand that explained in a Danish/English dialect that they only do tours for 5 or more people. We were the only 2 standing there. We walked the rest of the day.
  
• The Carlsberg Brewery - this tour gives the Heineken Experience a run for its money. D met a local who had a solid story about walking around the south side of Chicago looking for some "good blues" 25 years ago. After he made it south of Hyde Park (starting in the Loop) he was picked up by a police officer at 10pm. He was happy to still be telling the story. We are now Carlsberg fans.
• Danish Design - we thought we'd see much more of this in Norway and Sweden, but the design and architecture were more impressive here then anywhere else. The Design Museum was a worthwhile stop, but you can get a taste of this specialty in shops, hotels, restaurants and walking around town. Very cool.
• Biking Ride Sunday - this time we went on our own and saw the city as locals do. We ventured across the bridge of Copenhagen into the island known as Christianshavn, which surrounds a small community known as Christiana - the Free Town. This "self governed town" has a hippie feel to it and made for some fantastic people watching. The town claims to be a separate entity and does not consider themselves as a part of the EU. As we cut through town we encountered about 8 police officers (armed with gas masks) and about a dozen locals just watching them. As we peddled by we both realized about 10 of those eyeballs were now on us. We peddled a littler faster and escaped back to the EU.
  

This was a great town and we'd recommend Copenhagen and spending some time in Denmark - a very nice surprise... For some additional shots of Copenhagen, click here!