20120704 Fourth of July!!! en route and in Copenhagen, Denmark Cool, cloudy
We got going and then did a set breakfast in the dining room. We fell into conversation with a couple from England at the next table and enjoyed that. They live about 50 miles north of Southampton. We swapped travel tales and concluded that we both like smaller ships and river cruises.
I prepared a flash drive with all our pictures of the cruise thru last night & have that to Pat & Val; they’re going to cut a DVD with theirs for us when they get home. In doing the prep, I noticed some backups had not been performed, so I got caught up on that.
We met in the Looking Glass lounge and were led to the bridge, some 16 of us. There, the navigator gave us a thorough tour of the displays and control panels that was quite interesting. Nice spacious bridge, completely unlike my submarine experiences.
The others have gone off to dinner (BBQ) but I’m not hungry and too fat already, so I’m skipping it.
Later, we met to exchange pictures, but Pat had some problems so we’ll get theirs later. We continued down the Baltic, seeing all kinds of shipping and lots of it. We turned west. We saw the new bridge from Denmark to Sweden stretching across the narrow part of the Skattegat(sp?).
Mac Frampton, a famous pianist on board this trip, did a classical recital in the cabaret that was just outstanding. We bought two of his DVDs for later listening.
Dolores did her statistical study on how long it takes to lose $20 to the slot machines - in this case, not very long at all.
D & I did a light dinner in the buffet and hung around until our 2100 Canal Cruise. It was quite interesting seeing all the canal-front apartments and live-aboard boats, and we got glimpses of the spires on the churches.
We found out where we’ll be dropped by the ship’s shuttle bus so now we can plan how to get to our Hans Christian Anderson tour tomorrow at 1300.
After the cruise, we just crashed. Big day tomorrow. Continued below after the picture links.
Picture Link OPicture Link D20120705 Copenhagen Cool, cloudy
We loafed till mid-morning then too the shuttle downtown. We walked the Strøget from there to Town Hall Square, stopping to buy Dolores a new pair of Ecco shoes and a stop at a souvenir shop for the necessities.
At 1300 we met our tour director in a very distinctive uniform - that of Hans Christian Andersson. He walked us all over the region around downtown and gave a running commentary on why life in Denmark is so good despite a 52% taxation rate. We saw a couple of churches, the parliament (no security), the university area and the shops along the way. Many, many, bicycles. There is even a free bicycle service - if you see it, you use it to your next stop then leave it.
Cars in Copenhagen are subject to a 180% sales tax in order to minimize congestions. Hans said he uses train and bicycle. He’s from New York originally but married a Dane and lives in Copenhagen.
All in all, a very entertaining walk. But by the time we returned to the Square, our feet were dead. We took the shuttle back to the ship and rested until dinner. We did dinner in our group of eight as the “Last Supper”. Then it was time to return to the cabins and pack for our departure in the morning.
Picture Link OPicture Link D
