May 20 - Day 2 Copenhagen

May 20 Adrian woke up super early again, around 4.30am. Since nothing was open yet in Copenhagen he devised a plan to go to Helsingor on the train. Helsingor is about 40 minutes north of Copenhagen and is where Kronberg Castle is. This is where Hamlet lived fictionally. When we got to the central train station the information desk was not open! So we found a friendly off duty train driver who was going there and pretty much followed him. The lines had a fault which meant we had to change trains twice to get to Helsingor but we managed it eventually!                         / One thing open early is of course public transport, so we took the ferry to Helsingborg, across the strait in Sweden. This is very novel to us Kiwis, to be able to visit another country on a whim! The ferry was very cheap (around $28 for both, return) and was really fancy inside. We found out that Danes pay a lot of taxes including 20% VAT so we think this probabkby contributes to the brilliant public transport. In Helsingborg we bought a Swedish flag and an ice cream and had a little walk around. Of course not much was open outside the station/terminal.                         / On arriving back in Helisngor we walked to Kronberg - we got a little lost and it was really sunny and hot so not entirely pleasant for a Claire. I have a short temperature range in which I can operate comfortably! The castle has lovely grounds and even though it is a unesco heritage site you can go into the grounds for free. There were lots of people picnicking and sunbathing (we have noticed Danes love to picnic and sunbathe), and also fishing. The castle was... A castle. Elaborate rooms and ceilings, tapestries and beautiful furniture.                           / After catching the train back to Copenhagen we visited the day spa for an hour or so. It is right beside our hotel and they give hotel guests a really good discount so we took advantage of it. Hanging around indoors getting sweaty in your swimwear with a bunch of people you don't know is not an entirely pleasant concept to me; however there weren't that many others there and the jacuzzi was pretty good. We learnt that this day was the Copenhagen Marathon.                       / We took the bus to visit Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid and took a few pics. My parents have had a mini ornament of her in their house forever and now I got to see her for myself :)                     / We found ourselves in Nyhavn which is evidently a 'trendy' part of town with colourful houses and expensive outdoor restaurants along the canal. We could not bring ourselves to spend that much on food so we got another hotdog from a stand! Those things are too good. Hotdogs and 7 Eleven, that's our motto for Copenhagen!                    / Had a German riesling and a Carlsberg in the hotel bar and then went up to bed. The wine list only has 3 white wines and one of them is a Marlborough Sauvignon blanc :)