Copenhagen - Day One

At about 7AM Copenhagen time our passports and vaccination cards got us past Danish immigration quickly. An airport taxi got us slowly through the morning rush-hour traffic to our hotel, the Saint Petri, a 280-room former department store on Krystalgade. I had arranged for early arrival which meant a 1PM entry into our room. They could not get us in earlier so we had about 4 1/2 hours to kill. 

Emma had the bright idea of getting me a haircut. The concierge helped us find a barber shop nearby (after the first shop laughed at him for wanting an immediate appointment and said a reservation could be made for two months ahead.) The barber who did have a time slot at 9:30, Jan Koch, turned out to be very skilled and very interesting. 

He is the fifth generation of barbers in his family, just sold a hotel owned by his family in another part of Denmark, breeds horses, and did the fine stonework wall on one side of his shop, which also has a beauty parlor downstairs. His father, in his 70s, comes in to work one day a week and his daughter has started working in it. Between washing, cutting and conversation I was in the chair for 1 1/2 hours.

With a few hours still left before 1 o'clock we headed for Torvehallerne, the big food market of Central Copenhagen (one of the reasons we chose the nearby Hotel St. Petri.) As we were walking on the pedestrian street on our way to the market, Emma noticed some paper money at her feet and I picked it up. It was three bills, 500 kroner, 200 kroner and 100 kroner, an amount equal to about US$130!

On the way to the food market we saw some evidence of the sense of humor many Danes seem to have.

The market was everything we hoped it would be, two enclosed buildings full of food booths and outside areas with fine fresh produce. When we go back I'll take some photos. We were more interested at the time in having an early lunch and settled on a smorgasbord place.

Finally, the room was ready; we hastily accepted it and took a nap. When we awoke a few hours later we realized the room was not satisfactory. It had a column in the middle right next to my side of the bed, too much visibility back and forth from the building across the street, a position two blocks from the elevator and various other defects. Anyway, they changed it without a fuss, to the floor above. Apparently the conversion from a department store left some oddities in some rooms.

The new room had a nice view, minimal peeping potential and was close to the elevator.

After the nap and the room change we walked a few kilometers to Nyhaven, passing restaurants providing the warmth of a fire to customers sitting outside. Nyhaven is a branch of the canal with lots of restaurants.

And thence to bed.

END