Our separate arrivals in Copenhagen had gone without "too" many dramas. Self flying in from Bristol UK on " Squeezy Jet" while Kev had also used the same airline from Hamburg.
H did however have an issue the day before in Hamburg after his long journey from Melbourne when he picked up his bike box noticing a) it was upside down & B) it was upside down because of a titanic sized chunk of the box was missing from the box's bottom !
Sensing another Venice incident with lost bike parts, H immediately went on the rampage giving the poor baggage attendant both barrels before an Emirates Airline Rep turned up to try and calm the veritable raging bull !
H explained that as a frequent Emirates flyer (once) and a regular business class user (once) he was appalled at the rough handling of his baby ! After much debate about the virtues of cardboard box use the rep finally told H that they would reimburse any loss / damage to any non loose items meaning not Kevs wardrobe that had been placed inside !
Roll on Copenhagen to where we were both separately met by Danish fellow adventurer and friend Mike (now referred to as D Mike) who was gracious enough to ferry both of us to our hotel while talking the bike boxes to his house.
This gave Kev and self time to catch up on Kev's recent tough journey to OZ, have a few hours sleep (thx H), pillage the hotels breakfast table the following morning and regale ourselves in laughter over an incident when self trying to turn on our bathroom tap for a glass of water somehow activated the shower unit in our tiny bathroom closet successfully drenching myself in the process !
The new day started slowly when the 2 Mike's sat outside in D Mike's car waiting for H for 10 minutes before finally noticing that he was standing next to the car oblivious to our presence - when questioned what be was doing H looked surprised starting that he was sure D Mike's car was black the night before !!!
Across at D Mike's place we reassembled both bikes and took to the road for a magic ride around the whole of Copenhagen that took in this lovely city.
Copenhagen is right up there with Amsterdam as a world leader with its bike friendly infrastructure. Not only bike lanes but in some places even bike super highways with traffic countdown lights and even bike lane overpasses.
On a glorious sunny day D Mike had us cycling past nearly all of Copenhagen's main sights including the Royal Palace, House of Parliament, the little Mermaid and Copenhagen's beautiful canals.
After a river side lunch which acquainted us to the expensive cost of living in Scandinavia we headed out along the coastline for distant views of Sweeden before then unsuccessfully spending the next 30 minutes looking for a public toilet for H's urgent bladder condition - don't ask where he went !
Taking to the outskirts we were treated to beautiful countryside views before re-emerging alongside still waster lakes and the more familiar Copenhagen canal system.
After a great days warm up D Mike deposited us back at our Hotel allowing us to have sandwiches and fruit for dinner courtesy of the huge nearby Bilka store.
With bikes now in order and the team back together we take 2-3 more days in lovely Copenhagen before ferrying across to Oslo to start our tough 600 km ride to Bergen on the west coast - for me a delight with D Mike taking control of our route and accommodation !
PS - thx to those that accommodated H on the freeloader circuit in OZ recently and successfully fattened him enough to make those 8,000 metres of Norway hill climbing just that bit tougher !
I bear no responsibility for fattening up H besides he needed a handicap or I would not have been able to keep up with him on our rides. Glad you are back love the blog thank you
ReplyDeleteYeah, we only ate once but it lasted 10 days!! Good riding boys.
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