Wandering Boots Tour: Day 12 Wandering Copenhagen

By the numbers

21230 steps

15.77kms

There is something different about the European countries that I have visited so far. People seem to drink on the streets without a problem at all. I have even seen some buy slabs of alcohol when they were on the ferry due to the duty free and getting onto the train with them. I was watching a guy drink a beer on the train and no one batted an eye. I do find it all interesting though. Many people also seem to go through the rubbish after bottles and cans so they can get money from them. It is weird watching some people ride their bike around and stop at every bin along their ride. That seems to be the same with the e-cigarettes as well and nearly everyone seems to be holding one. You only know what they are when you see a big plume of smoke bellow from their mouths. Totally unlike anything that happens back at home.

Surprise, surprise, I actually did sleep in a touch and didn’t go wandering off early in the morning. I    did look outside and it seemed like it was going to be wet. I waited for breakfast, which was coffee and pancakes with peanut butter, fresh baked bread. That satisfied me and stuck around for the rest of the day. I was worried about the rain, but decided that the cemetery might not be a great idea, although my second idea might have been just as silly as I headed to an old fortress known as the Kastellet. The fortress opens at 6am and is still a working base area, so would explain why it opened so early, but I was there just after 9am when I caught the train to my destination instead of walking The information about the fortress said that it was the best preserved fortification in Europe. You mainly had unrestricted access to the base except for areas you were not allowed in. I did enjoy a walk across the tops of the battlements as the earth mound wall was pretty stable and had excellent views out to sea. I could even see the bus’ for the tourist hordes arriving to see the Little Mermaid Statue.

I was about to visit said statue after I wandered over from the fortification. I had to think about which direction I wanted to come from and decided on the way I had come in from. It wasn’t very far from the starting place from where I had walked in. The tourist bus’ were everywhere and I came across a statue I think that was towards those who lost their lives at sea, but unsure if I read that correctly. When I wandered on the tourists became thicker and I realised they were looking at everything including posing on some of the boats that were docked nearby. I shook my head as I walked on as I would never touch another’s boat without permission. I had a look around the corner at the statue and found there were huge crowds around it. It was actually funny to watch all the people who were taking selfies in front of the statue and others surrounding it with their cameras. Yes I took a picture or two and happy that I didn’t turn up on a tour bus as I would have had to jump back on and some of them didn’t look real flash as drivers. I did have a look at several other statues and one monument had several elderly British tourist exclaim that the dates were too early for Nelson. I did snort at that.

Near a church or next door to a church by the name of St Alban’s Anglican church in the direction I was walking was another monument of some sort that had attracted everyone. I did hear the word Rodan, but there was nothing about the artist / scuplurist anywhere near it. Its a mystery to me and I did walk into the church without catching fire. The ladies inside were patient and handing out cards about the history of the church asking people where they came from and handing out cards in that language. I took a few pictures of the windows before leaving and going on my way. I wanted to head towards the Rosenburg palace mainly for the photo op and then visit the natural history museum. On my way I did see there was a museum that is under construction about the resistance fighters. That could have been interesting. I followed my phone to the palance and the gardens where I realised they had a long line for people waiting to get in. I managed to catch the changing of the guard too. Likely would have been better if it was the bigger palace, but somehow I walked right on by that and I had forgotten about visiting that building, although I had walked in the other direction and had specific things I wanted.

Basically across the road was the Natural history museum located in the botanical gardensd of all things. I walked in and found no real museum until I walked near the mega butterfly house to find they are still building the museum due to the construction closing off the road access from a gate. That explained why there didn’t seem to be much about it other than a dinosaur called Misty will be housed in the museum. I was annoyed to say the least, so I decided to walk towards the cemetery, but ran out of puff a little way there as it just seemed so far away and I wanted to visit a museum still. If I went to the cemetery, I would run out of time. This time I decided to leave the cemetery for another time as I seemed pretty far from everything. Looking at my map, I decided that I would jump onto the metro and get that to the other end of town where I could visit the Danish War Museum upon a friend’s suggestion that it was great. I jumped on the metro at a place called Forum and went several stops at Kongens Nytorv that ended up in a department store that you could get lost in. It was like walking into a duty free area at an airport that you had no choice, but to navigate.

I headed into the direction that I knew the war museum to be located. I was able to go inside and thought there was not much to it as the bottom floor was about the different cannons that had been used over time and a hands on exhibition about Denmark’s involvement in Afghanistan. That also included a vehicle that had been destroyed by a road side bomb. It wasn’t really my thing about what was going on over there, but it was a display that would interest a few people especially when the videos were in Danish. If I had known one side took me back out into the hall of armoury type weaponry then I would not have walked the way there and back. I went upstairs thinking I would be leaving the museum in around half hour, so I could look at something else. Turns out the next floor up was very detailed in information. I started off with the maritime wars and ship building by the Danish. I thought they had gotten into a few wars with other countries. Listening to a display about ship building I learnt the main line timber ships lasted 30 years, but were used for 10 of those years as an active vessel. During winter all the rigging was taken off and housed in one building where they would be put back on. That was except for the semi retired ships that would be on standby in case they were needed and involved many people too.. I think on the bigger ones were were around 100 men involved. The models that were shown in the museum were used to help build the vessels as the carpenters couldn’t read. Some of the model ships had been destroyed by fire, but half the collection did survive.

I was enjoying the museum and the exhibits until I ended up at the other end and found that I had entered into the wars that Denmark had been involved with and that was not just the ocean wars. I had started from the 2000s going south from there wondering just how many conflicts that had been involved with. World War 2 didnt happen very much as they quickly surrendered on being threatened to be bombed out of existence. I could have glossed over the resistance fighting, but I was goping further down the rabbit hole. Denmark remembers 1864 as a horrible defeat and I remember the same date as the Waikato War in New Zealand. Denmark seemed to like going to war with Sweden and that spiralled down the way to the 1500s. Every display had information and displays of an object from that time period. I knew it was around 330pm, so I wasn’t int oo much of a hurry to get anywhere, but 5 mins later I looked at my phone and it was around 4.30pm and the museum closed at 5pm. The other displays included model planes, Russian pre World war One uniforms that were lucky not to be bombed when being delivered to Denmark as a gift. There were even different types of hats and medals throughout the life of Denmark. I decided, I better lerave or else I would get stuck inside all night. I walked out and found that I was very close to the Danish history museum. That would have been good to visit too if I had not decided on visiting Malmo, but I will come back another time.

That is my last day in Copenhagen. I did find another build your own meal, but with steak, but I do not have a kitchen in the hostel apart from a microwave. The funny thing was I walked past the last hostel, I stayed in when I was in the city around 10 years ago. It still existed, but this time there were more people there than I remembered.  I did miss lunch, but wasn’t hungry until after I left the museum and ended up with a roll and a pasta. Mystery food that I have no idea what I am eating because I cannot read the ingredients. I wouldn’t even know if they had to be cooked or not.

Wandering boots tour Day 11: Malmo tour day

By the numbers

22533 steps

16.55kms

The morning was not too bad, but the weather forecast said that it would be wet sometime during the day. That I would believe as the weather can change really quickly around here. I had to get up earlish as I wanted to get a train to Malmo and have breakfast at the station.

I wanted some more cash so I took some money out at the ATM next to the hostel. Some men were hanging around across the road mainly trying to distract me. One or two even crossed the road with one saying hi. As soon as I had my money they were friendly like and one asked me 'If I would like to see a surprise'. I said no as I have a train to catch. I tried walking one way that I realised would make me stuck as they were in front of the train station access. I ignored them and their words as I stormed the train station. I know scams and thieves when I see it. When I got back from Malmo I told the hostel people about it and they had not heard of something like that happening before. At least they know now.

I thought the train was at 727 and it was actually 737, which was not that bad, but I still buggered up the time. I got onto the train without a problem and once the train reached the Sweden side, which was over the Oresund bridge that crossed the water border between Sweden and Denmark. The border security checked my passport, which I knew they would check. Once I arrived in Malmo, I decided to go walking after getting a magnet and a replacement cable for my charger as that had gone missing and I had only noticed. Once I arrived in Copenhagen. I bought one made in Sweden, so hopefully it really does work. I took a walk to a lighthouse that I could see and apparently the lighthouse is the old Malmo one that was opened in 1878. It was basically in the city and I took a walk there was another one further up from the city. The buildings were all pretty cool and I knew my plans for the day didn’t really have anything to do with being outside. I did notice there were no real beggars on the street or even within the station, so I do wonder if it is a Sweden thing. I was actually pretty cold in the wind and there was one place that I was headed to and that was the Malmo castle.

I was following the map on my phone so that I would not get lost and came across a park that had a toilet around somewhere on the outside of what seemed to be a casino, but also on the map there was a cemetery. I did have the library planned into my trip, but as things worked out, I was not in town for long enough to see everything that I would have wanted. The castle did look like a great place to start a tour and I went there from the loo. All I knew was that I was visiting a castle, I had done no research before I left home or the hostel, but due to the weather I thought it would be something, I should do. I soon found out that the castle was actually the town museum. I was greeted at the ticket booth with ‘Hey Hey’, I think that is the hello in Swedish as someone else later on got my attention with the same words. The castle itself was built around 1400s if I have gotten the dates right and was a Danish building and then there were wars between Sweden and Denmark. Too many wars and one involved Swedish troops marching slowly over the frozen strait and had Copenhagen under siege. There is plenty of history within the buildings and the castle was used as a prison for a little while and after the prison closed the museum moved in as they had outgrown their current place. Even towards the end of the war in 1945, the Swedish had white bus’ with red cross signs to save their citizens in concentration camps all behind the back of Hitler.

Once I was able get my ticket, I was told to put my bag in a locker. That I was able to do and I placed my bag in the locker and put in my pin number. I had left my passport in my pocket along with my charger and I needed my glasses. I was surprised as the museum ended up being bigger than I thought. There was an aquarium that included reptiles, fish and even a cane toad from Australia. The instructions even recommended not to lick the toad. The snakes were a little lively, the little green ones anyway. I came across their fossil collection and the best part about the museum was they had displays in English. That is helpful when you are completely lost. They didn’t have full size dinosaurs though, but they had a small collection of taxidermied animals where they explained the different parts of an animal from egg laying to kangaroos. I had to stop for lunch and poured my coffee into a glass  as you do probably to the disapproval of the cafe lady who served me.

They do have a maritime area within the museum, but that was just down the road and was closed until September. The museum I found was involved with the refugees during World War 2 towards the end of 1945 as they had bus rescue plan to rescue all the Swedish and Scandinavian citizens from the camps. The museum itself was used as a refugee camp. The museum covered other parts of life in Sweden including sports, which I walked through quickly. I found that a king once had his apartments in the building and prisoners were kept and I think executed right until the end of World War One. I did enjoy wandering the museum, but time was slipping away and I needed to move on. There was a slight problem when I went to get my bag. The locker door was open and my bag was still there, but I knew I had locked the door. Nothing was missing as I have checked and again when I got back to the hostel.

It felt like it was getting colder as I wandered around to have a look at the maritime museum that was shut. I did see a real windmill and that was near the garden that was a joint venture with the council to look after and I am unsure if it involved food items too. I walked past as I wanted to visit the cemetery before it started to rain. I did feel some drops, but I thought it was my imagination. The cemetery once I walked into it was called the old Malmo cemetery, but the information said that wasn’t quite true as there were older ones in the area and I think they were connected to the church. It was then it started spitting, so I headed towards the train station and went around some random corners to find a historic square under the name of Karl X Gustav staty. I thought the buildings looked pretty cool. Once I headed to the train station, I needed the loo, which meant I had to pay money and I nearly got past the attendant when he said ‘hey hey’. The train was running a couple of minutes late, but along the wall of the platform was a video of a train carriage going past scenery and some towns.

The train was easier than the one going to Sweden, but no one checked my passport. Once we returned to Copenhagen, it was trying to rain, but I checked where the fast train left from that I needed to catch. It was a fair hike away from the station, but you would hope like hell that it wasn’t raining or else you would get wet. It was like a spur line that had no shelter. We shall see what it is doing on the day. I did get my washing done, although the chick at the hostel has done it for me as it is apparently complex. I have found some strange supermarket food that was a hamburger kit as you build it yourself. I think that is pretty cool and at least I am inside in the warm than out in the cold and wet. My constant sneezing and runny nose has stopped as I really do seem to get hayfever.

Wandering boots tour: Day 10 Hamburg to Copenhagen

The day started off alright, although i did think I couldn’t find my wallet as it wasn’t in my trousers. I soon found it in the locker within one of my bags. I needed to get things done before I left onto my next destination, which was Copenhagen.

Once I sorted out my bags properly and thought it would be a good idea to use a chair as leverage to hoist the bag onto my back, which didn’t work. I just fell over like a bloated whale. I didn’t go down far so wasn’t hurt at all. I found the station alright and seen that there were only two carriages, which would be why there was a high demand in the booking. It turns out the train was going to be late, but without warning the platform changed from 8 to 7. I only noticed as I had looked in that direction and when the train did arrive the carriage numbers did not correspond with the ones on the ticket. No one else knew what was going on. I needed carriage 82, but it was now 72. When I eventually found my seat there was some girl sitting there and I let her know that was my seat, but I was happy to sit in the aisle seat. It became funny when the guy with the other seat wanted his and he would not budge when the girls told him there was another seat elsewhere. Since it was a 4 seater area, the 4^th guy was laughing when the girls had to move on. They were angry they had to move, but I did get my window seat again. The reason for the train change was trains in Germany are not allowed to travel without a working radio. That was why there was a major change that confused people.

I had been worried the bus service after getting off the ferry wouldn’t wait and I was told it would as it was part of the train service. The reason for the bus was that Denmark was doing some rail repairs or building of their own. I wanted to jump onto the ferry, which we did and there wasn’t much apart from a train going onto the ferry. I wasn’t sure if we were making time or losing it, but it was interesting to get onto the ferry. We had to leave and then get back on later before the ferry docked. I did get some food when I was on the ferry and going outside was a little brisk. It was like a normal ferry ride in New Zealand, but without the bigger ferry. The crossing was something like 40 mins, which wasnt long. Once we were off the ferry, the train rolled off into the Rodby station, where we had to depart. On the way to the bus we had to have our passports checked by immigration, which was different. The check didn’t take long and I just placed my bag onto the bus and there were only two seats left and I just took one by jumping onto the bus and making myself at home. It took around 2 hours to get to Copenhagen and when I looked at the time I was mneant to arrive there was around 10 or so minutes past the arrival time.

I found the hostel without a problem and had to be buzzed in and then buzzed into another door. It was secure and there are residents in the area too who live there. Its a nice area next door to the train station. The room has three levels to each bunk, which is weird and then there are covers to make your bed private, which is pretty cool. I told the guy that I had a ticket for the music festival, which is called Distortion as they have street parties. That could mean it would take too long to get around, so a ticket means I can go through to save time. I was able to get that sorted out and also wander the train station trying to figure out the timetables and I was completely lost. I did talk to the girl in the hostel later on and she made sense of the train I would be catching the next day. I took a wander through Copenhagen to see what I could see. It was getting chilly as I had left my jumper behind as it had gotten a bit hot, which must have been due to the hostel. Who knows. I did hunt down the Lego shop that I had promised I would do and it was an actual toy store that had stuff I had not seen in some time and expensive Lego. I turned around and found some food before heading back to the hostel. I didn’t know how to get back in, but I got lucky as the front door was closing and then a kid opened up the second door for me. The last door I had the girl in the hostel open and then explain the fob part. I would have tried to type in the code.

I had a shower and went back out to have a look at one of the distortion festivals before it got dark. It was in the grounds of the royal library and when I arrived it wasn’t what I expected. I don’t know what I expected, but I spent half hour listening to the music before I moved on as I was getting cold. I did end up finding the National Archives as it was in the same complex and the library itself looked pretty. I had come across the fine arts museum that had different sculptures all the way around. I really wanted to get back as I have an early start with catching a train to Malmo that is located in Sweden. Hopefully the weather holds up as I have heard it will be wet.

Wandering boots tour: Day 9 Submarine, Beatles and cemeteries

By the numbers

30,930 steps

22.88 kms

I thought I would have a bad night with being kept awake by a cold, but I slept really well. Now I am wondering if it is in fact hay fever of some sort and not a cold at all.  Only as I seem to be sneezing when I am near flowers. I am not worried as I had a good sleep and was soon under way. I wanted the train to the Reeperbahn for one thing only and that was for the street art of the Beatles at Beatles Platz, which is right outside the station. The plan did not work so smoothly at all.

The train, I had no problem catching, although finding the right one was even more fun. I couldnt remember if it started with an S ort a U. I could remember a number 1, but found it wasn’t the U train. Once I got myself on the right track, I had no problems.. It was two stations away the train stopped and would go no further due to unauthorised persons on track. They didn’t cancel said trains, but were saying they would be delayed. After 10 mins, I got up and decided I would walk. My map was a little slow in updating as I had data turned off. I use it when I really need it and promptly walk in the wrong direction until I realised where I was walking happened to be very familiar. I was walking in the wrong direction. That is a pretty Brad thing to do actually, walk the wrong way. Once I turned around and headed the correct way, I had no problems. I walked pretty fast through Reeperbahn as it was the Red light distreict, but I think I was safe during the day. I did find the Beatles and there wasn’t really that much tro see. I had a quick tour of one of the alley ways in Reeperbahn and headed down towards the Uboat museum that was a Russian submarine. The walk was mostly down hill and I was very happy my toes were no longer sore or blistered. When you kinda have a blister running nearly the length of your little toe, then you know you have problems.

The area the Submarine is located in has something to do with the fish market area. All I knew was that the toilet here wasn’t open and unsure when it would be open. All I knew was I wanted to visit the submarine. It was open by the time I got there. The Submarine was built in 1976 and is 90.16 metres in length. It doesnmt look like that in person, although it is underwater. I took a walk from one end to the other, although going through the portholes were tricky as you don’t want to bang your head. Each section carried a certain amount of men. I really would love to know how 32 men could stay in one small area unless the marines were on patrol within the submarine. I wasn’t allowed in the coning tower due to it beingt closed  outside of a tour group. I never asked when the tours were and it didn’t take that long before I appeared at the other end.

I had bought my list with me as I knew I would forget about something on it. I knew there was a tunnel that went under the river that was near to the submarine it was known as St Pauli Elbtunnel and once I got there, I was unsure if I should get on a lift as I think that costs money to do. I soon realised that you could walk down a series of stairs. The tunnel had been constructed in the early 1900s and has seen an interesting change in the city. It was once used by cars and now mainly used by pedestrians and cyclists. The tunnel still has restoration works to be done and was alkso nearly destroyed by the Nazis and again by the Allies when they wanted to blow up a dry dock area and didn’t expect protest about damaging the tunnel. I walked to the other end and back. Those stairs are a killer after a while, but I made it. It was around 20 metres down and then a 100 or so metres to the other end. I cant quite remember. Once I made it back to the correct side of the river I stopped for lunch that ended up being curried bratwuirst. They seem to love curried sausages over here.

I walked along the waterfront before turning around to catch a train. There were two boats that I could do a tour on and have a look around, but I thought I would leave that until next time. There was a cemetery I wanted to visit and that was in Ohlsdorf. What I wasn’t expecting was the sheer scale of the cemetery when I wandered in. All I knew was that I wanted to visit a kiwi soldier who had earnt a VC during WWII as part of the New Zealand airforce. The cemetery had several bus stops throughout and I soon learnbt why. It took me a while to reach the War graves. I was there for some time and I was lucky yo have access to data as I had to use it to search for the grave I was after. Luckily the Commonwealth War Graves website had that information and it was quicker to find that way instead of going down each row. That made it easier to find. There was an elderly German chap who was wandering amongst the graves. I thought he was looking for someone too. I noticed he was in bare feet and I never asked who he was looking for, but he wasn’t going up and down like he was searching. He must be a Hamburg regular to the cemetery. I was in awe over the sheer scale and then realised I didn’t want to get stuck here even though I was getting distracted.  Some of the headstones were huge and I could have sworn at times I was on a country estate. I think I had several elderly ladies walk faster than me as I know one vanished into the distance as I ambled along. How that happened I have no idea, but at least I could find the headstones interesting. There was a nursery for plants too as I had wondered what one section was, but then seen a vehicle loaded with plants arriving. All the bus stops were helpful as the provided a map and a marker to point where you were. I had wondered if I would make it to war graves and when I did, I realised that I had been on track with directions. The fun part was walking back. I needed a bike or something like it.

I was buggered by the time I reached the station and was glad when I could jump straight onto the train. It didn’t take long to get back to the station. Along the way some guy was asking for money. I don’t know what he was saying, but I just stared him down without saying a word. He got the message and went to other people on the train who shook their heads. I do know I have to sort myself out for the next part of my trip to Copenhagen. Hopefully that isn’t full of drama where I have to catch a bus. Lets see if they are nice about the whole deal.