Copenhagen - Day 2
Some breakfast at a local cafe to start the day. Wow it was expensive. About $80 for 2 coffees, a breakfast bagel and an acai bowl. Great stuff though.
We walk to the Denmark National History Museum. The building is nice, but its not clear where to start, and we end up having to walk backwards through a lot of it (Jeff's fault) to get to the starting point - the "Pre-history" section.
In there we find "the bog lady", better known as the Haraldskær Woman; found in 1835 she is well preserved for someone about 2,500 years old! We also get to see a bunch of rune stones, along with many other artefacts that had been sacrificed to various bogs. We find it funny that so much valuable stuff was just turfed into the mud, but hey, we aren't religious, so maybe we don't get it.
We finally get to try the Swedish burger joint "Max Burger", like a fancier version of Maccas. A bit pricey but the burgers and chips were great.
Off to the Round Tower, a 17th century observatory and church and library. Its key feature is the spiral ramp used to climb the 35 meters to the top, allowing horses to get up and carry many books, and also letting the King ride to the top instead of walk in case they had something cool to show him at the observatory.
The views from the top are fantastic, with a full 360 degree view of this incredibly beautiful and flat city.
We have a soccer game to get to, but first a quick pit stop for a Carlsberg and some people-watching at a nearby square. Its a warm day and we have too many layers on, worried that it might cool down later. We forget that "later" means after the sun goes down, not 5pm which is the kick-off time.
We have to hustle a bit to get to "Parken", the stadium which resides in a massive park full of sports grounds and grass for recreation. We are sweating up a storm and arrive with 5 minutes to spare. The fans are in full-swing, the away team enters to the most vicious reception I've ever heard.
We're lucky because this is the last game of the season and effectively a play-off game to see who gets some European action between F.C. København and FC Nordsjælland.
Whilst not quite as impressive as the Swedish crowds, they still put on a good show with non-stop chanting and a sea of white in the crowd. A draw is good enough for København, and despite an equaliser with about 10 minutes to go from Nordsjælland, FCK hold on fairly comfortably.
We get the metro to central station, which is close enough to the hotel. We head back to freshen up (collecting another 7-Eleven hot dog along the way) before heading back into town. We hear fireworks going off in the main square and are trying to figure out what it could be. When we get there we see a lot of soccer fans partying, and passing cars beeping and waving their scarves. It takes Jeff a bit of googling to figure out that its Galatasaray supporters celebrating winning the Turkish league today. A Copenhagen team had their chance to win the Danish league today as well but bottled it and so Midtjylland won it, otherwise there might have been a turf war for the main square!
We check out a jazz bar which is apparently quite popular on all nights of the week. It opens at 8pm, we were there before 9pm but it was already very full and hot and smokey (you can smoke indoors at some places in Denmark). We decide we don't want to stand up and wait for the next act so we head further down the cobble-stoned street and grab a drink at a bar with outdoor seating. The weather is very nice and there is still an hour or so of daylight.
The full day in the sun has worn us down though and we head back home.
