Voyage of the Vikings begins

Copenhagen pedestrian mall.
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Arriving into Central Station in Copenhagen wasn't anything special. Lots of construction going on. Hardly the sort of city I was expecting to see. Graeme and me found our hotel nearby the station, and looked around the city. We found a few dodgy clubs near us (one of which is called the 'Bunny Bar' which I think Pernilla might appeciate). After strolling further around we found the main shopping areas on the other side of Tivoli Gardens, and established that we were actually staying in the dodgy part of town. The rest of the place was beautiful. Plenty of old buildings, and a very long pedestrian mall. Again we looked for Danish food, but ended up settling on Mexican. Not that Graeme minded... One of the waitresses seemed quite charmed with his 'mannerisms' and ways of speaking, and she always served him with a smile on her face.

Nyhavn
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The next day we explored the city. The full pedestrian mall, a Carlsberg beer on the docks at Nyhavn with a salmon lunch, and then off to explore the other sites, such as the palace, and the little mermaid. One thing we noticed was the number of wasps in the place. They're like flies in Australia. One soon met its untimely demise into my beer. I poured it out of my beer glass, and it staggered around on the ground for a while. After a while it looked like it was getting better, but turned around, and went back to the puddle of beer. It realized it was onto a good thing (As the Carlsberg Beer really is that good here). Its stuff I wouldn't touch at home, but here it tastes totally different - much better.

One soon met its untimely demise into my beer.

Lunch at Nyhavn
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The following day was the start of the Contiki tour. The group of us looked at each other with a bit of apprehension at the start of the tour, but we were pleasantly surprised - they're great people. There are 4 of us single guys, and 3 sets of couples. And then there must be about 12 girls or so... and some of them are quite good looking. We quickly started chatting, and trying to remember names.

Then was the full day in Copenhagen. The bus showed us all of the sites that Graeme and me had already seen. So we ended up playing tour guide for a couple of people; a couple Mike and Sheryl, and a German girl named Ansgard. I spent a fair bit of time with Ansgard... she's from a similar family to my own and she was in the premiership league of womens soccer in England as a striker, until she did her ACL in her knee. She seems pretty competitive, and like the stereotype of German people is highly organized and likes structure. She's a dark haired girl but has blue eyes.

Tivoli Gardens at night.
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The whole group took a liking to Graeme... he's very much a larger to life character, and they all got a laugh from him.

We ended up going to Tivoli Gardens, and we went on the giant chair swing... it's the highest ride in the park. The view from the top is amazing. We then went to side show alley, and found the contest where you hit the block with a large hammer, and see if you can hit it hard enough to hit the top and make the bell go off. Graeme went first, and his mining expertise showed. He hit the bell on all of his six attempts, and although the attendant was impressed, all he won was a lousy fridge magnet that looks like something that comes in your letterbox. Mike went next, and only hit the top twice. Then it was my turn. Well, it showed it wasn't my cup of tea... I never got it past three quaters of the way.

The Little Mermaid.
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I soon had my revenge... first I sent Graeme onto the Roller Coaster with a girl from the tour, Leah, as it might distract his gloating and allow me to whip him in the next thing. Well, it worked. Next it was onto the side-show galley of hitting the hippo's heads when they popped up. I beat everyone... and infact doubled Graeme's score. I won a teddy bear, and gave it to Ansgard who gave me a warm smile in return.

Next on the tour... Stockholm in Sweden.