Day Thirtyone - Jul 12, 2014

Copenhagen, DEN

High Point: The canal tour through old Copenhagen, where Neptune tried to scare us and the fourteen-point turn actually did

Low Point: A walking bridge apparently suffering some logistical issues

Today's Antiquities: Vor Frelser (Church of our Saviour), Borsen (the old stock exchange with its twirling-dragon spire), the old harbor and naval area from the canal, the Black Diamond

Today's Weather: Overcast, in the 60's. Periods of rain.

Tonight's Lodging: Laura's Flat

Touristic Events: A foot tour of Copenhagen (the Lakes, central, Stroget), a canal tour past the Opera House, Borsen, Vor Frelser and the Black Diamond, and an evening discovery of neighborhood exercise equipment

Travel Tip: Take the canal tour even if you've climbed every spire here before. The Opera House roof needs the long view, Borsen's dragons read differently from below, and the half-built walking bridges are best seen from a boat that doesn't have to wait on them.

Daily Didactic

A proper Copenhagen day, on foot and then on the water. We started slow at Laura's flat, which has the courthouse for a next-door neighbor and a surprisingly great view of it, over a spread of Danish pastries that Theresa is, for the record, still thinking about. From there the four of us set out and, by the photographic evidence, looked less like tourists than like a small street gang in search of a minor misdemeanor. We wandered the back streets, admired some art that was either commissioned or extremely committed amateur work, and Brian fell briefly and inexplicably in love with a Christiania cargo bike he had no plan to get home. The Copenhagen Lakes were doing their thing, swans included; we passed on the paddle boats. A fish window held a herring shark, the center of town held the Storks fountain, and the dock held our canal tour. The canal tour earns its ticket several times over. The new Opera House has a roof you could play a football game on, Borsen's spire of intertwined dragons reads completely differently from the water than from a street, and our captain threaded a kayak-width canal with a fourteen-point turn that did more honest work scaring us than Neptune managed from his column at the same corner. The walking bridge under construction was, by all appearances, losing an argument it had started. Back on land we found a small park kitted out with adult exercise equipment, which Brian regards as one of the better civic ideas of the trip. Overcast and rain-flecked in the low 60's all day, none of it serious enough to slow us down. Two Alaskan thumbs up.