Copenhagen in a day

Panorama from the top of the Round Tower

Friday was really my only day to see Copenhagen, and unfortunately it rained most of the time. I still did a ton of walking and got to see a lot of the city. The library downtown is pretty new and is called the Black Diamond, because of the shape of the front building. It's in the same areae as the Danish stock exchange and the parliament building. You can tour the old ruins under the parliament but I didn't get a chance to. Instead I went to the Natural History Museum and got a lesson in the history of the country - mostly wars with the other Baltic countries and England, but they also had a lot on the Vikings and ancient runes from the bronze age.

I did a lot of walking but it was still hard to stay warm

The couple that ran the hostel - which was really more of a fully furnished apartment I had all to myself - also had an Austtslian bar downtown. I had Victoria Bitter (Victor Bravo) for the first time since I left Australia 5 years ago. I found another bar, naturally, where the owner really wanted to showcase Danish and Scandinavian beers, and I discovered they might actually know what they're doing. I had two great discoveries Friday night: there is a Norwegian hop strain that has as much flavor as some of the Pacific northwest varieties, without all the slap-in-the-face bitterness; and I had a "sandwich" that was cheesey bread topped with a chicken avocado salad wrapped in lettuce. I wish I had found that while I was still doing sandwich club!

Apparently this sculpture, The Little Mermaid,
is very famous. I took this shaky shot and then
the battery died and that was it.

Also it was fashion week in Copenhagen, and while it didn't make much difference to me it was cool to see all the attractive people partying in what are normally just clothing stores with djs and loud music.

Saturday was another all day train ride - 12+ hours from Copenhagen to Munich. On arriving at 10pm I immediately found out where the famous Hofbrauhaus was and headed for a drink. The two traditional choices are the weisse and the pilsner, which both come in one liter maas glasses. Unfortunately I didn't have much time in Munich, but I managed to visit two other houses - Ayinger and Augustiner - and try some amazing Bavarian pork roast with dunkle beer gravy and schnitzel.

I don't know what to call any of these things,
but it was delicious

Prost!

Next time, Bretten with Simone and Wolfgang