Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

(And also Berlin…by train!)

After the choir tour finished, I got myself to a different hotel in Warsaw, where I could await my friend Cami who would be traveling on with me. I was pleasantly surprised by this new little hotel, the “Apple Inn”. It was situated in a little courtyard, with a coffee shop and a restaurant and little tables. The room was adorable, fitted out with twin beds and a small kitchenette. This was perfect!

I sat in the courtyard with an Aperol spritz, read my book and people-watched.

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, Cami was not due into Warsaw until almost 9:00pm…after a -hour layover at Heathrow. I had tried to make things easier by booking her a taxi that would meet her at the airport. Alas…even that did not go smoothly. After numerous texts and contacting the taxi service, her ride finally arrived. She made it to the hotel a little after midnight, a little worse for wear. But after a few hours sleep, she was (almost) back to normal.

The next day, we made our way to the train station for our journey to Berlin.

Boarding the train was a bit of an adventure, because they had the wrong track listed until almost 5 minutes before departure. We had been waiting on the designated platform, along with numerous others when suddenly everyone started to make their way to the escalators. We checked the board and lo and behold, the track had changed! Oh, no!

We dragged our bags up and then down again and found the train. Unlike some trains, these have a huge gap between the train and platform AND steps into the train carriage. Cami got on, reached back and grabbed my bag as I managed to basically crawl onto the train carriage. 30 seconds later, the train started moving. After initially sitting in the wrong seats, we found our proper place and breathed a sigh of relief. After a little while, I got myself down to the cafe car and enjoyed a fantastic meal of Wienerschnitzel, potatoes and cucumber salad.…on real china, too! And a local beer.

We only had one night in Berlin but I was determined to make the most of it, and maybe find some jazz. The hotel clerk had several recommendations and I decided to go with the one he said was “the most laid back” at a venue called “The B-Flat.” Because we’d had a long journey, I decided to take a taxi to the venue. (Cami, wisely, decided to catch up on sleep!) Instead of calling an Uber, I (inexplicably) opted to grab a cab that was waiting outside the train station. I gave him the address – on Dirckenstrasse. He took me to Birkenstrasse, which was on the other side of the city. Once corrected, he proceeded in a round-about route to the right destination, with colorful commentary along the way. Like a private tour I hadn’t asked for. He charged me more than twice what I would have paid for an Uber. But since I had been reimbursed for the terrible airport taxi ride, I felt it had evened out.

The jazz show was a big-band style group, which played original tunes in a kind of fusion style. They were very good! And there were five female members of the band, which is quite unusual for a traditional big band. I had a very nice beer and enjoyed myself.

The next day, we had time for a short walk along the river before boarding the train to Copenhagen. A much smoother process than our trip from Warsaw. The train was smooth and spacious and it was so relaxing to just sit back and look at the scenery. There was one very easy train change in Hamburg and then, we arrived in the city of Hans Christian Anderson.

Copenhagen is an interesting city. The open-to bus tour took us around to the sites of note and I stayed on for a second “loop”, this time doing a bit more “hopping-on-and-off.”

The next day, we visited the National Museum of Copenhagen, where they had a fascinating exhibit about the Vikings. This included a pretty cool interactive exhibit about the Viking Sorceress.

We had a fabulous lunch in the square, with a sculpture in the middle, protesting the proposed building of a parking garage by a company called “Q-Park.” Yes, that’s a middle finger…and the sculpture is called “Fuck Q Park.” 😂