jimrin

This was just an amazing experience. Unfortunately, we saw rain the first 5 days of the trip… It would have been even more amazing if the sun would have come out more. Fortunately, although it did rain at times, much of the rain did stay away and it was only cloudy.

The tour book suggested forgetting about how expensive everything is in Norway and just enjoy the trip. I think that was pretty good advice. I am curious to add up all the expenses, though. Even staying at Choice Hotels (Quality, Comfort, etc) cost in the neighborhood of $170+ per night for two people.

Even though for the most part, everyone was very friendly, there were a couple of times when people we saw (at least one was native Norwegian) made fun of Asian tourists. I am not sure what the odds are though for me to see this a couple of times over a 5 day period in Norway and have never seen this over approximately 800-1000 days in Vienna. And even though these were isolated incidents, the reason I want to bring it up is that if we do nothing, then nothing will change.

instead of toward the end when I was feeling a bit tired…

Anyway, in a way, Copenhagen reminded me of Amsterdam with the crowded pedestrian walkways. And while pickpockets are fairly commonplace in all major European cities, there were 3 people who mentioned pickpockets to us even though we were only there 2 days… which gives us an impression that you really need to watch your stuff while there.

The shopping hours are similar to Vienna, with limited shopping hours on Saturday (some stores open to 3 pm, others to 5 pm-ish) and stores are closed on Sundays (with the exception that some stores are open the first Sundays of each month).

While it was nice to get complimentary water in restaurants in Norway, Copenhagen is like much of the rest of Europe where asking for “still” water still comes in the form of mineral water. In fact, one place we went, perhaps it was a 750ml bottle of water went for 35DKK ($6.47).

And while I am generally not into tour groups, I felt that the guided bus tour (not the hop-on, hop-off bus) was worth the $200DKK ($35.95). As an example, the guide knew where to stand for a good view of the changing of the guards and where there is actually a second changing of the guard who is on guard duty 24 hours. Of course, you’d want to get a good spot on the bus. It seemed that the better view was from the right side of the bus, but perhaps that’s always the case (the view is always better from the other side of the sight-seeing bus). The bus starts and ends in front of the Palace Hotel.

Although I generally have gotten good information from Lonely Planet travel guides, I didn’t really get a lot out of the one for guide to Copenhagen. The information was organized differently and some of the information (like location of the Bang and Olufsen store) was inaccurate.