Copenhagen Surprise

Disembarkation and Overnight in Copenhagen

May 16, 2017

Today we will get off the Getaway, our home for the last 16 days, and spend a night in Copenhagen. We will board another cruise ship, the HAL Zuiderdam, tomorrow on a 12-day trip to Norway and Scotland. I have notified the apartment where we will spend the night that we should be arriving after 10:00, so we were in no hurry to get off the ship.

Getaway docked at Terminal 1, Oceankaj, Copenhagen.

They started letting passengers off before 8am, while we were having breakfast at the buffet. Surprisingly, everything went smoothly and they were calling our color by 8:30. We planned on getting off at 9, just as the color 'purple' indicated but I guess they wanted us to leave earlier. It was also possible that many passengers were continuing their voyage on the next leg to the Baltic later that day. We gathered together at 8:45 to get off the ship. They had us walk one last time from Tropicana at the back of the ship all the way to the theater at the front. Then we went down to the gangway on deck 4 to get off the ship. At least there was no line, finally! We picked up our bags and got in the taxi line which was very organized and moved rather quickly. When we got to the front of the line, all we had to do was telling the person in charge the number of people in our group and he would tell us which taxi to go to. It didn't take long for us to get a van big enough for all seven of us plus our luggage. I believe it was like $70 to get us from the port to our apartment in city center. NCL charged $30pp for the same trip.

The very organized taxi line. Long but moved quickly.

Interesting building making good use of cargo containers right outside the terminal.

Shot of a building while on our taxi van.

Amazing Apartments--10 Kattesundet 3 sal, Kobenhavn, Denmark

We all know how expensive Copenhagen is. I have done hours of work trying to find decent accommodation for the seven of us for a couple of nights--one night between cruises and then one night after debarking the second cruise. Hotel rooms run hundreds of dollars just for one room and with 7, we would need at least two or three separate rooms. I also looked into hostels, but the idea of having to use communal bathrooms really did not appeal to me. I happened to come across this apartment called Amazing Apartments on Booking.com, right in the center of town, just around the corner of the pedestrian street Stroget. A convenient spot where we could walk to all the important sights. I was not able to find any reviews at the time of booking because apparently this was a new establishment. For a total of about $380 per night, I booked two units, a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom that included a bathroom and a kitchen each. To tell the truth, I was worried the whole time, not knowing how this would turn out. Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised.

When our taxi arrived at the apartment, the outside of this old building with a beat-up wooden door did not look promising at all. As we walked through the door, a family was checking out as they were chatting with Elly the owner, in the courtyard. Elly asked if I have received her email the day before if it was OK to upgrade us to the three bedroom penthouse on the top floor because the kitchen in one of the units is not ready. The problem was that there is only one bathroom in that penthouse. Hmmm, I did not think the one bathroom deal would work for the seven of us. Then she gave me a set of keys to the unit next door so we could also use the bathroom there. With that, we took the penthouse and see how it will work for us. We really did not want to carry our big luggage up to the penthouse so Elly suggested we leave all our big bags inside a room on the ground floor and just take whatever carry-on we needed for the night upstairs. 

This is an old building dating back to the 1800 but they have done a lot of remodeling and upgrading to the building so it is clean and comfortable. Other than the squeaky noise when walking on the wooden floor, it was a decent place to stay. 

This was our room. Not sure about the paintings though.

Bright and airy with a view of the courtyard. 

Kitchen with everything (no microwave).

The second bedroom.

One more bedroom and the sitting area upstairs in the attic.

The third bedroom which was right above from ours.

The sitting area in the attic.

Free Walking Tour

We settled down and quickly freshened up  a little before taking a short walk to the city hall. There is a free walking tour of the city being offered daily at 11:00. We have been here in 2008 on a cruise stop and just spent a few hours wandering around the city on our own. I thought it would be good to be on a walking tour to see more of what we missed. Several guides with yellow umbrellas were waiting in front of the city hall. After counting off the number of people showing up, they then separated us into smaller groups with a guide each. There were a couple of English speaking groups and one Spanish speaking group.

Our guide, Magnus, was young, funny, and energetic. He was very good in explaining the sights on this two and a half hour tour. Magnus studied in Modesto, California when he was in high school so his English was very easy to understand. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. It was mostly cloudy with occasional drizzles and it was cold and windy through out the afternoon.

Gathering outside city hall.

Public square outside city hall.

The yellow umbrellas.

Magnus, our guide.

The City Hall

Some places we were taken to on this tour.

The City Courthouse

cafes near the Stroget

the Thorvaldsen's Museum

National Museum

Christiansborg Palace

The Tower

This church is now converted into a contemporary art museum.

The Magasin Department store where foreign visitors get 10% discount.

The 'pyramids' outside of the department store. I believe that's the Royal Theater across the street.

Arrived at Nyhavn for a short restroom break.

A picture of Magnus's name tag just so I remember his name.

Christian X statue

Tree-lined Skt. Annae Plads. We came back here a couple of times while we were in Copenhagen because of what happened later on that day. This is the Embassy area.

Amalienborg

Royal residence

The Equestrian Statue in the center of Amalienborg.

Frederik's Church (Marble Church)

pictures of the 12 disciples

Beautiful pipe organ

Our tour ended right outside this church. Since Magnus doesn't get pay for leading this free walking tour, it was a welcome gesture to present him with some tips at the end of the tour to show our appreciation. He really did a wonderful job taking us on this tour. We sat inside the Marble church for a while before getting up again to explore on our own. From here it was another 15-minute walk to the Little Mermaid statue.

Just in time for the changing of the guard when we walked back to Amalienborg.

Weren't we happy to see a hot-dog stand when we walked near St. Alban's Church. We were starving, and a local hot dog was what I wanted. Just delicious! 

Gefion Fountain

Pretty moat around the Kastellet.

It was very crowded at the Little Mermaid Statue with a line of people waiting to have their pictures taken with this famous sculpture. Not easy to get a shot without anyone there.

I much more enjoyed admiring the colorful flowers there.

Back to the St. Alban's Church and fountain.

Sculpture of Norse goddess Gefion plowing the sea with four oxen.

St. Alban's church

Baptismal inside the church

Passing through Amalienborg one more time.

Back to the Stroget

Stork Fountain in the middle of Stroget.

Stolen Passports

We were awfully tired by the time we were back at the apartment after walking around for a few hours. An afternoon nap was in order and we planned on going out again in the evening to see some more sights and find dinner. Little did we know that the rest of our day would be totally ruined when we woke up to the horrified screaming of HC, who claimed that the money pouch that she was carrying inside her crossbody bag disappeared, including their passports and $3,000USD. We frantically looked everywhere and hoping that she had misplaced the pouch but much to our disappointment it was no where to be found. I immediately checked online for the Taiwanese Representative Office in Denmark and see what we should do now since they have Taiwanese passports. Fortunately, they have an office right in town, near Amalienborg where we were earlier today but they were closed by now. According to the instruction for stolen passports, we needed to make an official police report and then take it to the office for a replacement application. Oh Lord, just what we needed on this one day stop in Copenhagen!

I looked up the police department online and found one south of Tivoli Garden which was not that far away from the apartment. When we got there, we saw this huge building with no where to enter. All the entrances were locked with security cameras and key pads with no one answering the doorbell. After we walked around the building, checking every door with no success we went across the street to a hotel for help. After hearing of our situation, the very nice receptionist told us that the building across is actually a police headquarters, there is no way that we could enter. She then pointed us to the train station where a police station can be found. She even gave us a map and highlighted the route we should take to get there. What an angel! Too bad I did not get her name and I don't even remember the name of the hotel.

Off to the train station a couple of blocks away we located the Copenhagen police office at the very end of the building. Security was very tight here. They only let you in after questioning your intention and only allowed a limited number of people in through the electronically controlled glass door. Once we were inside, after we explained what happened, the female officer gave us some forms to fill out and told us to come back at 7 o'clock the next morning. She said we won't make it today because they will be closing soon. Disappointed, we left the train station and reported back to those who were waiting at the apartment. We were not in any mood to go out for dinner or anywhere else by now. Other than picking up some items for breakfast the next morning from Netto, the supermarket nearby, we ended up buying some to-go food from Shawarma Grill House and Peking House and brought them back to the apartment for a quick bite. The evening was spent filling out the forms and praying for miracles. No one could explain what, how, and when this happened but the reality was two passports and three thousand dollars disappeared. We are suppose to board the HAL cruise tomorrow. Without the passports they will have to stay in Copenhagen and maybe try to catch up with us in one of the ports. We can only put everything in God's hands now.