Denmark, Sweden, Norway 2025 - Copenhagen, Norway Day 1

 Two years of secretive planning, bold face lying, bluffing, and taking travel criticism was the price to be paid for participating in a surprise 60th birthday party for our friend Lars in his home country of Sweden - timed on the cusp of the country's traditional mid-summer celebration.

While Lars was enjoying time with his family in Skanor-Falstebro, friends from Virginia and Australia were sneaking into Scandinavia from all points of the compass.  For us, our point of entry was Copenhagen, Denmark.

We had some bad experiences with airline connections, so this time we drove to Dulles and took a direct flight on Scandinavian Airlines.  We parked in the economy parking lot; it was cheaper then renting a car both ways and this way there would be not waiting around before the drive after a long flight.

When we got to Copenhagen, other conspirators on different itineraries were spread out across the city so we took the airport train into the central station... 

marveled at this bike-centric city (this is outside the train station)...

... and shuffled down the street a short way to dump our bags at the Next House hostel...

The first order of business was to get some lunch.  For us, it was 6 am, but we had been up all night!  We headed for an open air market and food hall called "Torvehallerne".

Inside there were all kinds of vendors.  We did a quick tour of the options ...

here, cookies and pastries...

More danish for "fika" - a Swedish tradition that involves setting aside quality time having a coffee and a sweet in good company. 

It generally takes place mid-morning or mid-afternoon, hitting the pause button in life to just enjoy the moment, especially outside!

Moving outside, Kathi spied these radiant berries!

Of course we bought some!

And consumed them on the spot!

We love strolling through the produce stalls, drawn to the beautiful displays of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Beautiful peonies next to asparagus.

So many types and colors of small tomatoes...

... and herbs...

... and bees on the flowers.

We returned inside and continue to peruse our lunch dining options.

The display below looked particularly enticing, but the long line initially threw us off.

Gigantic ravioli and salami available here.

Every good market has a fish vendor and this one was no exception,

I'm always fascinated by the abundance and the display...

You'd be grumpy too if your were killed and displayed on a bed of ice for all to see...

We circled back for Smørrebrød, the traditional Scandinavian open-faced sandwich.

Thank goodness the line moved quickly and within short order we had our sampling of fish with remoulade, shrimp and egg, roast beef with cucumber, and a chicken salad - all on a flat bread.

We took our fare outside and ate at a picnic table, community style.

After lunch, we decided to make our pilgrimage to see the Little Mermaid sculpture so we headed north cutting through the Østre Anlæg park.  Lovely.

Outside of apartments, everywhere really, there were bikes, bikes, bikes!  THE mode for getting around Copenhagen. 

We crossed the tracks leading to the Østerport train station...

... cut through the narrow Langelinie park, picked up some mermaid souvenirs for Hailey and then there she was to behold, pensively yearning for the sea.
The Little Mermaid statue was a gift to the city of Copenhagen in 1909 from the brewing magnate Carl Jacobsen. The statue sat unappreciated for 40 years until Danny Kaye sang "Wonderful Copenhagen" in the movie Hans Christian Anderson and the tourist board decided to use the mermaid as a marketing symbol for the city.  I guess it worked!

Here I was (white shirt) with my brother and sisters in 1970 when my parents took us for a camping trip throughout Europe.

Back to the present...We backtracked to the Østerport Station...

... admiring the poppies and alliums on the way...

... and caught a metro back to near our hostel where we were united with our friends, Toni and Sue... 

... and Sean and Bill.  One of the fun perks of the Next House was an afternoon free beer hour which we generously participated in. Sue got us a few rounds before she was told "only one free beer per person".  Whoops!

After Happy Hour, we checked into our tiny room.

The philosophy at this hostel was that the room was only a place to sleep and that the small room size was compensated by the communal meeting, lounging, and game space on the first floor - not the American standard by far, but I didn't mind it.  

Now time to make dinner plans.  There was a concern among the group that many of the restaurants were full and not taking reservations.  So we convinced the group to go back to the Torvehallerne market and food stalls where we had lunch.  There was also an Italian restaurant in the square that looked enticing.  Emerging from the local transit bus, it was just a few blocks away.

At the Italian restaurant Un Mercato, we ordered cocktails (Hugo spritz for us!) and we did our best to thwart Sue's attempts to document everything in photos.

Here's the entire surprise party crew...

After a nice dinner, we grabbed the bus back to our Next House hostel and had one more cocktail at their rooftop bar...

... before retiring for the night.