Copenhagen

August 25, 2009, Tuesday
Copenhagen

Today has been rather dark but so far no rain although it has been forecast. We finally arrived in Copenhagen after an eventful day. We spent over an hour in a traffic jam that ultimately got us to a ferry where we had to board and get across some body of water to enter Denmark!! We did not know we were going to be ferrying but it was fine. The boat was VERY modern and sold all manner of stuff….duty free. People were loading up on gift type items and cosmetics. The prices didn’t seem to be particularly good and I needed nothing but it is always fun to look. When we got to the hotel it was an experience.

The check in was mysterious. First off, the check in desk looked like a butcher block square in the middle of the room and there were 4-5 girls standing around chatting and laughing and generally having a wonderful time. I kept looking around to see if there was a desk of some sort so I could check in. I didn’t see anything but finally decided to walk down the hall to see if there was something further down the hall. As I turned, one of girls asked if she could help me!!! And then she was SO snotty that I was ready to walk out. She said, “You know you booked a double bed” I said that I knew this and she said, “Well it’s kind of small.” I asked if there was something special about it that I didn’t understand and she just looked at me and allowed that it was okay. Then I asked her where to park the car. She told me we could park on the street or in the hotel garage. The street is metered and she told me to go and read the meter to find out how much it cost. The garage is DK200/day. So I went out to read the meter and figured that MAYBE I might be able to decipher it but no luck, so back in I went and asked her if she would please read it for me. Well, you would have thought I’d asked her to pay for the parking!! She sighed and moaned and came outside and told me that it was an hourly fee. Duh!! I had to ask her HOW MUCH and she said that she didn’t know because she didn’t have a car. I asked if it didn’t say on the meter and she then told me that it was free form 12a-8a, DK28/hour 8a-5p and DK10/hour 5p-12a. Clearly it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the garage is cheaper so I asked her how to get to the garage. God have mercy!! This almost sent her around the bend!! It seems that the hotel doesn’t keep track of the garage and it is just first come first served. You have to walk down the ramp into the garage, find a spot and then run up, get the car and park it quickly. Whew!!

The car is parked and we are in our room with the “tiny” double bed (just a standard double) and all is well in our world. The room is hysterical though. It is the size of a thimble!! The only decent place to sit is the desk or the bed as the chair is covered with one of our bags!! You can barely turn around in it and maybe that is why she felt that it was possibly not suitable. Heck!! I don‘t care. It is clean and I’m not planning to spend much time in it, so what difference does it make if it is small?

Both dinner and breakfast come with the price of the room, so this should be interesting!! I can hardly wait to see what they serve!! The Internet is free!! The first place with free wifi that I don’t have to pirate!! Yippee!! Tonight I can call friends and family!