A friend had told Géraldine that the best way to visit Copenhagen was on bicycle, and indeed there are hundreds of people in bicycles taking advantage of the flat terrain and the many lanes reserved for cycling. So, we rented bicycles and right away I started having problems. For one, in these bikes you cannot pedal backwards because that engages the back break; pedaling backwards is the way we have to set our feet for slowing down and coming off the bike, and for starting from a still position. Instead, with this type of bike one has to jump flat-footed on the ground to stop, and push forward to get enough impulse to get going. Second, I had twisted my ankle, so my ability to stop flat-footed was zilch, and on starting I could not press down with my right foot to get me going; my starts were thus very wobbly and dangerous to other cyclists. Third, there are a lot of cyclists on the bike lanes, many of them rookie tourists, which considerably increased the chance of a collision. In short, it was the ride from hell.
We cycled past a beautiful canal, a la Amsterdam, with well-tended house boats lining the sides and a happy throng milling along the quay. From there we went to Christiana, the hippie community of Copenhagen, where in the 1960’s hippies established communal living, where all would share whatever they had, raise children as in a small village, smoke pot, and do artistic work. They have their own council that deals with the city to buy power, water, and sanitation services in bulk, but otherwise they deal with everything else internally as a community. Surprisingly they have managed to have their autonomy for 60 years now, have built houses (they have a goodly amount of recycled building materials), and are happy to welcome visitors to their happy home.
Lucas took over the guidance from here, and led us in a not-so-crowded path to the docks and the small beach of Copenhagen, where we had lunch, but after that the crazy guy took us far north of the city to the grounds of the Hermitage Palace (a very small palace surrounded by thousands of acres of forest and open grasslands). Unfortunately for me, it has some topography and I was having troubles with the uphills with my aching foot. The palace has a fabulous view over the ocean, and on the surrounding grasslands we could see a flock of what seemed like very large geese. On closer inspection we realized they were a band of reindeers, maybe a 100 strong, who were taking their leisure in the meadow and appeared as a dwarf forest of palmate antlers. Six of the reindeer were white.
The way back to Copenhagen was long, included several uphills, crossed through lovely neighborhoods of single-family homes, and I struggled to keep up with my friends. Géraldine is in excellent shape and took the front to soon disappear in the distance. Lucas hung up with me out of concern, but clearly this was an easy ride for him. Me, I was dying with the pain in my ankle and was all too glad when we came into the center of town and returned the bikes.
Mercifully Géraldine has suggested that for the next three
days we use the Copenhagen City Card, that for 72 hours will give us access to
all public transportation and free access to over 80 attractions and places to
visit. It is not cheap, at 135 euros per person, but we will try to visit as
many museums and attractions as possible to milk it to the dredges. And I will
be full of Iboprufen so I will be able to keep up with my friends.
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