Cycling in Copenhagen, Eating in Germany

The day after the Eurovision Grand Final, we were ready to move on to our next destination. 

It's right there. Can you see it? Between the Lillgrund Wind turbines on the left and the Øresund Bridge on the right. Copenhagen!

But first we had to catch the bus into Hyllie Station in Malmö and take one last ride in a 'hiss' down to the platform.

And within 30ish minutes we were in Copenhagen.

We had an Airbnb apartment in Frederiksberg. After the busy Eurovision week, we needed a bit of 'greenwashing'. So set off for a walk through nearby Frederiksberg Gardens.

It was such a beautiful day. We covered almost all of the parklands by just following the pathways, under trees and over bridges down towards Frederiksberg Palace.

Right next to the palace is the Copenhagen Zoo. We didn't go in, but there is a viewing area for the elephants so we stopped to say hello and see the babies.

This Eurasian magpie was quite distinguished looking and was interested in watching us while we stopped to have a snack at a cafe after walking for a couple of hours. He's very different from our Aussie magpies!

Our meanderings then took us through the Elephant Gate in Carlsberg.

While we had seen lots of people using bikes in Finland and Sweden, it was nothing compared to bicycle use in Copenhagen. The streets are really well set out for cycling. In fact, I would say in Copenhagen, cyclists are catered for better than cars or pedestrians as everyone else seems to give way or be watching out for them.

The roads were very clearly constructed to accommodate cars, trucks, buses etc with the centre section of road. Then there was a small step up on both sides of the road to the cycle pathway. Bicycles follow the same flow as motor vehicle traffic on each side of the road with their own pathways about maybe 1.2 metres or so of width, then another step up to the pedestrian pathway. Traffic signals mostly appeared to also have signals for cyclists. It was very cool.

After walking for hours, we decided to join the masses and started using these Lime electric bikes. So pedal power with an extra boost!  We covered so much more territory with these!

We wandered along the famous Nyhavn canal.

The next day we cycled to, then walked around the beautiful Copenhagen Botanical Gardens. 

In one section of the gardens was a small woodland setting with wild garlic, bluebells and forgetmenots. It reminded me of walking through the woodland filled with wild garlic in Skipton Woods in North Yorkshire (below). I took the photo below in Skipton woods exactly 365 days before!

The stunning Palm House filled with thousands of exotic plants.

Our cycling adventures also took us to the beautiful Kastellet. The Kastellet is a stunning fortress constructed in the shape of a five pointed star with bastions at each point, barracks, a citadel church and Dutch style windmill.

Just look at these amazing fortress walls. On one hand, I may have been tempted to roll down the hills, but they're so steep, I pictured rolling all the way down, picking up speed to hit the mini speed bump at the bottom, become airborne to shoot up, over and into the moat. So, maybe another time....

I'm just going to make mention here of these massive clumpy things. I bought these chunky, platform crocs a month before the trip, thinking they'd be handy at the concerts for giving myself a teensy bit of height (being somewhat vertically challenged). But they turned out to be the most comfortable things to cruise around in all day, everyday! And they may be ugly, but I spied Eurovision hostess Petra Mede wearing them while hosting the whole Eurovision Jury preview show, so I'm in great company!

The Little Mermaid rests on the north east side of the Kastellet. Surrounded by photo-snapping tourists, who I was able to just keep out of shot!

After a few days in Copenhagen, it was time to move on.

I bloody love a train trip! The train wasn't very busy, so we scored a comfortable, little  private compartment with a table.

We cruised quickly through Denmark, then down into Germany.

The Bear thought it would be fun to pick a random town in Germany to stay overnight. 

There were several stops on our way through to our last destination, but he decided on Bremen.

We booked 2 nights in a backpackers hostel close to the train station. 

On our first night we wandered out looking for an authentic German dinner.

There's almost nothing the Bear loves more than a beer and Chicken Schnitty!

So he absolutely had to have a glass of Bremens' own Beck's beer and a chicken schnitzel while in Germany, thinking schnitty's are German. 

However while doing a little research, I've just discovered schnitzels were not actually invented in Germany!😱 

I've just had to extract myself from a fruitless 30 minute deep dive into the historical origins of schnitzels. It looks like schnitzels originated from northern Italy/ Austria? Let's not tell him. He enjoyed his chicken schnitty & German beer. He was happy!

We had one entire day to explore Bremen. The Altstadt (Old Town) and the Marktplatz (market square) were just beautiful.

There are so many of these buildings that are from 200- 900 years old. Many of these were badly damaged or destroyed during World War 2, then lovingly restored where possible.

And of course there are the famous musicians of Bremen

We also visited pretty much every single op shop/ 2nd hand shop in the city. There was about 15 or so and we walked about 7-8 kilometres and went to 12.

Just after lunch and Op shop number 8, the Bear was thirsty. He ducked into a small corner shop to buy a bottle of water. I followed him inside after a minute and found a sparse space with some shelves and a few grocery items. 

An older short Asian woman was behind the counter. I registered there was something familiar about her but my eye was drawn more to the posters stuck up on the walls. Lots of tourist ads for Kalimantan and Sulawesi in Indonesia.

The Bear then said, "Wow, look at the Indonesia posters!" and the woman said (in English), "Yes that's my homeland in Indonesia."

That's when I realised why she looked familiar. She was wearing an Indonesian scarf around her head like the Ibu's I used to see in Java and Lombok.

I said to her in Indonesian, "Good morning Madam! Where in Indonesia do you come from?"

Her jaw dropped and she replied in English, "Oh my god you speak my language! Where are you from?" and we explained we were visiting from Australia.

She then asked, "Do you know (insert random first name here) Payne in Canberra?"

Now Australia doesn't have the largest population in the world. But there are still more than 26 million of us.

And quite a few hundred towns. 86 cities.

So my first impulse was to scoff. Pfft! 

And my face started making that expression, then in less than a split second the brain kicked into gear: Canberra?? Payne??

Nobody EVER knows ANYONE from Canberra. Unless you live in Canberra.

Most of the rest of the world don't even know Canberra exists, let alone that it's the capital city of Australia!

And I realised I did in fact used to know a guy with that name & surname Payne in Canberra. I think?

So the verbal parry and thrust began:

Me: Payne? In Canberra?

Ibu: Yah, Payne! In Canberra!

Me: (blah blah) PAYNE?

Ibu: No! Payne, Payng, 

Me: Payne? Or Pang?

Ibu: Yah! Payne.. Pang Pang Pang!

Me: Pang? (indonesian alphabet) 'PAY AH ENN GAY'?

Ibu: Yah Bu! PANG PANG PANG! You know him?

Me: No. Sorry.

Yeah, I actually used to know some guy in Canberra with the surname Payne who was married to an Indonesian. So it was pretty funny!

Anyway we had a brief conversation which sadly for me, was in English. I love the chance to practice my Indonesian language skills, but after 20 years of rare interactions with Indonesians who insist on talking in English, I had thought that maybe my Indonesian was so crap that they couldn't stand listening to me butcher their language.

So we finished chatting, paid for the water and bid each other 'Selamat jalan etc' and continued on.

After 4 more op shops/ 3 kms and 3 hours later, we were done. We found a pub and sat outside to have a beer. Dinner was on our minds. And across the road I saw this.

A simple orange sign across the road said 'Surajaya Tabo Indonesisches Restaurant'.

It didn't appear open, so we looked it up on the google and saw 5 star reviews. Once it opened about 15 minutes later, we sauntered over.

Inside the wood-panelled cavern was a man behind the counter. I decided to stretch my language skills again...

Me (in Indonesian): Good evening Sir! Could we come in for dinner?

Him (in Indo): Oh my god (he used my favourite Indonesian word 'Astaga!'). You speak my language! How do you speak my language? Are you German?

Me: No, Australian. We're here for a holiday and just found your restaurant. 

Him: That's amazing! An Australian who speaks my language! (we're not so uncommon) Do you live in Indonesia? Your Indonesian is so clear! Please come in, sit down. 

I mentally fist-pumped! My Indo wasn't so crap after all! Although he may have been polite, but we spent the next little while chatting in Indonesian and English (so the Bear could join our chat), eating the most delicious Beef rendang (for me), Babi mercon (for the Bear) and nasi goreng with krupuk.

Astaganaga! Itu sangat lezat! That was very delicious!

The restauranteur was Robin and after our meal, he surprised us by asking if we wouldn't mind if he sang a song for us. He then burst into song with a surprising tenor singing a lovely traditional song from the city of Medan in North Sumatra.

It was just gorgeous to have this Indonesian experience in the heart of Bremen, Germany.

So if you happen to pass through Bremen, go grab yourself an Indonesian feast!

At the end of the day we had a spectacular view of the Bremen- Walle Telecommunication Tower from our room, before continuing our journey.

Louise

 🍛Red Haired Amazona🍺