Thursday 12 October

We struggle into our hi- fashion compression socks

before departing Sydney at 4pm, Copenhagen bound, with a 3.5 hr stopover in Singapore.

I have booked wheelchair assistance

at every airport and it has already proven to be a wise decision. An overweight, ageing woman with a leg in a (rather smart, I’m sure you agree) toe to knee boot receives priority treatment. We sail (as it were) through customs etc and are wheeled into the lounge. Collected some time later and transferred to the plane. This mobility lark is a good thing.

The Singapore stopover is heightened by the glorious orchids in the lounge.

It’s 3.30am Sydney time when we take off from Singapore and we go to sleep immediately. No snacks, no grog. Yes, I know, that’s a first for me but not to be taken as a precedent. I reckon we got 6 hrs sleep and that’s not bad!

Friday 13 October

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN

(Anyone else remember Danny Kaye?)

What a welcome the sun offers us as we come in to land at 7am

The wheelchair protocol here is somewhat more efficient, perhaps, than elsewhere. Any abandoned wheelchair is collected and transported along with the passengers.

As we exit the terminal the Danish birds also form a welcome

We check into the hotel by 8.30am but the room won’t be ready until 3pm. So, it’s the red hop on hop off bus for us. We always find this a good way to meet a city, and what a city this is. City of canals

City of spires

It’s raining, so the bus is quite the best place to be. Today this is a city of umbrellas

And a city of bicycles (the well informed, terribly British voice over on the bus informs us that there are two bicycles for every resident)

Denmark has committed to carbon neutral by 2025, Most of the cars are electric, as are the buses

It’s curious, perhaps, that a jet fighter plane is in the centre of town. No explanation I’m afraid but you get to see it anyway

The architecture is breathtaking. The seamless merge of old and new pays great respect to all styles. These Danes sure know how to do it. It’s just we Aussies who don’t know how to treat Danish architects.

Having done the 90 minute round, we stay on until we get back to where we want to be. We fancy a bit of lunch and spot a brasserie

But on closer inspection, it’s the French Embassy. It’s also Breast Cancer month

We muscle our way to a cafe by the canal

and Cherrie has fish and chips. The cod and alarmingly resembles the fish fingers we had as kids, but don’t taste as good. The chips are great though. In deference to our manner of approaching the cafe, I have a bowl of mussels. They are tiny. Minuscule. Not the big, juicy ones we get at home.

But lunch hits the spot and we head off on a walk. This is my first decent walk in six months and obligingly Copenhagen has given me a smooth path amongst the rough cobblestones.

Even though it’s autumn there are still heaps of tourists in town. Can’t imagine what Copenhagen would be like in the height of the season

This little house is where the Royal Family wait for their boat. It’s got the crown on top

And this one, sans crown, is where their guests wait. We declined their kind invitation as we felt that our puffer jackets were perhaps not up to royal standard

We check in at 3pm, freshen up and then what do you think we do? Well, there’s a roof top bar. It seems it would be imprudent not to check it out.

Saturday 14 October

What a difference a day makes. Beautiful sunny day, and so we head to the canal for a one hour boat tour. From here we see the true beauty of the architecture

These are the royal palaces, and the dome in the middle is a church built by one of the Danish kings a long time ago. But they ran out of money (or something) and eventually every resident of the city donated a copper pot for the dome. I think the pots were melted down before application. But, back to the palaces, the flags are flying which indicates that the Queen (R), the Crown Prince (L) and the Queen’s Sister (R back) are in residence. Well, of course they are because today is the 18th birthday of Prince Christian, Mary and Frederik’s first born. All of European royalty is in town for the celebrations. Well, all except Charles and Camilla.

The glorious Opera House and the national Theatre are perfectly placed on the canal

The tourists are out in force and even the Little Mermaid is overwhelmed.

It might be autumn, and the temperature might be 4 degrees, but that doesn’t deter the locals from having a dip in the canal

This is such a beautiful city to walk through

We have a coffee at the theatre cafe and I use their wifi to search the referendum result. I am appalled and actually weep. We feel ashamed to be Australian. Later that day I find the perfect place for Peter Dutton and his band of nay sayers

Tonight we dine out at a restaurant which Cherrie read about in the Fin Review. Pleasant enough, although somewhat pretentious, we are left agreeing that financial writers should not review food.

Our resident room moose greets us when we return to the hotel

Sunday 15 October

It’s drizzling again, so we decide to venture into the back blocks of Copenhagen to experience the interactive Salvatore Dali exhibition.

I didn’t realise what an interesting, if eccentric, man Dali was. A would-be scientist, astronaut, quantum physicist and computer programmer, as well as a visual artist. But the best part of the exhibition for us was the virtual reality experience. Dali had a fascination for such things and I’m not even sure how he knew about them. My Danish is still somewhat lacking, even after two days. Neither Cherrie nor I have ever experienced virtual reality such as this, in helmet and all. It was weirdly wonderful, with pieces of Dali’s artwork and imagination floating all around us and no sense of where we were at all. A carefully curated room full of people, similarly fitted out, all clutching a handrail which can’t be seen, moving at a slow pace in a world of unreality. This for us was the end of the exhibition and we decided to check out the opera house. A helpful Dali devotee, sans moustache, phoned a taxi for us and amazingly it found it’s way to our wasteland.

We told the driver where we wanted to go and he looked at us and shook his head. I sang him an aria (of my own composition) and he looked like a reindeer in the headlights. I showed him a photo of the opera house and he shook his head again and lifted his shoulders this time. I wondered if he should be driving with this physical affliction. The meter was running and we were going nowhere. So Cherrie opened Google maps on her phone and got the directions to the opera house. Driver took the phone and followed the directions, which lead us down narrow streets, some not even through roads, and we executed a number of U turns. Eventually we arrived at the rear of the house, right by the skip bins. We paid handsomely for the experience and retrieved the phone. An explanation of the route taken was immediately clear to us. Directions were for walking.

Once inside the beautiful foyer of the opera house

It was evident that a performance for children was about to start. I toyed with the notion of introducing myself as the past producer of the Sydney Opera House Babies Proms, but decided against it given the international headlines about Australia’s rejection of its First Nations people. I preferred to be thought of as anything but Australian.

An atmosphere of joy and excitement abounded from the audience, who carried posters and little cardboard boxes which I assume was full of carbon free lollies. The ushers wore bright blue tee shirts with huge red spotted bow ties

The cantilevered roof of the house is very very high and Cherrie has snapped me standing under it for scale. I rather like this shot as is makes me look small which is a rare thing indeed.

We walk on. Right behind the opera house is the rubbish incinerator for Copenhagen’s waste. But being Denmark and even their rubbish dumps are architect designed

Right behind the incinerator is what is reputed to be the world finest, and most expensive, restaurant

We resisted the temptation to make a dinner booking here since we have not been in our house for long and were loathed to sell it to cover the cost of a meal, even at Noma.

But we did look at the famed garden, from where many of the ingredients are sourced

Walking on, we are very content to explore this beautiful city

We resist the temptation for a sweet snack

We variously hobble and walk our way back to the hotel, collect baggage and off to the airport. Norway tonight.

Farewell Copenhagen, you are indeed wonderful.