denmark and the royal family
After extending Paris to finish my first web story board (who knew the broad range of features with Power Point™?!?) and farther walking the path the Dark Side away from Santahood, it was off Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark and the base of our newest exports: Made-to-order-Princesses. The first leg was an overnighter from Paris to Hamburg. Unfortunately no where near as comfortable than the first overnighter I’d taken, thanks to beds that were even too short for me!!
The journey was a lot of clackity-clack-clackity-clack and dark skies. The only grace was retrieving the day I’d lost at the start of my Eurail when the stamp was unexpectedly started. Basically, as my train and further connections occurred over the period of 00:00 I would be required to use 2 days of the pass. Thanks to some light banter with the conductor, it was sufficient to just stamp the following day of travel only!!
The next leg, Hamburg to Copenhagen was something special. The scenery remained the same. That is until the cleared fields and occasional farm house scenery changed to the inside of a ship!! This was no James Bond train, getting mysteriously captured by a ship whilst at sea, this was the real deal. After the entire train was nestled in the bowels of the ferry, we disembarked and enjoyed the 45 minute cruise from German soil to Danish. Stocked with duty-free stores, restaurants and bars, the boat made a welcome distraction from the normal monotomy of train travel. When we finally left the ferry and travelled on Danish soil, one couldn’t help but notice that the overhead racks seemed to be stuffed with duty-free cigarettes and alcohol.
Upon arriving in Denmark, I arrived at the hostel to be given a choice between rooms..a 36 bed dorm or the cheaper 72 bed dorm. This wealth of choice and the fact that I’d seemed to walk through a less savoury area of Denmark led me to think “what the f*#k am I doing in Copenhagen?” Having dumped my stuff onto my bed, which promptly sank and hit the floor, I ventured out wondering if three nights was going to be a long time.
First point of call was to see if I could find some better accommodation. The obvious choice was to pop over and see if Mary and Frederick had some space on a royal couch. Unfortunately it seemed that she was not taking visitors…..not even Australian ones! It was very peculiar. As I searched for the best means by which to have a yarn with Mary, I became slowly aware that they, being the Danes, seemed to take the whole “Royal” thing a little more seriously than us from the other side of the Equator.
“excuse me, could you tell me where Mary and Freddy live?” was more than not met with paned and paled expressions. “you..you…you don’t mean Crown Princess Mary?” was the usual stammered reply.
As a point in fact, the Danish Monarchy is a “Constitutional Monarchy” and therefore does sweet FA when it comes to the overall running of the country. Not that this matters when you’ve got a few palaces, a large boat and a country of loyal servants!! It is still tradition that if you make it to knock on the Royal front door, one of the family members is obligated to make time to receive you. Given the recent lack of understanding with regards to cartoon humour the idea of myself sprinting away, from the legions of guards around the palaces, towards a royal front door screaming “Mary, Mary it’s me, Matt from Australia” seem impossible. In fact, I expect more to have gotten myself shot before I could even say I was an Aussie. I did manage one sly photo of the Royal Family as they went off for a swim. I’m not entirely sure who they were but it was at the palace so they had to be royal.....problem with blog program, will post photo latter.
As I retired to bed that evening a combination of disappointment (the royal couch, first impressions of the town) and frustration at the number of tourists and tour groups blocking the paths ( I know I am a traveller though, not a tourist?!? Important distinction!) left me wondering if I was going to stay for the full time.
The journey was a lot of clackity-clack-clackity-clack and dark skies. The only grace was retrieving the day I’d lost at the start of my Eurail when the stamp was unexpectedly started. Basically, as my train and further connections occurred over the period of 00:00 I would be required to use 2 days of the pass. Thanks to some light banter with the conductor, it was sufficient to just stamp the following day of travel only!!
The next leg, Hamburg to Copenhagen was something special. The scenery remained the same. That is until the cleared fields and occasional farm house scenery changed to the inside of a ship!! This was no James Bond train, getting mysteriously captured by a ship whilst at sea, this was the real deal. After the entire train was nestled in the bowels of the ferry, we disembarked and enjoyed the 45 minute cruise from German soil to Danish. Stocked with duty-free stores, restaurants and bars, the boat made a welcome distraction from the normal monotomy of train travel. When we finally left the ferry and travelled on Danish soil, one couldn’t help but notice that the overhead racks seemed to be stuffed with duty-free cigarettes and alcohol.
Upon arriving in Denmark, I arrived at the hostel to be given a choice between rooms..a 36 bed dorm or the cheaper 72 bed dorm. This wealth of choice and the fact that I’d seemed to walk through a less savoury area of Denmark led me to think “what the f*#k am I doing in Copenhagen?” Having dumped my stuff onto my bed, which promptly sank and hit the floor, I ventured out wondering if three nights was going to be a long time.
First point of call was to see if I could find some better accommodation. The obvious choice was to pop over and see if Mary and Frederick had some space on a royal couch. Unfortunately it seemed that she was not taking visitors…..not even Australian ones! It was very peculiar. As I searched for the best means by which to have a yarn with Mary, I became slowly aware that they, being the Danes, seemed to take the whole “Royal” thing a little more seriously than us from the other side of the Equator.
“excuse me, could you tell me where Mary and Freddy live?” was more than not met with paned and paled expressions. “you..you…you don’t mean Crown Princess Mary?” was the usual stammered reply.
As a point in fact, the Danish Monarchy is a “Constitutional Monarchy” and therefore does sweet FA when it comes to the overall running of the country. Not that this matters when you’ve got a few palaces, a large boat and a country of loyal servants!! It is still tradition that if you make it to knock on the Royal front door, one of the family members is obligated to make time to receive you. Given the recent lack of understanding with regards to cartoon humour the idea of myself sprinting away, from the legions of guards around the palaces, towards a royal front door screaming “Mary, Mary it’s me, Matt from Australia” seem impossible. In fact, I expect more to have gotten myself shot before I could even say I was an Aussie. I did manage one sly photo of the Royal Family as they went off for a swim. I’m not entirely sure who they were but it was at the palace so they had to be royal.....problem with blog program, will post photo latter.
As I retired to bed that evening a combination of disappointment (the royal couch, first impressions of the town) and frustration at the number of tourists and tour groups blocking the paths ( I know I am a traveller though, not a tourist?!? Important distinction!) left me wondering if I was going to stay for the full time.
posted by santas walkabout at 12:07 am
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