Scandanavia and the Baltics

 Day 1: Traveling Again

After a long dry spell and recovery from our last bike trip, we are back on the road.  This time to Scandinavia and the Baltic region for another tandem bike trip.

Our flights to Copenhagen were pretty uneventful except for the usual stress of negotiating Heathrow Airport (AVOID at all costs!). The security line took us well over an hour and we just made our connection.  We held our collective breath at the baggage claim, hoping that our bike made it as well, and we were pleasantly surprised to see all 4 bags show up early.

Sadly, Dave and Molly, who were supposed to meet us in London, had their flight from Miami canceled and are coming (we hope) a day later.

The airport was only 30 minutes from our hotel and fortunately, we were able to find a large cab that could take all of our luggage. On the ride in, we saw plenty of evidence of the city getting ready for the Tour de France  next Friday, giant bike sculptures, road closures, and welcome signs.

The Marriott sits right on the major waterway that divides Copenhagen, an extension of the harbor.  Our room is great with a huge window that affords us a great view of all the boats, large and small.

We decided to get some sun to help combat jet-lag and took a stroll along the water. 

                                         

The banks were lined with late afternoon sunbathers and the there were plenty of all sorts of watercraft.

The city is amazingly bike friendly with separate bike lanes that are unidirectional, have curbs on either side to separate bikes from walkers,

                                       

and have their own stoplights and even bridges.

                                       

To allow cyclists to negotiate stairs, there are rails on most staircases to ease getting bikes up (and down)

We continued our walk back to the hotel and stopped at the Jewish museum (which is closed until July (next week!)

This area is close to the Royal Palace and has beautiful gardens. 

We even found a statue of Soren Kierkegard.

Couldn't resist this hook for an athletic club we noticed  around the corner from the hotel.

After all the traveling and walking, we returned to the hotel exhausted. Fortunately, we had good blackout curtains because this was the longest day of the year, and even late into the evening, the sun shone brightly