It's May in Europe and not much time goes by before there's a holiday. Today was a holiday in Denmark (also France), for example, and last night we were discussing what the holiday was. We asked our charming hotel desk clerk, and she wasn't sure either. Something to do with Easter, she thought. Then she shrugged and said, "Well, it's a day off anyway..." Of course, being in the tourist industry, she didn't get the day off. But all the shops were closed, and a lot of Danish people were out and about today.
We finally found a list of holidays in our guide book. It turns out this is the Day of Prayer, 40 days after Easter. Matthew has told me there are quite a few holidays in May, which make it a great month for taking a little time off from work. When a holiday comes on a Thursday, like it did today, you can also take Friday off, and faire le pont, or "make the bridge" between the holiday and the weekend. Numerous holidays seem to make a happier, more mentally healthy work force.
We started our day with a big, healthy breakfast at our hotel. Included with the cost of our room was a generous breakfast: coffee, tea, juices, breads, ham, cheese, cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, coddled eggs and maybe more (that we didn't try today but will tomorrow). With this meal under our belts, we were fueled for the day. We walked toward the center of town and stopped first at the Dansk Design Center. It's part museum, part gift shop and part exhibition space, showcasing Denmark's best design talent. Really fun place to look around, and to see the award-winning designs from decades past.
After the Design Center we headed across the street to the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, or the Carlsberg Collection. In 1897, the Carlsberg brewing family donated a beautiful building, an unsurpassed collection of ancient sculptures from Greece, Rome and Egypt, and a large collection of French and Danish paintings, to the city of Copenhagen. This collection is worth a few hours of one's time; plus the cafe is a great place to take a break for coffee or tea and a wonderful pastry! Take it from us...
The pastries fueled us for a long walk down one of the main shopping streets. Although only one or two shops were open, the people-watching was great! We saw where the National Museum was, as well as Christiansborg Palace, both of which we plan to visit tomorrow, before our Copenhagen cards run out, and we leave for Malmo, Sweden.
Back to our hotel to rest up before dinner. We decided to try one of the cafe's in our area: called Bang and Jensen, it's a hot spot for young people. We knew we'd be the oldest people there (sure enough, we were) but it sounded like fun so we went! We got there and all the tables were full so we just stood in the doorway like dorks until someone left their table and we were able to sit down. Once we were seated, we saw that others did pretty much the same thing; you just had to stand around and wait for something to open up. Then we didn't know how to order dinner, but finally figured that out by watching other people, again. So we're not exactly hipsters...but we did all right. The food was great, and inexpensive, too. A very fun spot for the young...at heart. That's us!
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