A great city with a gracious native

Thursday – 20 June 2013 – At Sea 58N 10E, off the northern tip of Denmark

We cast off the dock of Helsingborg, Sweden just before 3pm on Tuesday afternoon with help from a tug to thread through the narrow breakwater. Helsingborg is a busy ferry port with large car and truck ferries coming and going every few minutes for the 20 minute crossing of the Oresund Narrow to Helsingor, Demark. Since Silver Cloud's maneuvering took about a half hour, I suspect that cascading delays on the ferry schedule will not be resolved until the Christmas break. No matter to the locals (except for those who missed their train connections). We had a large audience for our departure. Silver Cloud's call at this port in Sweden was a big deal. Cruise ships are usually much too large to dock at Helsingborg.

The couple of hour's transit to Copenhagen was quite lovely. We caught a glimpse of "Elsinor" castle of Hamlet fame, actually Kronborg Castle just outside of Helsingor. I could almost hear Ophelia jumping over the cliff, or was it drowning in a river. I forget. Barbara and I stayed up at the bow in sunny and windless conditions as a following wind matched our speed. We passed the iconic line of wind turbines out in the Copenhagen harbor, the first such off-shore facility I had seen years ago during my last cruise from this port, and we were docked shortly after.

We stayed on deck for the arrival in Copenhagen hoping to see our friend Jannik, a Copenhagen native, but a broad smile indicated that he saw us before we saw him. We joined Jannik on the pier as soon as the ship was cleared by the local authorities. Jannik had a wonderful evening planned for us. Somehow knowing our preferences, he came prepared with 24 hour passes for the Copenhagen transit system, tickets for Tivoli, and dinner reservations. We had a delightful evening in the wonderful prototype 175 year old theme park and even took in a classical ballet/pantomime show near the restaurant Jannik had chosen in the park. After an after dinner Carlsberg or two watching the lights come on in the park we walked back to the classical central railway station for our short train ride back to ship. A wonderful evening, indeed.

We met Jannik on the pier at 9:30am yesterday morning for a full day exploration of Copenhagen. Although I had been here before a number of times, this was the first visit for Barbara. Near where Silver Cloud was docked we walked through the throngs of tourists, souvenir stands, and tour groups gawking at the Little Mermaid statue. After some time and considerable patience I was able to take a photo of the "Copenhagen's Number 1 Tourist Attraction" as the souvenir stand's sign said without getting a bunch of tourists taking pictures of mostly each other.

Our exploration of Copenhagen covered the Crown Prince's Palace where a shift change of the guard was occurring, the whimsical old stock exchange with its steeple of dragon's intertwined tails, and just about every other sight in this most livable and enjoyable city. Of course, a tour led by a native can not be beat. So nice not to have my head buried in a map.

We ventured back to the railway station for the half hour ride up to Louisiana, the curiously named modern art museum, for lunch with a lovely view across the water to Sweden after enjoying oddly enough a very nice retrospective of Yoko Ono's artistic career.

We bid goodbye to Jannik on the train at the port and thanked him for a fantastic visit. We most likely will see him on a future cruise. Of course, we offered to reciprocate in Boulder or somewhere else in the States. Jannik travels extensively and we most certainly hope he takes us up on our offer.

As yesterday was the "turn around day" on our two segment cruise, we checked out the newcomers at tea time. They seemed a jovial fun loving group. (See picture above at tea). Then we joined the now every segment mandatory safety briefing. This is held on Silver Cloud in the small Panorama Lounge. As crowded as the short briefing was, it was gratifying to realize that this small throng comprised all the passengers and most of the crew on this tiny cruise ship.