Early impressions

We arrived in Denmark on November 14^th. Travel had been rough, including an overnight delay in Washington D.C., and United Airlines did nothing to make things go any smoother for us (fortunately, we had a friend in town to stay with). Of course, Fern probably enjoyed the two days of travel even less than we did, but she was admirably stoic about the whole ordeal. Once we left on our transatlantic flight, things were more pleasant due to the far superior service of SAS airlines. We got some decent airplane food, used the interactive flight monitors, and watched the sunset.

My advisor was kind enough to cover some temporary lodging, and we spent our first 16 nights in a hotel called Ni Smä Hjem (Nine Small Homes). It was a fairly small but reasonably comfortable place for us, up on the 5^th floor (6^th floor by American standards, and no elevator), with free breakfast and access to a shared kitchen. From there we could walk across Copenhagen's Østerbro neighborhood through Fælledparken (above, with stadium in the background) to reach my office. During this time we looked at our housing options (looked for any option, really) and found ourselves a pair of cheap slightly-used bikes.

The Østerport train station. Copenhagen and the surrounding area have a very nice rail system.

Above is a supermarket parking lot. Even more than train and bus, the primary way of getting around in Copenhagen is by bike. Sadly, there are still a fair number of cars around (though many fewer than in U.S. cities), but I definitely don't miss driving.

We took a nice walk around Kastellet, star-shaped former site of a castle, where trails now run along the ramparts and around the old moat. Notice the old-fashioned windmill in the background.

The Gefion fountain near Kastellet.

The famous mermaid statue (celebrating Danish author H.C. Andersen's story) with its incongruous industrial harbor backdrop.

A couple of ex- ugly ducklings.

A blue-gray view of small sailboats piloted by a group of boys, with wind turbines (take note, Americans) and the Øresund bridge (which links Copenhagen to Malmø, Sweden) in the background.

We continued our ride north to Dyrehave (deer park), coasting along its long network of trails, and stopping for lunch near this large tree.

And of course there were deer, several kinds actually, and they weren't too shy of us. The deer on the left in this picture spent a lot of time licking the other one's ear.

It was almost dark (late afternoon) when we got back to Østerbro, and swans were swimming in one of the man-made lakes that separate downtown Copenhagen from the other neighborhoods.