Danish Disneyfication

 

Travel back on the agenda, and running, and catching up with friends, and having fun.  Good combo by any standards and has stood us in good stead already this year.  A surprisingly decent nights sleep with a 5am alarm call, Chrissis alarm, perhaps that is the secret, takes the pressure off my creaking clock.  Having crammed our cases ( I hesitate to use the word pack) yesterday, stuffed in a few more things for good measure to ensure 4 days away could be survived in potentially 4 different seasons and probably across 4 different continents. 

Out the door by 5.29 am and at the door of our Brady buddies at 5.31 am and on the M4 for the less than 2 hour drive to Heathrow Terminal 5.  Dropped the car off with meet and greet guys in the short stay and one floor up to departures. Chucked the bags in the bag drop and the only obstacle between me and a Wetherspoons breakfast was the Gower sand still in my trainers from a walk down 3 Cliffs a couple of days ago.  Would appear to have been prime explosive material as set off many alarms, broker the machine, and required a few different workarounds for me to be reunited with them.  Gower gold!

Our breakfast and meet up with a number of the other parkrunning community from Newport was centred in Wetherspoons. This strange underworld of parkrunning you will see a bit more about over the next few days, but a random obsession with numbers, names, places, and all manner of other geek driven calculations is what this crew live for. Luckily they are all top folks and love to travel so I can overlook this aspect of their character ;) And compared to some of the oddballs online they are pretty tame.

Breakfast of avacado, eggs, hash browns, couple of coffees and a bloody mary. Ran into another Lliswerian out on the parkrun pilgrimage too, and bounced our way onto the BA boarding merry go round.  No business class today, row 10 meant we got on quickly, but had the curtain firmly closed in front of us. And had to put up with a whining american behind us, already in the exit row seat, but refusing to keep his arms free to get us all off in said emergency. Selfish sod, this is the behaviour set from the very top in that declining country.

Watched a bit of I Player download, had a snooze, drank water and 90 mins or so plus VAT and we were on stand in Copenhagen.  Fairly long queue for passport control, perhaps the longest post Brexit wait I have had to have, think thats going to go back to normal soon. Hopefully everything else won't be too far behind as still waiting to see any benefit of that great act of self harm and selfish isolation. Oh wait, apart from those lovely stamps in our passport, but will have to bite the bullet on them sadly.

Picked up luggage, quite a few living on the edge with hand luggage on this trip, not for me, that one.  Hopped on the metro, hopped off the metro, hopped on another metro, and then 10 mins walk and we were at the Radisson Blue Copenhagen, a towering hulk of a building, but very smart inside.  First impressions of Copenhagen, wide roads, plenty of space, and the bikes, oh the bikes. A modern, clean 21st century city for sure, perhaps not all that much character, but we can go looking for that.

On the 23rd floor of the Radisson, apples and sweets at check in went well, as was invite to free wine by joining their awards scheme.  Checked out the gym, and was very impressed. Perhaps the best hotel gym I've come across in a European hotel, equipment for every need, and a boxing ring, should any arguments need to be settled. I mean, this is the largest group I have ever travelled with, numbers swelled to 12 as we had picked up another couple of those parkrun types in Copenhagen airport.

The 12 of us walked down into central Copenhagen with our one mission today to see the famous Tivoli gardens, a 19th century community project that set the ball rolling for modern leisure.  I can't believe it has taken me this long to provide you with the one fact of the day that was repeated with regular authority. Tivoli Gardens were seen as the major influence on Disney for his venture around a century after the gardens had opened in the 1840s.  Would you believe it?  When I saw the Disney Channel Welcome to Wrexham publicity outside the entrance I realised we had come full circle. Tivoli to Disney, the metamorphis complete.  Obviously the fairy tale connection also found with a certain Mr HC Anderson of this parish, we crossed his road en route to Tivoli, no sign of grandma or the wolf.

Paid to have a wander around the grounds with little interest in the actual rides, a fairly consistent theme (park) of my approach to (theme) parks. Whilst a relatively compact space in prime city centre real estate it felt open, relaxed, not too busy, and perhaps, just a little magical. The crowds not been there helped, but I think its very well appointed with a few rides interspersed between some nice open grassy spaces, and some lovely landscaped sections too.  And plenty of food places that had character, buildings that felt historic, and nothing too garish. Disney clearly did not emulate all the good bits.

A few of the gang chose to thrill seek on the odd roller coaster, my only venture was a bit of a fairground horse racing competition, where all 12 of us competed, and Andrea won the 2 Ronnies glasses as first prize. Well its goodnight from her ...

Not quite, we chilled to a bit of classical music (apparently there was a clown show but I had my back to that) and then stuffed ourselves silly in a lovely little Italian place. Broccoli pizza, who knew, cheese and broccoli do work, so why not on a pizza? I'd had my meat fix earlier with a spicy hot dog so all bases were covered.

As darkness fell, the lights began to twinkle, the fishies began to feed, and the guards began to change. A vaguely romantic stroll was ocassionally interrupted by blood curdling shrieks, but that's a modern marriage for you.  We only lost a couple of our number and 10 made it to 10 when we accepted that a long day needed to end at some point, and the Radisson beacon, my it towers high, guided us home.