Copenhagen – Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

After we’d had our fill of the fireworks Cynthia settled in to get a few hours of sleep before we had to be at the airport (recommended three hours before the flight, thank you very much diaper bomber!) and I processed a few images before calling it a night.

I set the alarm on my phone to wake us up. This alarm has been flawless each and every day of this trip and our previous two trips.

I found myself being awakened by Cynthia who was telling me “the alarm didn’t go off!” and sure enough, it hadn’t. The good news is that we experienced our second Christmas miracle on this trip in that Cynthia just happened to wake up and decided to check her watch to see how much time she had left to sleep and it was only 15 minutes after the alarm was set to go off. WHAT A BREAK THAT WAS!

Seems we (meaning “I”) tried to ruin this trip not once, but twice. Fortunately fate was inexplicably on our side coming and going.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, cleared security (twice) and made our way home. Aside from the enhanced screening the flight was pretty much normal in that we didn’t have to check any luggage and there were no unusual restrictions during the flight.

It was a very interesting trip. I don’t know that we’ll go back to Denmark, but I am glad we went. I’ll be digging into the photos and presenting some of the better shots here on this blog as time allows. For now we’re still shaking jet lag and trying to get our internal clocks back on US time.

Thanks to everyone who followed along, here and on Facebook and Twitter. The comments were always something we looked forward to and Cynthia was particularly pleased with the interest shown to William The Sheepie’s Facebook Fan Page.

If you missed any of the updates you can see a chronological list of blog posts from this trip by clicking this link.

Copenhagen – Last Full Day

The last day in Copenhagen. New Years Eve. We’d wanted to go to the Nationalmuseet (National Museum) after running out of time the previous day (read: we couldn’t find it). Alas, it was closed due to the holiday

We figured not much would be open and decided just to walk around for awhile which lead us to the Børsen (Stock Exchange) building which features a tower formed by the tails of four dragons twined together

From there we spied the telltale tower of Vor Frelser Kirke. If you look closely you’ll see there’s a spiral staircase that goes around the outside of the tower.

It’s open to the public, but not at this time of year….

Even more unfortunate, the church was closed for the day but we did spend some time outside shooting pics.

From there we walked leisurely back to the hotel and upon arriving asked the hotel concierge for a recommendation on a place to get a traditional Danish meal and we were directed to Cafe Nytorv just off the Strøget. It was a charming place and the food was delicious. We ordered Carlsberg beers and snaps as our beverages. Cynthia is not a beer drinker. She hates it in fact. But she decided to be adventurous and ordered one and when she took the first sip she found that she actually liked it.

She did not, however, like the snaps. I had to drink hers as well as mine. Drat the luck! 🙂

After lunch we walked a bit more but then headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the fireworks.

Published!

The above photo of the La Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias (City Of Arts And Sciences) is one of my all time favorites. I shot it late one night on our previous vacation in Valencia, Spain.

A few months back I was contacted by a marketing person from mbAEC Software GmbH to inquire about licensing this photo for their upcoming software release. After a few e-mails we came to an agreement and they purchased the rights to use the image.

In the mail yesterday was my copy of some of the marketing material the image was used for.

The most impressive to me is that it’s on the cover of their monthly magazine which goes out to 50,000 people.

It’s also on the software DVD for their latest release

and on cards, pamphlets and various other bits of marketing collateral.

And this two page spread used for a story inside the magazine about La Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias.
Click the image below and to the right is a photo credit (there’s also one inside the cover).

I’m as proud as a peacock right now.

Copenhagen – Happy New Year!

We had heard that there would be fireworks in the City Hall Square, but had no idea what to expect. There’s not an organized display. Instead, citizens (and I would assume tourists as well) armed with any number of different pyrotechnics roam the city and detonate at will. As the midnight hour approaches, more and more fireworks can be seen and heard about the city.

Every now and then someone sets something off in City Hall Square.

Cynthia is skeptical that there will be much activity. Copenhagen dies down after 8 or 9 pm from what we’ve seen over the last few days. I explain that new years eve is a global party and I bet her there will be a ton of people and a ton of fireworks.

The people DO in fact start gathering and before long the square is surrounded by people. Some waiting to watch fireworks, others there to actually set them off. Our hotel balcony gives us front row seats to watch the event. Here is a video I shot from the balcony about 30 minutes before midnight

Fireworks in Copenhagen from baldheretic on Vimeo.

My fish-eye captures some of the excitement.