Day 1: Arrival in Copenhagen Friday 6 May

Sometimes the thought of travelling for about 33 hours - of which only 18 is actually being in the air, can be a tad daunting - but occasionally you get a flight combo that seems to work perfectly...  both the actual flights were smooth (apart from bumps over the Himalayans in the middle of the night) the 5 hour stop overs in Singapore and Helsinki were long enough - time to find coffee, have a snack or two, stroll around annoying shopkeepers by just looking and not buying (pesky cheap tourists) and easy to find departure gates.  I even slept on the way to Helsinki!!  the quick flight to Copenhagen was early morning and actually flew over some of the south of Sweden where I will be riding - I recognised a lake and island that I might zink onto - from looking at Google maps!

on arrival at Copenhagen, I nervously headed down to the oversize baggage area to rescue old Maggie...  this time I had bubble wrapped her seriously and stowed her in a plastic bike bag (thanks Kate!) and there she was, no rips nor tears (or tears!)  opened the bag and everything was where it was supposed to be.  so I went to a quiet corner to assemble her to get this show on the road...  well it was quiet when I started, but got inundated by other travellers hanging around for their oversize baggage as well..  but everything went together wonderfully, hadn't forgotten the pedals (a useless nightmare!) loaded her up and out the revolving door we squeezed.

so what way to town?  had a sit and a snack of nuts and observed several cyclists coming and going from one direction and it looked like my map, so off I went and lo and behold, it took me right into the bridge I needed to find....  wow!!  a small canal flowed by, a little bike path along the edge and heaps of Danes laying on the grass in various stages of undress and various poses with their friends - yes!!  the sky was blue, the air was warm (22C) birds were cheeping, trees were blooming and Everything said SPRING is Here!!!  beautiful.

I only took a coupla photos as I am back in town tomorrow seriously, without all these panniers and in real sightseeing mode.

Maggie safely inside the bag

bike-path away from the airport

Our Saviours Church

There were tours offering to go up the spiral tower, but I had no Danish cash - doubly hard as outside there was a street car selling Danish pancakes wrapped around a banana - oh the pain of having to pass that up !!

beautiful tulips very near to Christiania

these lilies were blooming all over the place

random building at a crossroads alongside a canal

so I pedal along the canal, crossed over it at one point and ended up in Christiania - the famous Freetown and pedalled slowly amongst the other gawking tourists - didn't feel threatened but could see the potentional from the past, which is - I fear - now on most sightseer's map...  lots of houses I could so easily live in!

I then had to find my way to my Warmshowers hosts and with a slight tail wind we zoomed off in the right direction.  unfortunately the wind was too kind and blew me well past where I was going, which meant a headwind pedal back, but with the help of the Here map app (thanks Matt H) I found my way to their unit and all was well in the end.
a late stroll in the evening to buy some brekky things and a pizza ended my first day in Copenhagen.  The sofa really comfy and I crashed and slept like a cat in spring!!  (was going to say baby, but!!  babies don't sleep that easily!)