The day has finally come. It is time to leave the Crystal Symphony. We woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and grabbed our bags.
Adios, floating hotel.
These are the bags of the Asian couple who we noticed several times on board the ship. Their English was not great, but the wife had immaculate taste and the coolest hairstyle aboard. Her designer dresses caught our attention more than once. In fact, you can see her killer coat above these bags. But the reason for this picture is...
Hello Kitty Suitcase!
For the record, I am not a fan of Hello Kitty, but I am a fan of Hello Kitty Fans.
We hopped into a taxi and began our new life on land.
I know that I referred to the Crystal Symphony as a floating hotel many times, but, seriously, you can hardly tell the difference between this hotel lobby and the Crystal Plaza aboard the ship.
The view from our hotel room. After ten days on the water, I feel joy looking at this view. And, after ten days of overpriced, dial-up level internet, the Radisson Blu offers free WiFi with broadband speed. I know it is pathetic, but being on the internet again feels good. And, dear Wasters, it is time for me to start loading up the Waste updates that stacked up on the cruise.
Since today is our only full day in Copenhagen, we are going to do a thing or two. No need to kill ourselves sight seeing, as last year we did nearly everything in Copenhagen that we wanted to do. One thing that we did not do last year was go to the Church of Our Savior, something that last night's shuttle driver highly recommended.
We saw the Church of Our Savior on Day 42 of 59 of last year's trip, and I wrote below a picture of it, "The Church of Our Saviour is a baroque church that has an amazing corkscrew spire with an external winding staircase that can be climbed to the top, offering extensive views over central Copenhagen. That climb may make tomorrow's agenda." It did not make the next day's agenda, but here we are in Copenhagen one year and 26 days later and we going to walk up that spire.
On our walk to the Church of Our Savior, we spotted the woman with coolest hair color in Copenhagen.
City Hall again. I only include this because of the next picture.
Would you be comfortable with these faces sculpted onto your City Hall? Are they supposed to scare away evil spirits? Are they supposed to scare away people complaining about parking tickets?
Along our walk to the Church of Our Savior, we pass right through Christiansborg Palace.
Want to talk multi-use? Christiansborg Palace houses Denmark's Parliament, Prime Minister, and Supreme Court, and some areas are still used by the monarchy.
When the entire focus of a nation is seafaring, Neptune/Poseidon statues abound.
I find it difficult to not love cities with canals. Venice, Amsterdam, Copenhagen... Curse you, St. Petersburg. Why could you have not been more friendly?
Danish Toddler Candid. Copenhagen, August, 2010.
There is the focus of today's journey. In spite of my lungs feeling lousy and my generally fighting off sickness with continual dayQuil, I am going to walk to the the top of that spire.
You walk inside to where the brick stops, and then you are walking outside. Neither of us is a big fan of heights. This should be fun.
The outer stairs begin. I stay as far from that railing as I can.
When we got very near the top, I held out my camera beyond the railing and took a blind picture upwards. I took around ten, actually, always changing the phone's tilt and hoping for a great shot of the spire's tip. Picture me standing there, afraid of heights, holding my iPhone pointed upwards over the railing. Here is the best picture that I got.
This awesome kid saw what I was doing and waved! He absolutely made my day.
The spire against the clouds is what I had in mind. It is a shame that my hand slipped in the way. The boy does not share my fear of heights. Good for him.
300 Feet Above Ground Candid, Copenhagen. August, 2010.
Here is the very top of the spiral, where the stairs meet the spire.
Not a bad view of Copenhagen from up here.
Walking down is a huge relief for people like me who were fighting their fear of heights the entire time.
Easy to see why Copenhagen is called, "The City of Spires."
The Crystal Symphony. She leaves in a matter of hours, I bet.
I quite like this shot of Barbie looking out this window right below the spire.
We were just up THERE.
Time to take a quick cab ride back to the hotel. After those stairs, I am not interested in walking back.
You saw the view from our hotel room. My parents are on the other side of the hotel, on a different floor. Here is their view.
recognize the yellow circle? We knew that our hotel was going to be across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe, and we knew that we would be eating there. You cannot fight fate.
They were out of BBQ chicken, I swear, and I was forced to get the baby back ribs and pulled pork combo.
Barbie got the cobb salad.
Our waiter Luka, from Slovenia, gives a detailed dessert tour. Luka is one of those waiters you remember, because he was not just friendly but told us things we did not know about his native Slovenia. As you might recall, last year we had planned to go to Slovenia but switched to Berlin at the last second. Someday...
I caved and got this Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie Bite.
From the window of my parents' room, I point out that the Church of Our Savior with the staircased spire is right THERE.
The hallways of the Radisson Blu are absolutely funky. In fact, they make me think of the graffiti in Tallinn, Estonia, "RetroFuturism." Maybe it refers to design that looks like a retro-concept of the future?
RetroFuturism, indeed. This is how they light the rooms in the Radisson Blu. These funky-shaped panels in the wall light up.
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