Day four: Copenhagen-Copenhagen - (computer says 28km, but I didn't have it with me on all trips)

Well, I completely lucked out again - an incredibly gorgeous day today in Denmark's capital. The sun was out, the wind was moderate - just a perfect spring day, where people hung out, ate ice-cream, drank coffee or were in the park playing with their kids, playing soccer or going out for a run.

The city reminds me a bit of Gent, with the waters, canals, boats and people hanging out alongside the waterways. Copenhagen also has a few nice parks - a bigger one is near the main soccer stadium. In the park, there were some masters soccer games going on, so I was watching a bit. At one point the ball had bounced my way, so I kicked it to the goalie. He thanked me with a 'tak' but my ballboy service didn't bring him much luck. A minute later the ball was inside his goal. I decided to leave quickly.

I also went to Nyhavn - that is a popular hangout and photo shoot spot. The place served as the backdrop for the cover shot of my language book (see first-day entry), for example. On a sunny day like today, the colors come out really great.

I rounded out my lazy day with a walk up to the ped zone, past the Tivoli amusement park. I had a crepe (with Nutella and banana, yumm!), and enjoyed the fact that so far up north, it gets dark later. At eight o'clock, the sun was still goldening up the top of the buildings, although the temperature could not quite keep up.

Seven degrees, as the the gigantic thermometer showed (you know like the one out in the desert, somewhere near Las Vegas). But this one stops at a measly 28 degrees centigrade (less than 86F!).

Wait, so a whole entry without any complaint about biking in Copenhagen? Well, not quite, although I have to hand it to the marketing department of the city to advertise cutting cyclists' rights as a positive thing: Certain intersections have an extra light for bicyclists. The spinners will say this is great, because it prevents the right hooks, by routing the cyclists separately through the intersection.

However, cyclists still can encounter right hooks and their light phase is only about 21 seconds, whereas the straight through traffic enjoys around 36 seconds - a whole 15-second difference! I fail to see how cyclists can celebrate that as progress.

Ok, enough complaining for this otherwise beautiful day. I'll save the left-turn issue for tomorrow :)