First shock - I was expecting stratospheric beer prices,but 500ml of bottled water at approx £2.20? Welcome to Copenhagen.
The weather outside the airport was bright and sunny, but EMC were ensuring that it was cloudy inside:
More evidence that the virtual World has arrived in Denmark:
Copenhagen airport is definitely in the efficient class of airports so soon enough I was onto the driverless Metro which has parallels with London's DLR. Its quick, its effective, very clean and takes you to the centre of the city in 15 mins. Being from the North of England, it pains me to say this, but suddenly London seems to be good value! £4 compares to an equivalent journey of £2.30 - on the DLR. Its very clean though, and its quite a different experience once underground with the tunnels being much more modern and illuminated:
The hotel is on the North East side of the city centre and overlooks the "lakes" - which look like very wide canals. James meets me out of the Metro at Norreport and we head off to the Kong Arthur. I get a room up in the roof space - its compact but as all the essentials including tasteful contemporary decor. If I stand on a chair I have an excellent view over the lakes through the Velux!
We head out to the Norrebro area on the other side of the lake and settle on "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus" to eat on the square at the top end of Sankt Hans Torv. Clearly someone got confused between or decided to combine Monty Python and James Bond. Either way, we find something to suit us both on the menu, James opting for the Pollock risotto, myself for the heavily nut based veggie burger. Both turn out to be delicious, although the burger could've benefitted from being served a little hotter. We sip at our Tuborg Gold lager which is wheaty and very tasty, but at near enough £8 a pint almost seems like an extravagance! The service was attentive but not overpowering with the venue being quiet but pleasant enough.
Hoping to hit the micro brewery of Norrebro Bryhus on the nearby Ryesgarde we were disappointed to find it closed. A nearby corner bar served a huge 750ml Tuborg Classic which is a pretty dark larger and this went down well as we started to plan our Monday - mixing some business with some sight seeing.
Next we made for Babarellah on Norre Farimagsgade, not far from the hotel which is described by the Lonley Planet guide as "almost unbearably cool" - clearly designed for us! Except that it too is closed - I'm reminded of a conversaton James overheard in the reception between the hotel staff and an American tourist "people of Denmark need to rest sometimes". So we end up in a very small bar in a small square where there is an artwork of a giant cigarette end which is bent up at one end as though it has been stubbed out - it must be a portent or something - as Denmark is somewhat semi-detatched in EU terms - the bar we're in is full of folk smoking. Coming from the UK it's a bit of a culture shock / throwback finding yourself in a tobacco smoke filled atmospherere. In the Lonely Planet's "When in Rome..." section is mentions "smoke like a kipper" - I think the author must've been in this bar when they wrote those words. There was a jazz group playing standards and improvs - piano, double bass, 2x Sax and a trombone
Smokin'
James enjoyed the music whilst I found myself admiring the musicianship more than the actual music. Great to see the players working so well together and meeting the expectations of their audience. Lovely friendly atmosphere here with James being invited to offer gifts to the locals, but we're not sure if we offended or if certain locals were overstepping the mark!
Jazz Bar James
When in Rome... So When in Denmark, Drink Danish Beer
Earlier in the day we went up to the Bella Center and registered for the VMWORLD conference - its a fair way out of the city centre but the Metro's very effective, much like the registration process which is semi-self service. We typed our names into a Wyse thin client terminal and a pass is printed and checked against photo id - all sorted in a couple of minutes. Our VMWORLD 2010 back packs contain a t-shirt, lanyard, vendor promo leaflets and a 4 day pass for all zones on the public transport - this is very useful and if you haven't set out yet its worth noting that EMC are sponsoring free travel on the local network for all attendees from 10-14 October, so just buy enough travel to get you to the Bella Center and the rest is covered for you through to Thurs.
So off to sleep now, so far so good!
Oh, and what happened to the Halifax? No comment!
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