July 24, 2024Day 16, final day of the biking trip, we each fly home the next morning. We stayed the night in Gothenburg, and had the morning to bike around without panniers. Found some Swedish flag stickers for our bikes, and wandered the shops in the Haga (cosy cafe) district. Our train ride back to Copenhagen airport hotel was about 3h, then we returned Jen's rental bike. We walked around Nyhaven (New harbor), got some dinner and ate more kaka and glass. Jen & I spent the end of our last evening in Copenhagen strolling around Tivoli. One thing we've noticed is Europeans know how to relax. There are tons of places not just in Tivoli, but even in downtown Copenhagen where you can find comfortable beach chairs and just hang out, and maybe listen to some live music. We spent about an hour in the bean bag chairs relaxing in the Tivoli gardens, by contrast the only places to sit at a Disney park is a food court. There are no long queues for rides. Tivoli also doesn't have stores selling merch, like stuffed dolls, Mickey mouse ears, bubble blowers, light sabers... Tivoli opened in 1843, that's 128 years before Disney! Earlier in the trip we also visited the world's oldest amusement park, Dyrehavsbakken in Klampenborg which opened in 1583, making it 441 years old! Traveling by bike is such a unique way to see a country. When you see something interesting, you can just stop and go see it, compared to traveling by car or train when things go by in a matter of seconds and they're gone. About half of our bike route in Berlin was through forest and national parks. All of Denmark had perfectly paved coastal bike routes lined with wild flowers. We really didn't have anything pre-planned, nor did we even know what was around the corner each day. We just chatted with people we meet, and they were always excited to tell us the interesting things to check out in the area. Day 17 I made it back home safe, sound and 5 lbs lighter, despite the daily diet of croissants, cake and ice cream. Jen flew home at 7am, and I had the morning to box up my bike, and cart it across the street to the airport. |
