„Thugs“ and „Pandas“ – Live from Copenhagen, Day 4

Today is fairly quickly summarised: We did a four-hour bike tour, leaving Copenhagen behind and always cycling along bike route 9, which leads straight up north along the coast. A quick survey has shown that pupils are mostly still too shocked by the fact that their legs actually hurt to appreciate it much.

Truth be told, the first third of the trip was not as nice because Copenhagen does a lot of road improvements at the moment so basically we travelled from one building site to the next instead of having unhindered views of the sea and the harbour. After that, things improved marginally because the areas towards the north are inhabited by rather wealthy people and the houses are similar to those that can be found in areas like Blankenese. However, from the road it didn’t look like much.

The last third was the best, in my opinion, because we actually drove along the coast and then entered a huge deer park to finish the tour at a small hunting lodge. Somehow, pupils were not really impressed, having had another scope in mind at the term „Jagdschloss“. It does rather look like a house than an actual castle, but the surrounding landscape makes up for it. Especially if you like Jane Austen. Apart from that, the entire park was filled with kindergarten-aged children. It seems the Danes appreciate teaching their kids about nature. Also, we sighted a few albino deer.

Conditions were quite harsh despite it being the best weather we have had so far: sometimes the wind (which always came from the front, even on the way back) was so strong it was hard to cycle even in first gear. And because nobles in former times liked to have a good view from their hunting lodge, we had to manage a massive slope beforehand.

The good news, though, is that everyone made it, even though the man in the bike rental told us we were being extremely optimistic about getting there at all and back in time to return his bikes. We only needed four hours, including a lunch break at the lodge. For a course of average sportiness, that seems quite good.

In the evening, to make up for the exertion, we went to eat out at a restaurant. Right now, the pupils are celebrating a birthday which we will round off in the morning with a birthday breakfast.

After that, we will visit Christiansborg, one of the many castles still used for official purposes (contains the parliament and rooms for state functions), and then head for the bus back to Hamburg.