Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

It was Hans Christian Anderson who said so or was it Danny Kaye?

But before I tell you about our day in Copenhagen, I must apologise for the fact that some of the images didn’t appear in the short report on Skagen yesterday.

When the blog doesn’t perform perfectly, I usually blame the slow satellite broadband on the ship, but the reality is that I am usually the one at fault. As Jane will tell you, I rarely admit to having any imperfections, but the problem with only writing a blog when at sea, is that I forget how to do it. And downloading images to the blog is one of the tasks I have to rediscover. If you look again at the Skagen entry you should now find the missing bits!

We arrived in Copenhagen on time. Cunard had managed to sort out a coach with a lift for a tour of the city and I had booked it weeks ago, for the 3 of us. Meet in the Queens Room at 8.30 am was the instruction. We did so and were told that there was only room for 2 wheelchairs and we were the third. Had we indicated that one of us was in a wheelchair, the rather brusque girl from the tour office asked. Yes indeed we had. Imagine the steam coming out my ears by then. Go over there and wait, the uncaring girl said. Not good public relations.

Jane’s smart idea was to go ashore immediately, find the coach with the lift and get aboard. We did that and all was fine. It transpired that the third wheelchair user could walk and climb the stairs into the coach and only needed the wheelchair if a lengthy walk was involved. Her chair was stowed underneath the coach.

But of course I’m not a moaner! From time to time I meet with Angus Struthers, Marketing Director at Cunard, and tell him where I feel improvements could be made. One area I always raise is excursions for those with impaired mobility. Can I report significant improvement? No. On this cruise only this one wheelchair friendly excursion has been offered. It’s a shame.

Now that that’s off my chest, I return to our day in Copenhagen. We have been here twice before on Cunard ships. The first occasion was on the maiden voyage of this ship, the Queen Victoria. Kim had not been before, so an organised tour was important. The first stop was less than a mile away at the Little Mermaid.

A coachload of Japanese tourists were milling about. The Mermaid sits on a boulder in the water with stones around to enable you to get close. After I had taken some photos, I started to move carefully up the stoney bank. I then felt someone holding my arm and supporting me. I looked round to find a young Japanese girl clearly trying to help an elderly man! And I have always thought of myself as a youngster. She thought otherwise.

Our tour was clearly designed for geriatrics, but we were occasionally allowed off the bus and the highlight was the Amalienborg Palace and Square. The Queen lives in one of the Palaces, the Crown Prince and his family in another and other royals in the Palaces nearby. The Danish royal family are said to be very popular and are apparently regularly seen in the area, walking or jogging or taking their children on cycles to school.

While we were in the Square the guards changed regularly.

Tomorrow we are at sea and then it’s Poland.