Atlantica - 01.11.2001, Qupperneq 31

A T L A N T I C A 29
cars. After fighting this traffic, I grow
hungry and tired. The sky threatens rain-
drops, so I have no problem finding an
outdoor seat at the often crowded Café
Norden, which overlooks the bustling
square of Amagertorv. I could’ve gone
to the stylish Café Europa, right across
the square, but no seats were available.
Café Norden is pretty hip, though, and
the enormous chicken sandwiches are
well worth the rather high price.
Fuelled by lunch and chocolate cake, I
venture further down Strøget, deter-
mined to travel the distance of this walk-
ing street before the rain begins to fall.
Since there’s much to look at, arcades,
cafés, churches, fountains and court-
yards, it’s rather difficult to soak it all in.
But I finally approach Kongens Nytorv,
the eastern end of the street. Today
there is a display of enlarged pho-
tographs from across the globe, placed
throughout the square. There are a few
from Iceland, Greece, even the flowing
wheat fields of eastern Washington, not
too far from my hometown.
Looking through this travel log of
global photographs is the perfect way to
wind down an afternoon spent walking
Europe’s longest pedestrian street. (No,
that information didn’t come from the
Guiness World Records Museum. I
checked my guide book.) Imagine that,
the oldest flag and the longest pedestri-
an street. Wonderful Copenhagen.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Tired of walking? You can take a bus or
taxi to explore the Danish capital. Or
instead, grab one of the ‘City Bikes’ scat-
tered throughout the city, joining the
thousands of Copenhageners whizzing
on two wheels.
City Bikes is a public bike rental oper-
ation where you drop in a 20 kroner
coin (about USD 2.50) into a slot on the
bike and a single-gear two-wheeler is
yours for the day. Return the bike to one
of the 120-plus bike deposits and the
coin releases back into your hand. By
the end of the season, many of the
2,500-odd bicycles, as I discovered, have
one wheel in the grave. Still, with a little
luck, even one of these clunkers will get
you to where you want to go.
I want to check out the changing of
the guard. I’m forced, though, to aban-
don my City Bike somewhere along the
cycle path because my clunker can’t
keep up with the rest of the traffic which
is unfortunate, because that means I
can’t keep up with all the pretty women
cycling past me. Late for the pomp and
circumstance that is the changing of the
guard, I begin to jog.
Noon. I’m standing in Amalienborg
Slot beneath a 39-foot statue of Frederik
V, with a pack of tourists, cameras posi-
tioned, ready to snap shots of the
changing of the Royal Guard. Each day
that the queen is at her royal residence,
the square teams with these fluttering
tourists who stare with fascination at the
stoic guards wearing their dark blue, red
and white uniforms, and that silly
fuzzball they call a hat. It’s fascinating to
Copenhagen’s nightlife is different. It’s dynamic and diverse.
The Royal Guard at Amalienborg Castle
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