Sunday Sept. 23 Bornholm Island to Copenhagen
“We can’t figure out how to turn the lights out!”
This morning Jette greets me at breakfast with a big hug as she says, “Maren, thank you so much for last night. We enjoyed it so much.” That surprises me and makes me feel better about the many family stories I told!
Due to the late night before, we sleep later in the morning than usual. I believe Jette got up at her usual early rising time to be able to prepare a wonderful breakfast/lunch feast which we sit down to at 10:00 a.m. Our original schedule had us departing on the ferry today at 6:30 a.m. but Jette is able to call the ferry office and get us rescheduled for the ferry that leaves at 2:30 p.m. We are able to do this on account of a cancellation on the car ferry. Oh, thank you, Jette! The afternoon departure allows us to have a leisurely breakfast and departure. Once more Jette prepares a wonderful breakfast for us which includes scrambled eggs with chives, bacon and sausage, bakery fresh breads brought in that morning by Jorgen, the three berry jams, a platter of fresh cheeses, orange juice and coffee! This meal sees us clear through to the evening meal in Copenhagen!
We are very sorry to have to leave Jorgen and Jette. We have had a wonderful time together learning about my Gylsen Danish family line and touring the island of Bornholm. Jorgen asks us where we are staying in Copenhagen and we tell him at the Admiral Hotel. “Oh, yes,” he says, “I know that hotel. You park behind the wall.” We are going to need that piece of information as you will see. “You are going to drive over a very, very long bridge on the way to Copenhagen,” he also tells us.
Today we take the car ferry to the port of Ysted in Sweden and from there we drive to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. On the ferry boat we sit with a pleasant woman who introduces herself as Ana. “I am going to be meeting a friend in France,” she shares, “that I haven’t seen in 24 years!” This ferry boat also has a children’s play area in the main lounge and young families are using it. This is something we do not see on American ferry boats. I like this idea very much.
The drive from the Ysted to Copenhagen takes about 2 hours passing lots of flat open farmland with many cows and horses in the fields. Jorgen is right. We pass over a very long bridge after paying an expensive toll at the start. I believe the toll was $35 (might have been $75?). The bridge just goes on and on and on and close to Copenhagen on the other side of the water we come to a tunnel as well. Passing through the tunnel we are in Copenhagen! We make our way through the city streets and find the Admiral Hotel without any problem. We find the hotel but we do not find a parking place on the road outside the hotel! This is stressful on the city street but suddenly I hear in my head Jorgen’s words, “park behind the wall.” I look at the front of the hotel again and sure enough close to the hotel is a tight row of tall green hedges. The opening through the hedge is small but I say to Al, “go through the opening of the hedge. I think I see a car parked. We enter slowly and right away we see there are hotel parking spaces in front that are unseen from the street. We find a free space and give a sigh of relief. We have arrived. The whole outside of the hotel structure looks like an old stone fortress with the main entrance guarded on either side by a cannon and cannon balls! I know that this hotel must have a special history.
We learn that the Admiral Hotel is housed in a converted 18th century warehouse neighboring the Royal Palace and the Royal Playhouse as well as the city center with its shopping and its attractions. The hotel used to be an old granary which was built in 1787. The granary held grain drying facilities for the trading company Pingel, Meyer, Proetorius & Co. Back in those days the granary held up to 30,000 barrels of grain, all dried in the drying oven ready for shipping to the Danish provinces and all over the world. The interior restoration of the hotel is in keeping with its history with the corridor walls of stone and thick dark wood beams throughout.
It is fun to take the elevator to the third floor, walk through the stone hallway and find room 342. The hotel room is spacious with large windows overlooking the quiet inner harbor. Old sailing vessels are tied to the docks and the Opera House is across the water. It is a very tranquil scene. We go downstairs to the restaurant and have a delicious dinner of small Danish sandwiches. Back in our hotel room all is well until we try to turn out the lights to go to sleep! We have great trouble in turning out the lights and we are never successful. Here we are well educated college graduates and we can’t figure out how to turn the lights out! It is impossible to explain and it is a comedy scene. You turn one light out and another one turns on. In frustration we give up the effort and sleep as best we can. The next day we call in a staff member who tells us, “Many of our hotel guests and all the staff as well do not understand how to turn out the lights. It is a complicated modern lighting system. The whole lighting system of the hotel is scheduled to be changed in the near future.”
Next Day of Journey