We're here! (And one more vote for West Jet)

Thank you, Avery, for the pleasant pick-up and trip out to the airport. Also for helping Mike with his final chore of resetting the screen door…..good to learn how, after ten years here.

We’re now at our ‘basic but charming’ hotel just a block from the Central Copenhagen train station. It’s been a long journey, but we made it. Our connections were pretty tight. An hour in Vancouver, a bit more in Montreal, and over two hours in Paris (where Mike got in a little birding at the shuttle stop- - Swifts! Apus apus). We were happy to have our bags checked all the way through to Copenhagen, thanks to the computer wizardry of the Air Canada agent in Victoria. Of course, every good trip has its quirks. Some slackers ’forgot’ to refill the plane’s water tanks at YVR, so on a four and a half hour flight to Montreal, they ran out of water half way through food service.  No coffee, no tea, no WC water.   Could have been worse…it might have been the fuel tanks they forgot to fill. 

Also that plane was over ½ hour late arriving  so, in Montreal, we really had to hustle to get to our Paris flight. Luckily, it was another AC connection, so they held the plane for us and several others. First thing we asked for was water. We should have asked for an upgrade to first class. What a plane! Boeing 777.  Spacious feeling, with high, curved ceilings, indirect lighting that changed colors and seats that were wider than any other streerage cabin we've been in.  The first class seats were all little pods that turn into beds, lucky guys.

Well, of course, our bags didn’t show,…maybe tomorrow. But we have the essentials and can buy whatever else we need and send SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) the bill.

Copenhagen is hopping tonight as it's the first night of a five day festival.  Not quite sure what it's about, but it involves a lot of friendly rule-bending and some strange behaviours not to be comprehended by those of our vintage.  Beer drinking in streets closed to traffic; some are not officially closed but are blocked by kids dancing beside inventive boom-box systems.  One was a re-worked bicycle frame that carried four car batteries to put out lots of hip-hop power.

The strangest thing we saw were teens and twenty-somethings, strolling down the street dressed as zombies.  Some were solo, some in small groups, and we encountered a few parades of 50 - 100, all heading to some party rendezvous.  Latex makeup and red colouring can create realistic horror on an already well perforated face.

Tomorrow's a National Holiday, involving some commemoration of Pentecost and the Ascension, as far as we could make out in talking to some Tuborg-hoisting stalwarts.

We're dining tonight at a pricey Macdonalds in order to use their free wi-fi. 

The architecture is amazing.  The use of bicycles exceeds even Japan.  And everybody can speak English with us, even though we're hearing only Danish when they're talking among themselves.

Weather's great...sunny, and 18, and windy.