Copenhagen and Cologne

I spent last weekend in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, Denmark before moving back to Germany, to the wonderful rhine valley. Copenhagen is a very interesting city. It is very beautiful , right on the coast, and there are many beautiful buildings. The people are also very friendly and there are many beautiful gardens in the city. The only drawback is that things are very expensive. Denmark in general seems to love two danish Icons, Hans Christian Andersen, whose work is represented by numerous statues in the city, and Lego, that Danish toy that has fascinated the childen of the world for decades. I unfortunately did not get to legoland in Denmark as it is three hours away and costs a lot of money, but there are reminders of its origin throughout the city. Copenhagen also has two beautiful palaces and a very nice citadel and gardens, the citaldel still being used as a military base to this day. The old town of Copenhagen has some very nice scandinavian architecture. After Denmark it was back to germany and the woderful city of Cologne. The people of the rhine valley are very friendly and I met some very nice people during my four days there. Cologne itself has a very quaint old town, near the rhine and an absolutely stunning gothic cathedral. Cologne is also known for its chocolate, there is a factory right on the rhine that one can visit and of course, the male fragrance that has become known simply as "Cologne" in North America. Cologne also has some very good beer, called Kolsh, which is consumed in small, 200 ml glasses. The ritual is that the glass is continually refilled without asking until the customer puts their coaster on top of the glass. I also got a chance to visit the smaller city of Bonn, just up the river. Bonn is a very nice city with a beautiful centre and nice square but unfortunately with too many modern governmental buildings. This after all was the seat of government of West Germany from 1949-1990 and continued as such in unified Germany until 1996. I am now in the Netherlands, near the Hague, and will tell of my time here in the next post.