Trip to Copenhagen

I've just gotten back from my school trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. We left on Wednesday afternoon on a DFDS ferry and took the return ferry back Friday evening.

The biggest "attraction" I got to see on the trip turned out to be in Oslo itself instead of in Denmark. I got to see the newly built "Freedom of the Seas" which is the largest passenger ship in the world. It stopped over in Oslo on its way to the U.S. I understand that its going to be operating in the Carribbean. It made the ferry we were on look really tiny.
The DFDS ferry was just like the cruises I've been on back home:- the buffets, the singing magician, tiny cabins with fold away beds etc...

Since it was a school trip after all, there were a copuple of "official visits" we had to make and one of them was of course with the University of Copenhagen, which I was told is the 2nd oldest university in Scandinavia having been founded in 1479. As the story goes, both Sweden and Denmark wanted to start a university so they both sent out their emmisaries to go to Rome to get the papal consent at about the same time. The Danish emmisary enjoyed himself wining and dining in Italy and only got back to Copenhagen two years after the Swedish emmisary returned. For the record, the oldest university in Scandinavia was founded in 1477 in Uppsala, Sweden.

Part of the visit inluded a short tour of the university. Apparently most of the original building from the 1400s had been destroyed but we did however get to visit some of the original basements which included a prison for students as well as professors. We were told that in the old days, separate laws applied to members of the university.

The best way to tour Copenhagen is on a bicycle. The bicycles are free and you can pick them up anywhere, anytime. You just need a 20 DKK coin to unlock the bike like a shopping cart. You can use it as long as you want and to get your coin back you just have to return your bike to a bike stand anywhere in the city.

Its very easy cycling in Copenhagen because the city is incredibly flat and there are dedicated bicycle paths on most of the roads. Its also better to cycle than to walk because its quite easy to get hit or at least yelled at by a speeding Danish cyclist if you accidentally stray onto the cycling track.

The city was much bigger and far more bustling than Oslo. It has a pretty large shopping area and various attractions including the famed Little Mermaid.