The organised walking tour of Copenhagen we’d taken while docked at the Danish capital had started at Kastellet and had finished at Rosenborg Castle, and there were hours to go before Sky Princess would need to sail off.
Excellent, we thought, and I’ll explain why.
- Denmark has some decent craft ale places.
- We like craft ale.
- On the ship they’d mentioned that there was a shuttle bus service in operation running between the cruise terminal and a road very close to where a particular craft ale bar was located.
- On the ship they’d mentioned that you could pay (or flash your medallion, or whatever) when boarding the bus; no need to book.
- On our tour our guide told us “Anyone who doesn’t want to take the excursion bus back, I can show you where the shuttle bus is.”
We had a plan! With our walking excursion done we’d treat ourselves to a few beers and take the shuttle bus back to the ship. Sounds simple. Couldn’t be simpler. Nothing could possibly go wrong unless the ship and our guide had given us duff information, but what are the odds of that happening?
So, very quickly we found ourselves in Skaal and not so quickly after that – because the choice on offer was, well, see for yourself – we found ourselves enjoying some lovely craft beer. Nice, clean venue; wide range of styles of beer. You couldn’t ask for a better place to recuperate a little after all that walking on the tour earlier in the day.
We stayed for more than one because the first drinks were nice enough to encourage that sort of behaviour in us, but then we contemplated whether to look for somewhere else or make an earlier-than-necessary return to the ship. We opted to head back as we’d done a lot of walking and our hoodies were still a little damp from the torrential rain that had caught us in the morning.
And here’s where things took a turn for the very annoying.
At the shuttle bus stop there was a shuttle bus sitting there. It looked like one for Princess but we weren’t sure, and at the time we arrived there was nobody up front so we could have got on and chanced it, but we’re honest and cautious people and knew that we needed to pay as per the ship’s instructions. A man appeared after a few minutes and asked for our ticket.
“We don’t have one. We were on a tour that’s dropped us off in the city and they said we could pay for a ticket on board to get back.”
“Oh no. You can only buy tickets for the bus at the cruise port. I’m not allowed to let anyone without them on.”
Yeah, to say we were angry with the information that had been provided by Princess Cruises to us both on the ship and on the tour was an understatement. The man there was apologetic but his hands were tied. He gave us options and some finger-pointing in the rough direction we’d need: train or taxi, because buses didn’t go where we had to go, apparently. The train would have only got us so far, and he didn’t know the number of any taxi firms. Uber proved to be a non-starter, but we had enough time and enough mild fury to power our legs to start walking back anyway. There was not much in the way of sightseeing on this unexpected walk of some of Copenhagen’s streets and the only conversation was around how pissed off we were with Princess.
Let’s try to bring out some positive aspects of this unplanned, unwanted, and infuriating walk back to the cruise terminal. Never let it be said: “Yeah, that Mark only knows how to rant.”
We like modern art and street art, and on the bus from the ship in the morning we’d passed a set of sculptures by the roadside that our guide had mentioned briefly in passing. These were the Toddlers on the Road of Life by Bjørn Nørgaard. The four sculptures represent a child, an adolescent, an adult, and a pensioner, with the materials and decorations reflecting those ages and the brightness of the sculptures and the slowly darkening gold showing life’s effects on aspirations and experiences. We loved them, and if we hadn’t had to walk then we wouldn’t have seen them up close, so a small yay for unexpected discoveries.
There was also some more conventional street art on walls as we got closer to the port and some artistic flair to the otherwise seemingly-abandoned miniature golf course we passed by.
Now, that walk back to Sky Princess at the cruise terminal took us two hours, but before you raise a hand to your forehead and collapse in a faint worthy of the best period dramas let me point out that we did find another small place that was open on the route to have a drink in and that accounted for a decent chunk of minutes in that duration. To be fair, it hadn’t been our intention to have a drink – our priority was finding a toilet because of the drinks we’d already had in Skaal making their way through our bodies – but it served to break up the walk and dilute the strong emotions towards our cruise line, and we had plenty of time to play with. That place, incidentally, was Tio Mario’s, and we extend our thanks to them for being there just when we needed them.
Back on board Sky Princess, then, and after a long day exploring Copenhagen on foot, both planned and unplanned, dinner and cocktails felt oh so good, so here, enjoy this feast of photos of both of them.
Sky Princess had a late departure from Copenhagen but there was still some lovely light on the horizon when we did so. They’re the sorts of views to almost make you forgive a cruise company for giving you a minor panic attack in a foreign country. Almost.
Okay. So, not the best ending to a day in Copenhagen with Princess Cruises, but overall we enjoyed it and had some interesting experiences, and isn’t that what life and travelling is all about?
In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll be making a stop at Denmark’s northernmost town, Skagen, and it’s an absolute gem of a place that we’ll explore a little (and drink in a little) after a war-related tour that starts at the Coastal Museum of Bangsbo.