Jake’s Journal: The Copenhagen Chronicles, Part 2

Free time on work trips is often hard to come by as we all try to squeeze as much productivity into every minute – and thanks to thumb-typing, we can do so from just about anywhere at any hour. So I’m often left to wake up early (or stay up late) to explore the cities I visit for business, which is how I’ve found myself running atop the ancient wall surrounding Girona during the 2009 Tour de France or dressing up like Elvis for Bay to Breakers in 2010. But last weekend was different. Airfare disparity made it much cheaper to fly home Sunday, so I had a schedule-less Saturday. Along with a handful of European Garmin colleagues who began the trip as my coworkers and ended it as my friends, I was able to immerse myself in Copenhagen the best way possible – by bike. And because I had an Edge 800 with a European mapping card, I knew that our rest-day rambling would be as efficient as we wanted it to be.

Our hotel was billed as a “short cab ride” from the city center. To me and my new UK friends Linda, Rachel and Peter, that translated to “enjoyable bike ride” on hotel rentals. Using the city’s vast network of safe and wide dedicated bike paths, we navigated into town past Tivoli (and Hans Christian Andersen’s pondering bronze) to Rosenborg Castle and the palatial grounds and rose garden, where a hundred pictures wouldn’t do it all justice. And speaking of Andersen and pictures, our next stop was a popular photo-friendly venue: the Little Mermaid statue (minus Disney’s singing animals). After being joined by Rute (Portugal) and Laura (UK) for a restful shoreside lunch of foccacia and Danish treats, we wandered the fortified grounds of the Kastellet and relaxed under a giant windmill – all while my Forerunner 210 stored a digital scrapbook of our day to be stored and shared later on Garmin Connect. Our afternoon tapered off as we’d ride, park, walk and ride some more between coffee stops, statues and shopping, with frequent opportunities to wave at fun-loving graduates celebrating the end of one chapter and the start of another. Once we’d done some recon for dinner, our two-wheeling convoy navigated back to where we began – amazed by a day of equal parts recreation and relaxation that gave us a new appreciation for a foreign city and for each other. No longer faceless names on mass emails or random job titles in another office, we now know the personalities behind the presentations and actually look forward to the notes. So maybe our off day was actually the most productive of them all.

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