Tuesday, June 28, 2016
The day began with a fitness walk – a loooong fitness walk. Assured that there were no cliffs or towers to climb, we set off on our five hour walk. The beautiful thing about the day was that we saw so many of the important sights of Copenhagen and gained a feeling for the city.
As we left the port, we saw a man from another ship fall into the water. Thankfully, he was wearing an inflatable life jacket and they soon fished him out.
We proceeded to the main square, as reported on yesterday, but at this time of the morning, it was empty.
Today we were able to view it from a different perspective, against the backdrop of this fountain.
We saw churches almost everywhere.
This church was perhaps the largest.
And right behind it was the military barracks.
In front of the barracks, soldiers rehearsed and marched.
The Copenhagen botanical gardens were as beautiful as promised. Located in the center of the city, the botanical garden covers close to 1,075,400 ft.² of land.
It was moved to its current location in 1870, 270 years after being established.
We stopped for a cup of coffee beside this 1964 Citroen van turned coffee store.
The most visited of all churches in Copenhagen, Our Savior’s Church, is a natural treasure. Its green and gold twisted spire features an external 400 step staircase that can be climbed, providing sweeping views of the city below.
The carvings on the outside wren’t so shabby either.
We stood outside the Round Tower, admired its beauty, but did not have time to climb because we had more miles to cover.
Even more than was the case in Sweden, bicycling is immensely popular in Denmark.
Even on the back streets, bicycles frame the atmosphere.
In one particular intersection, we came upon a town square that featured some of the true highlights of the city.
First was City Hall, a beautifully ornate building, again from the late 1800s.
The famous Palace Hotel stood majestically before us.
Across the street was a modern looking Danish shopping mall.
And rounding out the square was Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen’s premier amusement park that was founded in 1843. Tivoli has become a national treasure and a popular destination for visitors – among them the author Hans Christian Andersen and American icon Walt Disney.
Speaking of Hans Christian Andersen, a statue erected in his likeness was one of the highlights of a town park.
We walked over and around some of the smaller waterways and tributaries on our way back to the ship.
It was around this time that the children of some of the residents– people we know and like very much–made some incredibly stupid comments. This particular young woman is from New York. We had a view of houseboats, pictured above, along the side of the canal, and the girl asked what they were. The boyfriend had to explain what a houseboat was. Then, only a few seconds later, a sailboat motored by under a bridge that had just opened for it. Because the sails were not unfurled, she queried “How can it be moving if the sails are not up?”
We also came upon the city’s original shipping port, which it outgrew probably 80 years ago.
After almost 11 miles, it was time to return to the ship.
It was a fairly big afternoon as the ship's residents were voting for a new board and I had been nominated weeks earlier. After all the campaigning, this was the day of the final vote.
When 4:00 PM rolled around, it was time for the meeting. Of course, there was a rather lengthy agenda, including many corporate formalities and presentations. The online voting process closed, and the paper ballot boxes were removed from the room to be counted and reported by our certified auditors, Deloitte & Touche. At the end of the meeting, the ballot box was returned, and the results announced. Shockingly, of the 165,198 votes cast (shares of equity in the ship's ownership), I received 146,549 – or 89% of the votes. It appears to have been the most overwhelming majority, and corresponding mandate, in any contested election in the history of the ship. When it was over, hundreds of people came up and congratulated me, and that felt very warm and reassuring. But now the real work is ahead!
That evening, the new board convened for a formal dinner . . . and it was excellent!
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