Day 11 - The Bakery Winner and Travel Back

We fly out today at 2:00 p.m.  but before that there is still much to be done.  First, we have our final breakfast in Copenhagen.  Then its time to head out to Brod to pick up some baked goods.  Remember that we have 20 hours of travel and Iceland Air offers no food so what is better than bringing some good pastries for the plane ride.  Don't worry, I will make room in the bags.

Bakery contest winner: Below are my favorite bakeries in the order that are listed and their link in case you want to visit when in Copenhagen.

1. Anderson Bakery - this bakery had the best almond croissant and their cinnamon roll was equally delicious.  They are neck to neck with Bageri Brod but they had a nicer place to sit so they win.

Andersen Bakery - Bakery, patisserie and café (andersen-bakery-eu.dk)

2. Brod Bageri - Order the Snail (cinnamon roll),  Their almond croissant is also superb. This place is a very good bakery, it's just a little small but the snails are the best of all the ones we tried.

Brød | Bakery | VisitCopenhagen - Enghave Plads 7, 1670 København V

3. Meyers Bageri - We had their cinnamon roll and thought it was good.  they have multiple locations.

Meyers bagerier og konditori i København | Bager i København

4. Sct. Peder's Bageri - this is the bakery that makes the discounted cinnamon rolls on Wednesdays.  We thought their croissant was good and the cinnamon roll only ok.

Sct. Peder's Bageri - Search (bing.com)

5. Hart Bageri - We had their chocolate croissant and thought it was very flaky, almost too flaky.

Hart Bageri

6. Juno the Bakery - they had good cardamom roll but that was all that we had.  it's a very small bakery.

Juno the bakery | Simpelt og kvalitetsrigt bagværk i København (visitcopenhagen.dk)

There you go, my search for baked goods in Copenhagen resulted in 2 of my top favorites.  It was well worth the effort.

My thoughts on Copenhagen:  I think Copenhagen was a very fun city to visit.  Similar to other European cities, it has its castles, churches, and museums.  The food here is good so that is also a plus.  The bakeries are an additional bonus.  People here are pretty homogeneous, not a whole lot of mixed cultures.   All in all, they are a pretty good looking people.  Not too round nor hard angles in their faces.  Everyone speaks English so it’s very easy to get around.  The city is very clean even though old, it’s Europe after all.  We did encounter a pod of homeless people.  It must be tough to be homeless in Copenhagen because it’s so cold and wet.  Watching people bike around in their trench coats and work clothes is interesting.  You don’t really see that in the states.  

Traveling back home is always a chore but a necessary evil.  I will say one thing, people, when you are getting off the plane, let the people in the seats before you get off BEFORE you.  All you have to do is ask if you need to go first because of some reason.  Rick literally ran into a guy doing this on purpose because he wouldn't let us out first.  Sheesh!  It's only a few minutes more for you to let people in front of you go so how about you chill out and let the folks sitting in front of you go in FRONT of you.  You wouldn't think this needs to be pointed out but I guess it does because it happens all the time.  So annoying.

This has been a really great trip.  Only one day of rain out of 11 days so I would call it a win for good weather.  The digitization of money makes everything easier.  Google Maps has also revolutionized the way we travel, it’s pretty amazing.  It is a little more inconvenient to travel in the winter as the coats and boots take up more space but it’s only a little more.  Just as I am a good packer, Rick is a great navigator.  We are no Amazing Race travelers but we sure do have a great time.  Speaking of which, it sure does go by fast when you are on vacation.  Until our next trip, I hope you enjoyed following us on our trip.

Rick's final thoughts:

It is always sad when a fun trip is winding down and traveling back always sucks especially when you are doing it in three hops (Copenhagen to Reykjavik; Reykjavik to Boston; Boston to San Francisco).  With two of the threee legs done, I am already super cranky.  Most of the early logistics today went well (i.e. hotel was super close to central train station in Copenhagnen so wheeling the bags was easy; the train from central Copenhagen to the aiport was super easy) but the later logistics have been annoying.  Thumbs down to Icelandair for the lack of ventilation on their planes.  The first plane did have knobs you could try to adjust the aim and flow but the air volume was super low and the plane was hot.  On the second plane, there was no way to control any air flow to a seat by the passenger.  We will see what the Jet Blue plane will have in a few minutes.  

Tranferring flights in Iceland was a bit of a pain.  The immigration line was long for non-EU passport holders and it was also hot in the terminal.  But the biggest shit-show of the day award goes to Boston's Logan Airport.  Same problem at customs, super hot terminal with a long line.  Thanks for nothing Global Entry.  Not being open on a Friday evening is not super helpful.  Also, the distance between terminals in Boston that you need to walk is crazy.  Finally, multiple issues with our boarding passes that were printed for all three legs in Copehagen.  When we got to the TSA agent, he said there was a problem with our boarding passes and we would need to get them re-printed.  After getting them re-printed, we got to the TSA agent who let us into the TSA PRE line 10 minutes prior since our original boarding passes had that printed on them and she denied us entry now since the new ones did not.  So back to the Jet Blue counter to get that corrected.  After getting new, new boarding passes, mine did not scan at TSA since 'it takes a while for the system to update'.  But eventually it did and now we are waiting for our flight home.

Like Rosie said, I thought this was a great trip.  I really enjoyed the freedom of  rental car in Iceland and Copenhagen was a good city to visit for a couple of days.  It is a very orderly city and pretty much everyone is with the program.  I think like its people, Copenhagen is pretty understated.  What I will note is that I have seen at least 100x more people in the Boston airport wearing what looks to be pajamas or clothes they sleep in versus the entire two weeks in Europe.  In case anyone reading this blog is a fan of Boston, I will stop commenting on it now.

Rosie did a lot of research for this trip and it paid off in allowing us to see mostly everything we wanted to see in an efficient manner without being too locked down to a schedule.  She is a great traveling partner.  She takes care of all the packing and snacks and helps make the trip more enjoyable.  Now we need to start thinking about the next one.

Until next time, I hope everyone is well.  Take care.