Copenhagen Day 1

This was the second of our 'City Break on a Budget' where we aim to pay £300 or less for travel & accommodation. We opted for Copenhagen as we've both fancied Scandinavia for a while and we'd heard how quick & easy it is to get to Malmo - 2 cities in one break - bonus!
We had a really early start for this trip, arriving at the airport for just after 5am. It was our first time flying with Easyjet so we weren't sure what to expect, we'd checked in online about 8 weeks in advance as the website led us to believe that people were allocated seats the order of check in which we soon found out was misleading. There are 2 groupings - those who've paid to get on the plane first and everyone else, regardless of how soon you checked in. We'd also printed our own boarding cards, expected that as with other airlines we'd just check in our bag and that would be it, but no the happy chappy tore up our boarding cards and reprinted identical ones, whilst trying to sell us the 'guaranteed' seats together (on the return journey, we used our printed boarding cards and just found the bag drop, no hard sell).
After a fairly speedy passage through security we had breakfast, followed by an on time flight and smooth journey. Landing at Copenhagen is slightly strange, as you get off the plane in the same area the folks are waiting to get on the plane to go back to the UK, then you walk through the duty free area to passport control! All very strange (we didn't bother with any duty free as it was more expensive than the UK).
After managing to buy train tickets to Copenhagen H (or Copenhagen Central), we hopped on the train for the swift 15 minute journey, upon arriving at the station, our hotel was literally 30 seconds away.
We stayed at Hotel Nebo Run by a Christian Mission, we opted for an 'economy room' which is what you see - no ensuite as the toilet/bath/shower rooms are around the corner. We also had a desk and TV with several english speaking channels (with plenty of decent TV if you choose to spend an evening in doors). The reception area of the hotel has free internet, tv screens with live teletext airport departures, snack/drink machines and a whole stand of tourist information, including pocket sized cards that also give you discounts on many attractions. We picked up one for the Canal Tours and headed out towards Gammel Strand (ok so we got a bit lost on the way there...)

Gammel Strand
We were a bit early for the last tour of the day, so wandered around taking photos and found a great little souvenir shop behind the horse man statue.
The tours run all year round, although in Winter as when we visited, there was just the red and yellow lines, the boats in Winter have an indoor section with glass roof and is heated and was much needed at times.
The canal tours are a relaxing & easy way to see a lot of the sights without lots of walking, they last approx one hour and take in sights such as Nyhaven with it's colourful fishermen's houses
The Royal Danish Library with it's new extension nicknamed the Black Diamond due to the way it sparkles in the sun
The infamous little mermaid who is currently on display the other side of the world

As well as Christiansborg palace , Christianshavn , the Opera House to name but a few. We were very lucky weather wise, as not only was it gloriously sunny (albeit freezing cold), the last canal tour of the day was during the so called Golden Hour which meant we got to enjoy a lovely winter sunset from the boat

Sunset over CopenhagenAfter the tour, frozen but happy we wandered around for a bit more sightseeing, then headed back to the hotel. Being on a budget, we stopped at the 7/11 store two doors down from our hotel for our tea. Amongst the broad array of hot food & drink they served the traditional Danish style hotdog - different to ours in that they are served in quite a crispy toasted bread roll (almost French baguette style)which is hollowed out, the sauce/mustard etc is then squirted inside and your sausage is squished down inside it, very tasty I might add. The shop also appeared to have a Domino's Pizza franchise inside it, selling pizza, calzone and other dough/pastry based dishes - they even did room service to the hotel!

BBC Manchester Tour

Today we went to the BBC building on Oxford Road for one of their free tours. The tour guide lady (sorry didn't catch her name, but she had one of those faces, where you think you know someone) was really good, we had ample time to ask questions and take photos. The first stop was Studio A, which has been used for lots of famous tv shows (that I can't remember the names of), it was emtpy so not much to look at really. Then we went to look at another studio where the BBC philharmonic orchestra practise, now this was impressive, it had all these odd features to improve the sound which included these things hanging from the roof that looked almost like the wings on early planes and box types shapes stuck to the walls.


Next was a radio drama studio, where actors record radio shows - it had 3 types of flooring, a set of steps that were park wood, part carpet and part concrete for any scenario you might need, not to mention a fully stocked 'kitchen' with numerous props - it was a nice insight into how radio dramas are put together.
We also got to visit the radio studios where BBC radio Manchester is broadcast from, and watched on a small monitor the news lady - although she is situated near the front of the building to be near the news... or something like that.


The real highlight of the trip was up next - the Northwest Tonight Studio. A part time presenter (sorry can't remember the name) was there and showed us how he worked the autocue, how to switch cameras and other tricks of the trade, they don't have sheets of paper these days, but a Pc & monitor set underneath the glass desk. Visitors then had the option to have a go at reading the news or sit on the sofa they use for light pieces. We then went to the room where the directors and producers sit during the show with the various mixing desks and computers.

The final stop of the tour was in the BBC interactive suite, where if you should choose (we didn't) you could read the weather, the same way the weather lady does (with no prompts or scripts), and then have it played back. We were also shown a promotional film about the new Media City opening at Salford Quays where BBC Manchester will relocate to in 2011.

Then we finished with a quick questionaire about the tour and were given a goody bag which was quite unexpected, and contained pens, a keyring, lots of leafets & info about BBC stuff and a DVD.

All in all a very nice afternoon out, the tour lasted about and hour and a half with plenty of time to photograph, ask questions and 'have a go'.