We survived another night of elevator noise, but were pretty glad it was the last. With an early evening flight, we had a good chunk of the day to see a few more sights. Anna was keen for some shopping, so we Ubered to the Beverly Center Mall. Matt and I didn’t really have the energy to face shops so we found a comfortable couch to chill on while Anna shopped. I got some work done and Matt caught up with his mates online.
We started our LA dining with the Cheesecake Factory, and ended the same way. This time we dined at the Beverly Hills restaurant. I love American salads and the Cheesecake Factory did not disappoint. The kids opted for more traditional American cuisine! Our last adventure was a walk through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive in the day. Most people do the Starline tours in the open top vehicles around the fancy homes, we just wandered around on two feet – a very un-American thing to do! I have no idea whose houses we saw, but there were a few bodyguards parked around so I guess there were some famous people in the neighbourhood. Most of the houses were just very flash, but a few were pretty weird too.
Rodeo Drive was busier by day, but still pretty quiet and calm by LA standards. We saw even more fancy cars than yesterday.
We walked back to the hotel in time to grab our luggage and meet our shuttle to the airport. Our long haul flights are on four different airlines and today’s sector was with SwissAir. It was fun listening to the announcements in four different languages and so exciting to finally be heading back to Europe.
SwissAir were great. The flight was on time, the food was edible and they gave us Swiss chocolate and chocolate mousse! Anna and I knocked ourselves out with a sleeping tablet but Matt decided to watch lots of movies and hardly slept. We had a couple of hours at Zurich airport before our connecting flight to Copenhagen. Just enough time to sort out SIM cards, get across the airport and eat some very expensive Swiss food! Matt and I had Bratwurst, Anna was craving a BK hamburger which she had to cut into tiny pieces with a knife and fork.
The flight to Copenhagen was fine and we arrived early evening. It was a quick train ride to Central Station then a short walk to our hostel. After being cooped up for so long in planes, it was amazing to walk outside and feel that northerly breeze straight from the arctic. We had our puffer jackets ready but gloves were in our suitcases so the fingers felt the bite of the northerly wind.
Hotels here are really expensive, so we are staying in a luxury hostel called Steelhouse Copenhagen. The concept is small but cleverly designed rooms with very cool shared spaces. It even has a gorgeous swimming pool, although I doubt we will bother with so many other things to do. Our private room has four capsule type bunks, each with a locker, USB port, light and power points. Floor space is limited but it works ok as we can use the spare bunk to store most of our suitcases. The beds are so comfortable and the ladders to the top bunks are solid metal that does not squeak. The best thing of all is it’s super quiet and looks out over a canal.
Our first Danish dinner was a weird mix of 7-Eleven and supermarket food …pizza, yakitori, blueberries and chocolate. We’re so excited about exploring Copenhagen tomorrow.
