Travel Nightmare

So here are some things I have learned about Copenhagen:

1.Copenhageners like to bike. Everywhere. There are tons and tons of bikes. Everyone rides bikes: young people, old people, women, men, pregnant women, women in skirts, men in suits and on and on. You see rows and rows of bikes parked on the streets. The city is nicely arranged and has wonderful bikes paths. The women ride bikes in skirts and dresses. They have the cutest little baskets on the front of their bikes. They also have little rickshaw type things to put on the front of a bike to let children ride in. It {almost} makes me want to rent a bike and travel around town! My dad would be in heaven!
2.Copenhageners like to bundle and they evidently have cooler body temperatures that Brandon and I. It is so HOT everywhere! No place is air conditioned, including our hotel room. Now, there IS a supposed AC unit in here, but not matter how low we turn it, it does not cool down. Anyone who knows us knows that we pretty much keep our house frigid, especially at night. We are dying. The weather outside has been tolerable. Today I was out for a while and wore short sleeves and jeans. I wished I'd worn capris.
What I mean about "bundling" is that the folks here wear a lot of layers. It is probably upper 70's here today and lots of people have on jackets. ALL women wear scarves wrapped around their necks. And everyone has their babies bundled up so much I figure those poor babes are sweating! They will have a baby in a swaeter and hat with blankets piled around. And I am not talking newborns. I am talking nine month olds. In this weather, my kids would have on shorts!
3. Everyone has CUTE baby carriages. Like so cute I almost want to have another one just to get a cute carrige like that. {Ok, they are not that cute!} A lot of people have prams. They're really modern prams and if the baby is sitting, they can sit up and ride around and they have a little harness on. Other people just have Euro-chic baby strollers but they are still so cute! And of course they hang receiving blankets or cloth diapers over them so that a lot of times the baby is comepletely closed into the carriage. And bundled up I am sure!
4. Copenhagen does not strike me as particularly clean. It's no dirtier than any other city I've been to. And it's much more clean than NYC or Rome. But it doesn't knock my socks off with cleanliness. I talked to several people who had been to Denmark before and they said "Oh you'll love Denmark. It's so clean." Hmmm. Maybe if I got out of Copenhagen it would look like an Irish Springs commercial.
5. And finally the number one {or number five} thing I have learned about Copenhagen is that my stupid bank, Integra, cannot "communicate" with Denmark. Yes, after 9 international calls to our bank and Master.card, the final answer was that they cannot communicate with Denmark. Brandon said "the whole f*&%ing country???" OMW what a nightmare. We have not been able to get any cash from ATMs and when I have tried to use my card in a few places, if they did not have the capability to do credit rather than debit, the transaction was declined. Brandon travels internationally A LOT. {In the next few weeks alone he has 4 international trips.} He has never ever had trouble using our debit/ charge card ANYWHERE. I had zero trouble in Ireland and Rome. And suddenly, Integra Bank has something against business with Denmark? One lady's suggestion was "Well, maybe you could borrow some money from a friend." Let's just say it's a good thing there are a few thousand miles between that lady and Brandon. FINALLY today after visiting THREE banks here in Copenhagen, I was directed to the main branch of the biggest bank in the country and they were able to withdraw cash for me. HOWYA LOOYA!
There are a lot of other things I've learned. The Danish are pretty laid back. Copenhagen seems pretty safe. And that is a good thing because we haven't seen any police. At all. And no one we are with has seen any either. And the food here isn't all that great.
Brandon is done with the conference today so I have been working on a plan for our sightseeing tomorrow and Friday. I did a LOT of walking today because the main branch of the bank that I had to go to was pretty far from our hotel. But it did take me to a new part of town so that was fun. There will be lots of pics when I get home and can upload them!