Arriving in Copenhagen

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." ---Soren Kierkegaard

These words by Denmark's most famous philosopher came to mind frequently on our recent Northern Europe vacation. While flying to Copenhagen certainly costs more and is considerably less convenient than flying to London from Los Angeles, clearing customs proved to be a breeze, whereas London Heathrow can be a bit of a muddle. Soon we were whisked away by our cab driver to the Marriott. While he was certainly efficient and honest, if I could do it over, I would have called Lars Moulton (tel. 20 97 88 99), our knowledgeable Copenhagen native cabbie who cheerfully pointed out sites and related interesting historical anecdotes all the way to the airport on our final day in Europe.

Our check-in hit a snag when the desk clerk said our reservation did not designate that we wanted two beds. Yes, he admitted, it was for four adults, but they had only saved a room with one king bed in which only one roll-away could be added due to space limitations, so we would need to sleep three in the bed. As calmly as we could, we pointed out that no one in his or her right mind expects to sleep with three adults in one bed when they book a quad room. Eventually he came back with a solution which involved us paying 550 Kroners (about $110) to upgrade to a better room which included breakfast. Oh, and it would be a smoking room instead of a non-smoking room as booked. He assured us the hotel was overbooked and no other possibility existed.
We of course remembered the Seinfeld joke about knowing how to take a reservation but not keep the reservation, with keeping the reservation really being the key ingredient, but we didn't want to reference an American television show to someone who spoke English as a second language. Instead, we simply stayed with our original rational point that in booking a room for four adults, we assume at a minimum there would be two double beds, with a possible option on a roll-away. Miraculously, our clerk found a way to put a single person who hadn't arrived into a room with the one king bed instead of the two doubles he requested. This kind of double-dealing and arm-twisting to force upgrades upon arrival seems somewhat common in Europe, I've noticed, so I can't hold this one Marriott exclusively to blame for the practice, but it pissed me off. Nonetheless, I gave the bell hop a good tip when he dropped our bags at our room.
Soon, we were trekking across Copenhagen on foot to Rosenborg Castle, historic home of influential King Christian IV and venue for one stage of the 2009 Copenhagen Jazz Festival.