The Admiral Hotel at Copenhagen, Denmark

I have always had a fascination for Scandinavia and always dreamt of visiting those countries, and unexpectedly, the chance popped out of the blue. I was included in a delegation to visit copenhagen in a professional capacity in the first week of September.

We landed in Copenhagen at mid afternoon and the weather was bright and sunny. We transferred to Admiral Hotel on the waterfront. At first sight the exterior didnt look like any other hotel. It was made up of drab bricks with tiny windows. The lobby held a very large model of a viking ship encased in glass. The reception area was narrow with wooden pillars and exposed beams along its entire length. We were then told that this very building was 200 hundred years old and it was a granary which was converted into a star hotel. The building has been awarded the Europe Nostra award for its contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage. This was one of the first indications of the importance given to the preservation of past culture in the entire city. Later as we moved around the city, I found that most of the buildings were from the 18th century. There was not a single skyscraper. There wasn't a single building beyond three floors. I found hundreds of cyclists at any given point of time. Young or old everybody were cycling. I felt that I had gone back in time. The only indication that we were in the 21st century was when I spotted some sleek BMW's and Mercedes Benz cabs. I didnt encounter a single traffic jam. I just fell in love with Copenhagen. People too were happy and laid back. Nobody seemed to be stressed out. Apart from the cyclists everybody seemed to be exercising- jogging or cycling. I didnt encounter a single obese person during my entire stay in Denmark. Amazing.

In the 18th century the Admiral hotel happened to be a warehouse, storing thousands of barrels of grain. The warehouse was originally built as a granary for the trading company Pingel, Meyer, Prætorius & Co.in 1787 and, thanks to its architectural beauty, the building bears witness to the wealth generated by late 18th century trade. The warehouse started life at the time when all shipping was under sail. In those days, the harbour was a hive of bustling activity and the warehouse was a focal point for the shipping trade, not only to other parts of Denmark but to the danish colonies and the rest of the world. On April 2nd 1801, the Danish and English fleets fought the renowned war "Battle of Copenhagen" right outside the warehouse windows. Anyone who had sought shelter behind the massive warehouse walls might have witnessed the admiral putting his telescope to his blind eye in order to avoid acknowledging his commander's permission to withdraw. On September 3rd 1807, the wings of history passed over the warehouse once again. During the second Battle of Copenhagen, a huge English fleet besieged Copenhagen and bombarded the city. While cannon fire flew over the warehouse, the streets filled with the homeless, the wounded and the dying. What is now the hotel's lounge and where the old grain drying oven once stood, was then used to provide shelter for the many wounded. In the days when the warehouse was a granary, up to 30.000 barrels of grain could be stored and a grain drying oven was commissioned by and installed for the monarch. The warehouse was originally two separate buildings, which were connected by a mid-section at the end of the 19th century. The building was acquired by private investors in 1973 for redevelopment as a hotel. The architects Flemming Hertz and Ole Ramsgaard Thomsen undertook the conversion which was rewarded with an Nostra diploma from the Eu. The hotel opened its foors in January 1978. It was refurbished in 2004