5/21 -- Explore Copenhagen, Day 2

I was relieved to find out today that the local way to say Copenhagen is as I thought, with an 'ah' on the a, not the long a as I was informed. Apparently, people unfamiliar with the Gernmanic languages say it the way it looks in English,  not the way the residents say it.

Today, we got to use our Copenhagen Card a bunch of times. We went to the Marble Church, the Amalienborg Castle and park, the Design Museum Denmark, the Amber Museum, the Round Tower, and Tivoli Gardens. We also found the building that Hans Christian Anderson lived in when he had his first fairy tale published and walked along the main pedestrian shopping street twice, visiting a favorite store, Flying Tiger as well as peeking into a Lego Store (both originated in Denmark).

Nothing on our Copenhagen Card list that we could visit, given our other commitments, opened until 10am, so we had sort of a lazy morning. The Marble Church and the Castle are both near the hotel, so we started there. The Marble Church is not only constructed with grey marble, it is also round, so interesting to look at.

The Castle has several buildings and ZERO signage to show where the museum was so we followed the crowd, which was watching the changing of the guard. We walked to the adjoining park across the street, before coming back to give it another shot. We walked nearly an entire circuit, until we saw another line AND an open door and found the entrance. It showcases a lot of photos of the royal family and the rooms where folks lived, furnished as  they had been while in use. One office area of an earlier king was essentially enshrined on his death. One of the kings had 6 kids and 4 of them married into other European royal families. When a prince wanted to marry the youngest sister of the current queen, he asked for her parents' permission and was asked to step  into the next room, which was an adjoining bathroom, while the parents discussed his offer. They accepted it and let him back out of the bathroom.

Central Statue which we had originally seen
from a block away centered in the columns
in the background.

Looking back at the Marble Church

Part of the Changing of the Guard process

Very modern opera building directly across the canal from
the Castle and park.

Decorations on the roof.

The Royal Family was given traditional
Greenland dress when they visited. The
current queen is the girl on the right.

A model of the castle complex. The Crown Prince and his
wife live there, at least sometimes.

There were lots of collections of stuff,
including this weapons display.

That didn't take long so we went down the block to the Design Museum, which had a special Bauhaus presentation. This was a school of design, established in 1919, which stood the current ideas of design on its head and encouraged the designers to combine arts and crafts with traditional architecture to create a cohesive whole. The result was very modern-looking furniture with clean lines. When I went to the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, one of my favorite pavilions was the exhibit of Danish Modern furniture, which was the natural outgrowth of this school. The furniture looked very familiar, but I was taken by the ceramic bird display below. They were life-size. Apparently, back then it was quite tricky to fire such  large pieces successfully, so these are really specially. The initial ones were all white, but later ones had color.

Above and below: Ceramic birds in a huge wooden cage

 

This was an example of an older design type/

The we headed off to find the Hans Christian Anderson's home at the time his first fairytale was published, but it started to rain pretty hard, so we hurried back to the hotel and took a short break. We joined the group for a traditional Danish lunch, which would help me  lose weight: pickled herring, salted salmon, shrimp (no cocktail sauce), a sort of potato-y chicken salad with lots of sauce, a small square of a brie-like cheese with an oblong radish on top, and my favorite: sliced beef with pickles and sauce. 

Then it was back to sightseeing. We found the Anderson house, near the restaurant, went to the small Amber Musuem nearby.

I fpund the contrast of old and older interesting. The colored
paint is called chalk paint and is much brighter than modern
building colors.

Jim at Hans Christian Anderson's house. We
looked for the plaque and couldn't see it til we
came back the next day and Jim looked up. It
is partially visible in the upper  left corner here.

Interesting boat on the New Harbor

The buildings along the harbor reminded
me of the Amsterdam canal homes.

We saw two of these -- they were originally
phone booths, and have been turned to a
variety of other uses. The 2 we saw were
coffee/snack stops.

Then we headed to the Round Tower. It adjoins a church and has a ramp almost all the way to the top plus 2 normal staircases and a 2-story circular staircase. The reward was a 360 degree view of the city and we were able to find several of the places we had been.

I loved the elaborate railing.

Yet another view of the power plant/ski slope

Steeples and the round building in the far distance.

You really get the sense of this as a really old place.

The Marble Church

The ramp up to the top.

 Back at the hotel, we  rested until it was time to walk to Tivoli Gardens with Veera and another couple. this is primarily an amusement park with lots of fun and scary looking rides (think about a tilt-a-whirl where your car also rocks back and forward so you are nearly upside down while spinning around). Veera treated us to some creative Danish licorice -- 3 of the 4 samples had a filling. The best was one with a filling that reminded me of a Milky Way, but all of them I could live without. Tivoli also has a LOT of beautiful gardens, and tons of restaurants. The others were hungrier than we were and interested in a brewery, so we walked back to the hotel,  picking up some fun stuff for all the little grandkids and a pair of very fun $5 reading glasses for me -- SO much cheaper and more attractive than at home!

Legos come from Denmark and they are everywhere. This
multi-part dragon was at a Lego store on the way to Tivoli.

This stork fountain won a competition
to be placed here and was special to
midwives in the past.

Another fountain with various sources of
water. One comes from the little boy....

This is the 2nd place statue called Dragon
Fountain (although the bull appears to be
winning) and is in the city hall square.

There are many different traditions represented here --
including a Chinese pavilion

Veera suggested that the peacock's tail might have been
trimmed by a lawn mower.

This is the extra special tilt-a-whirl that goes upside down.

As Jim and I were leaving, the lights started to come on.
It is supposed to be quite magical after dark.

Our other challenge tonight was to repack for our overnight ferry trip tomorrow, Our primary bags will go into the hold and we won't see them for about 24 hours, so we had to pack a separate bag with a change of clothes, etc. That actually took  less time than I thought it would, so now I can relax with a glass of wine as I write this.

5/20 -- Explore Copenhagen, Day 1

We set out on a bus trip to several  locations in Copenhagen this morning, starting with the Little Mermaid and ending at a food marketplace at lunch time. We also got a look at the creative new architecture of the city and the old too.

To get to the Little Mermaid, we passed the Gefion Fountain, which commemorates the acquisition of the land Copenhagen is on. The king of Sweden told the Norse goddess Gefjon that she could have all the land she could plow in a day and a night.She turned her four sons into oxen because she needed the land more than the sons. Behind the fountain is the only Anglican Church in Copenhagen. All the rest are Lutheran.

Anglican Church

Gefian Fountain

In the harbor was a nifty looking passenger sailing ship and in the background, you can see a relatively new power plant run on biomass from other European nations. There are also windmills visible. 100% of Denmark's energy comes from renewable sources. The interesting shape of the power plant demonstrates the creativity of its architect who thought that buildings should have a  purpose to draw people in and make them directly useful. Since Denmark is basically devoid of hills, he designed the power plant so that it could double as a ski slope. 

Swan in the harbor

Interesting passenger ship

Power plant that is a ski slope

The Little Mermaid was surrounded by her admirers. It was a great time to have patience and a long zoom. She is located at the far end of what used to be a defensive location with a star-shaped moat.

Part of the old star-shapped moat and ramparts

We headed next to Nordhavn, a growing residential community. Housing prices here are as bad as they are where we live -- $750 per square foot of house. There seems to be a lot more creativity and flexibility in architecture and an interest in finding a way to create a financially mixed community. In addition to expensive places, there are 'student housing' buildings in the same area to offer lower priced options. About 80% of the apartments in Copenhagen are owned, not rented. We stopped next to a place called the Silo which is across the street from a recycling center attached to a 7 story garage with an attractive playground on the top. The Danes are serious about recycling and make it a rather cheery community thing. Many objects no longer needed are put there for others to choose to use. The park on top was fun-looking and had great views too.

The Silo. Outer shell is metal.

Outside of the parking garage/recycling center.  The face of
the building is  lined with pierced metal and climbing plants
have been placed to grow up and cover the walls without
damaging the building.

Inside of the recycling center. The colorful walls are tubes of
different materials and there are openings for people to make
their deposits.

The upper level plarground. The front section contains
several small trampolines with seating along the sides.

I loved this climbing structure and thought
it would be great for our young grandkids.

An island in the harbor that used to be military.

In the distance, you can barely see a small island that is
used for youth excursions.

Above and below: two of the more interesting
buildings in the area.

 

The non-cobblestone part of the street is a
bike lane, elevated from the street and lower
than the sidewalk. Looks safer that what
we do here for bike lanes.

Right next door, there is a new island under construction. The base has been laid and it apparently will have an undulating surface based on the varying height of the poles showing how deep to make the fill.

This is the island they are building.

Then we were off to Rosenborg, a castle and park built by King Christian IV. The grounds are lovely and there are parks everywhere. Veera told us that there is so much winter, that people want to be outside  as much as possible when the weather is decent.

 

For a total contrast, we went to Freetown Christiania next. This was a former army area that was taken over by a group of hippies in 1971, and formed a collectively controlled village which has exempted itself from Copenhagen and Denmark laws. About 800 people live there in all sorts of homes -- sturdy, creative, wonky, and sketchy. A lot of the places we saw looked like they were storing up materials for some unknown purpose. The streets were in bad condition and mostly too small for cars. The area we stayed away from is known as Pusher Street, and it is famous for drug sales. After heroin became a problem, a rule was introduced that only 'soft drugs' were allowed, but still gangs control the sales area.

There was both art work and grafiti all over.

Imitation of a Tibetan Buddhist Temple like one we saw
in Nepal

Words on a gate of the same complex

One for the wider walkways and sturdier homes.

More artwork

This one reminded us of a Roma Caravan

A canal outside of Christinia

Our last official stop of the day was a marketplace where we got lunch.

The big fish on the right caught my interest, but real
customers (vs oglers like me) blocked a better shot.

We each got a Copenhagen card, good for entry over the next 3 days at a number of attractions and all the local transportation. We took the metro back to the hotel (to learn how it worked), planning to head out and explore, but neither of us had the energy, due to the combined impact of the overnight flight and a bad first night's sleep in a hot room with ineffective A/C, so we ended up crashing for the afternoon. We did rouse ourselves enough to join the group for dinner. Tomorrow we will have to make up for our lost time!

5/18 -- Europe, Here We Come Again!

On Saturday, we set off on a 6-week journey in Europe. The first half will be Scandinavia (focus on the fjords) and then we're off to Northern Italy and the Cinque Terra.

We left San Francisco at 2pm Saturday and arrived in Copenhagen, our home for the next 3 days, this afternoon. Except for Finland, we will be 9 hours ahead of Mill Valley. The flights were the best kind: reasonably on time, uneventful, with generous connection times. We are staying at the Phoenix Hotel, which seems to be pretty well located near lots of interesting stuff. We met the other 6 people who are joining us on this pre-trip and set off our our guide, Veera (a Finland native with an old summer home in the far north and a winter home in Helsinki), to get the lay of the land.

Right off, we were introduced to the concept of a barbershop that is also a bar -- we saw another mashup later too. The owner saw us peeking into his garden-level windows and invited us in. He said there is no drinking age limit -- apparently 16 is drinking age by the glass, but they don't have to check ids and will serve as long as the person looks competent.The bar portion primarily serves beer, but whiskey is becoming more popular.

Our host showing off his vintage barber chair and sinks with
a selection of adult beverages.

The back part of the establishment is a full bar.

A little later we saw this gas station that appears to be even
more popular for hamburgers -- there was a long line of
people waiting to spend $11 or more on a single take-out burger.

Veera told us that Copenhagen (pronounced with a long A, not short like I always thought) is in the forefront of foodie innovation and we walked past 2 Michelin rated restaurants in our shortish jaunt.

We walked down to the 'New Harbor' which is now lined with restaurants. In the old days, the houses lining the waterfront served the sailors and the establishments were primarily bars and brothels. It has upscaled a bunch since then!

Above and below -- 2 views of the new harbor

 

We made it back to the hotel and decided to get a grocery store dinner -- a sandwich, pasta salad, AND a decent bottle of red wine was $22! More reasonable than I expected here.