Saturday August 20th to Tuesday, August 23th - Copenhagen

 Robyn was making her way back to the USA, while Sarah and I headed from Lucca to Copenhagen for a week. We had really enjoyed our time with the three of us together in Italy, so we missed Robyn and followed her progress until she had safely arrived at her destination and then re-united with her luggage, which took 6 days.

The Little Mermaid, Copenhagen

There was another character in Copenhagen who was missing someone she loved, so we went to visit her first. (Or maybe it was Robyn waiting for her bag to arrive!) I imagine most of you know the story of The Little Mermaid. The Disney version has the mermaid becoming human and marrying the Prince; the original Hans Christian Anderson story has the Prince falling in love with someone else, and so this statue represents the mermaid's ever-hopeful longing for her Prince.

Metro Escalators

Oh, my - what a change this place was from our Medieval Lucca! Modern Copenhagen is rooted in a newer  history than Tuscany, but there is still a wonderful mix of old and new.

Driverless Train

I have travelled on many train systems in different places and this is the best I've ever experienced. We were staying in a newly developing area - Nordhavn - so the line we used was only two years old. All over the city, these small driverless subway trains run every two to three minutes. It made getting around very convenient and inexpensive. 

Rejsekort - Metro Card

One could buy a rechargeable card, Rejsekort or Metro Card to make payment easy. They card  a little less than $15 and had to be recharged when the balance got to around $10. I can't tell you how much each ride cost, but during the week I probably spent about $50, which included travel to and from the airport, a trip to Sweden and a train and bus ride to a museum about an hour out of town. It also could be used on above ground S-trains, buses and ferries.

Check-in Machines

Unlike most other transport systems, access to the trains does not require that one go through a barrier to register the card. These check-in machines are scattered around station entrances and platforms and just need a card touch to be 'legal'. It meant there were no lines or crowding at entrances and exits. Inspectors came on the trains and checked tickets a couple of times to be sure we had checked in properly - often enough to make one think twice about cheating. We saw other people facing consequences for their failure to check-in and were told the fines are hefty. Similar machines with red labels were used to check-out. If one forgets to do that, the clock keeps running, so it will cost you extra.

Bicycles Everywhere

With such a great train system you'd think that would be enough, but no! This is also a bicycle culture.

A 'Green' Way to Transport Family

In addition to people riding bikes on their own, there are many ingenious carts that allow people to carry passengers and other heavy loads.

Food Delivery Cart

Note that the cargo holder is placed in front of the handlebars, not behind like the three-wheeler bikes one sees in the USA. Many of them also have an electric hybrid system, where kinetic energy is stored in a battery for an electric motor boost.

Bike Friendly Roads

All this is possible due to roads that have separate bike-lanes. In this photo, you can see the main road, then a median to separate the bike lane from the cars. The street perpendicular to the road is also a pedestrian street, which was also pretty common around the city. One did have to make sure one was walking on the sidewalk, not the bike lane. Fortunately they were clearly marked, but it took conscious effort to remember to look for the pedestrian sidewalk, or risk angry angry cyclist or worse, get bowled over. I never saw a traffic jam on the roads.

Bicycle Parking

The integration of public transport also makes bike-riding very attractive. There's lots of secure parking near train stations and both trains and buses allow bikes to be carried easily on board.

Riding While Stylish

Many riders looked very elegant, women wearing dresses men in business clothing, along with the casual and athletic. They all looked very graceful and comfortable on their bikes, riding with little apparent effort. I was told that they continue to ride through the very cold winters.

Motorcycle?

Other modes of getting around were novelties to my eyes. This vehicle looked at first glance like a little car - possibly an ice cream cart. But if you take a closer look, there is a seat on the right, facing the handlebars. The front of the vehicle is facing to the left of the photo. Now, I can say for sure, I've never seen anything like this around my neck of the woods! No doubt it's fuel efficient, though.

A Coffee Tuk Tuk!

This one identified itself as a tuk tuk, (actually a 'kaffe tuk') but is also a very tiny coffee shop on wheels. I think I'd have trouble getting in and out of its cab! Sarah and Chuck, could this be a business opportunity for Bangkok?

Nyhavn

Now that I've told you all the ways you can get around Copenhagen, what is there to see? Happily, there are lots of interesting places. I've added this photo of Nyhavn, or New Harbor to show the most crowded place we visited. Everywhere else we went was easy to move around, mostly without crowds.

Nyhavn

Nyhavn was built in the late 1600's with labor provided by prisoners of war to connect the King's Square with the open sea. For the next several centuries, it was a place of work - cargo and fish being transported in and out, and prostitution (according to Google). I was not aware of this area when I visited Copenhagen in the mid 1970's because it was not revitalized and pedestrianized until 1980. It is now a thriving base for bars, restaurants and tourist boat rides.

Colorful Townhouses

The townhouses date from the late 1600's and are very colorful.

Veteran Ship Museum

Veteran ships line the harbor, lending a old-world atmosphere to the colors of the town houses. Note the working boat of today's world, which you can see through the rigging. It carries boatloads of tourists up and down the harbor.

Number 18 - Hans Anderson Lived here Between 1871 and 1875

Hans Christian Anderson lived in Nyhavn on two occasions - first between 1845 and 1864 and then a second time between 1871 to 1875. The second place he occupied, is now a souvenir shop themed after his fairy stories.

Hans Christian Anderson in Kongens Have (King's Garden)

Hans Christian also was also a major statue in the Kongen's Have, or King's Garden not far away from Nyhavn. I rather liked this scene of the two young women picnicking beside him. His fairy stories have always been more palatable to me than some of the other authors like the Brother's Grimm. If I recall, they generally have more hopeful endings - although it's possible that the versions I'm familiar with have been sanitized - like The Little Mermaid.

 One of the Four Amalienborg palaces

It was a sharp contrast to the narrow streets of Tuscany, to be in such large public spaces. The Amalienborg Palace complex was originally built for four noble families, but when the Christiansborg royal palace burned down in 1794, the royal family bought the four palaces with identical facades around a large, octagonal courtyard. The cause of the fire that burned the other palace had been caused by a stage decoration that caught fire during a performance of one of the first operas to ever be performed in Denmark! How ironic! Even more ironic is that the very modern and huge new opera house is built right across the water from the palaces today, so they must have decided that operatic music was worthwhile, even though it had burned down their palace! LOL!

National Opera House, Copenhagen

The National Opera House, Copenhagen, is one of the most modern opera houses in the world, and one of the most expensive to build. It cost $370,000,000 and opened in 2005. In addition to the main stage there are five other stages connected to it and seats can be individually angled to give the best views of the stage.

View From the Main Entrance of the Opera House

It's also positioned so that the view from the entrance looks through the open courtyard of the Amalienborg to Frederik's Kirke, better known as the Marble Church. It's a beautiful church in the center of Copenhagen and we were told that when the Metro station opened nearby, they called the stop Frederik's Kirke. There was much confusion and upset expressed, because everyone knew it as Marmorkirken or Marble Church, so they changed the name of the station in the face of the outcry.

Busby at the Queen's Palace, Amalienborg

The palace occupied by the present Queen, Margrethe II, is guarded by the Royal Life Guards who look similar to those who guard the palaces of Great Britain. Apparently the busby hats they wear are actually bearskins from Canada and weigh 1.5 pounds! They were chosen to make the soldiers look taller and more intimidating, but because they're pretty tough to keep on the head during battle, are now relegated to ceremonial roles. I found myself hoping they are also very warm, as the winters here get quite cold. I suspect the red and blue coat hanging in his little box gets good use through much of the year.

Rundetaarn. or Round Tower

Nestled among the townhouses on Krystalgade is an unusual round tower, or Rundetaarn. Originally built as an observatory in the 1600's, it is quite unusual for its equestrian staircase that is 114 feet high.

Tom Bak Demonstrates the Equestrian Staircase in the Rundetaarn (Photo by Sarah Lamp)

We were very fortunate to have a guide in the form of Tom Bak who is a friend of Sarah and Chuck's from Bangkok. He is Danish and was visiting an uncle with his siblings while we were here. He told us of the many times he'd visited the Round Tower as a child, so we trekked up the helical corridor, which Tom said was used to allow the king to ride his horse up. I felt sorry for the horse! The cobblestones looked slick to me.

View From the Top of the Rundetaarn

It is no longer used as an observatory - light pollution and vibrations took away that function. It is a fun outing for tourists however, for a small fee, and the views from the top were worth the climb.

Stolpersteine, or Stumbling Stone

Outside one house, we noticed this little brass plaque in the cobblestones. I had seen them when I was in Frankfurt a few years ago, so recognized it when we stumbled across it here. It is a little 10 x 10 cm stone that memorializes the person who lived at the house. This one tells us that Ernst Platsko, was taken away and killed in the Holocaust. These stones began to be installed in Germany in 1997 and in Copenhagen in 2019. I would like to see something similar in the USA for lynching sites.  The basis for these memorials is the idea that "a human being is forgotten only when their name is forgotten". These little plaques will extend the collective memory for these events.

Pollination in the Botanical Gardens

We walked through the Botanical Gardens which are are part of the Natural History Museum. The bees were less furry, quite large and yellower than the ones I see in the USA.

Conservatory in the Botanical Gardens

These gardens are noted for the large glass conservatories that date from 1874. We walked through the Palm House which had lots of tropical vegetation, but my greatest delight was the Butterfly House.

Brown Butterfly

Sorry, I don't know its name, but I really appreciated that the citrus they had put in a petri dish, enticed it to sit still for a moment. The Butterfly House was crowded, not only with insects, but also with people, who I didn't appreciate so much, as they got in the way of my camera.

Lysander Cattleheart

The scientist in me disappeared when seeing these beautiful creatures fly around, so I paid no attention to identifying them. The artist in me was thrilled when one landed for a while to pose for me and occasionally I succeeded in getting a decent image.

Glass Butterfly

I was awfully pleased to catch this glass butterfly sitting still for just a moment. Sarah's keen eye spotted a few of these little guys, with their jewel-like, transparent wings. You can see the color of the rock behind it, through its wings.

Rosenborg Castle

The next butterflies we saw were at the Rosenborg Castle, a nearby palace built in 1606.

Table Inlaid With Semi-Precious Stones

We trekked through its many rooms, took photos of busts, carpets, vases, cabinets, wall-hangings etc.  I was particularly taken by a beautiful table in Frederik IV's Hall, with this butterfly cleverly created from thin slices of agate. I was amused to discover it was presented to Frederik IV in 1709 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany and was made in Florence. I guess I was having trouble letting go of that Italian beauty!

Tom, Me and Sarah in Rosenborg's Mirror Cabinet (Photo by Sarah Lamp)

One of the Kings who resided here, Christian V, modeled this little room after the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. The scale of it was quite a lot smaller and only a few people could occupy the space open to the public. The mirror in the floor was apparently a bit of a problem for the women wearing their big skirts - sounds as if the king was a bit racy, as we, along with others, were quite disappointed that we were not permitted to see his pornography collection that was in a little room off to the side. We did note the scratch markings on the floor where the cabinet would have opened and closed !

The Glass Cabinet

My appetite for roaming through such a proliferation of artwork and historical nick knacks is pretty limited, but this was a relatively small castle and had little side rooms that had their many artefacts displayed artistically. Apparently little rooms like this were common for displaying porcelain, but this one for glass is thought to be unique. I enjoyed this little glass room. Oddly enough, the items were a gift to the city from Venice, also in 1709. (I promise, I chose the photos before I identified the history of them. I am amused that it is also Italian as Venice is the next destination for Sarah and me.)

Set of Colt Revolvers - A Gift From An Envoy of President Lincoln 

This beautiful set of Colt revolvers was a gift from President Lincoln, through an envoy. At the time, Lincoln was a new President and was a weapon not known to Europe at that time.

Crown Jewels, Rosenborg

The icing on the cake was the visit to the cellar, separate from the main exhibits, where the Crown Jewels were displayed behind a huge vault door. We regretted we had not eaten the icing first. By this time, our heads had been filled with all the other beauty and there was little room left. If you like this sort of thing, and ever visit Rosenborg, go see the crown jewels first!

Neanderthal Exhibit at The Natural History Museum

I've been interested in Neanderthals since I found out through '23 and Me' testing that I have higher than average Neanderthal DNA. (Is that something that I should be admitting publicly?) Although there is no archeological evidence that Neanderthals lived in Denmark, the museum had an exhibit.

The Lehringen Spear

The most exciting exhibit was this Lehringen spear from Germany, which had been found inside the chest of a straight-tusked elephant. (It's the faintly white, very skinny long thing in the middle of the photo.) It is made of yew wood, is 7.9 feet long and is dated to 120,000 years BC, which in terms of earth's history is really very modern. It had been sharpened with a flint knife to spear the animal. It tells anthropologists that the Neanderthals had to get quite close to their prey to thrust the weapon into them - they were not thrown. 

Mammoth Skeleton

The museum had a rather nice Mammoth skeleton. They also had a completely naked reconstruction of a Neanderthal man, but I'll spare you that image for fear I might end up on some sex offenders list somewhere! The collection revealed the Neanderthals to be quite innovative, using skins and hides for clothing, making compound tools and making ropes from plant fibers. They also created the world's first synthetic glue, by heating birch bark, which releases a black, sticky tar. This was then mixed with sand, ochre and charcoal to make pitch.

Glue-Making Reconstruction

The displays were mostly of very tiny objects in dark reconstructions, so did not lend itself to photography. I was hoping to get more definitive answers as to why they died out, but this exhibit did not provide any definitive answers.

Neanderthal Skull

The final exhibit was a room full of numerous skulls showing all the different iterations of evolution that finally resulted in homo sapiens. It led me to the conclusion that human evolution is very complicated and I'm not going to try to figure it all out!

Attractive Frieze at Natural History Museum

I was happy to find at least something to photograph here - it was a lovely frieze on the staircase!

Gefionspringvandet

This lovely fountain is not far from the Mermaid. It was donated by the Carlsbad brewery on the occasion of their 50th Anniversary and was completed in 1908. It depicts a 9th Century poem that tells the story of the Norse Goddess Gefjun, who had been promised ownership of whatever land she could plough in a night, by the Swedish King. 

Gefjun Gets Serious

Well, just one look at her face tells you that she's pretty serious about this task! So much so that she turns her four sons into oxen. The land she plowed became the island of Zealand, where Copenhagen is located. The resulting lake from the hole that she dug, became Lögrinn, according to Wikipedia, but the tourist information says the shape matches Lake Vännern in Sweden. 

Copenhagen was a small village in the 900's and a castle was built here in 1167. It became the capital of Denmark in 1445.

Snake Detail From Gefionspringvandet

I really liked this snake detail on the side of the fountain. I found nothing to tell me why there are snakes here. It seems to be climbing out of the fountain, so I wondered if it was leaving Denmark, but they have two species of snake here. Oh, well, artistry, I suppose.

A Busy City Street - Corner Ameliegade and Esplanaden

I leave you with this last couple of photos as a final taste of the Danish spirit. This intersection is in the city and is where two major roads meet. Nothing special about the buildings, really. There was an ironman race going on, which is why the barriers were there.

If you zoom in to the very top of the building, you will see a little porch.

Sun Worshipper

On the porch is a woman sunbathing. I thought it was a lovely testament to the Dane's love of nature, even in the midst of city bustle. She could just as well be on the beach. In a climate that is cold for much of the year, people come out and relish in the sunshine. I loved her pragmatism

I have thoroughly enjoyed my active 'tourist' days here and am grateful to Tom Bak for showing us around.