When I adventure in Denmark

[ljplicease]

The University in Linköping booked us tickets to Copenhagen via Frankfurt from Dulles on Lufthansa. Lufthansa was great, if cramped. You can't really complain when you aren't paying. I watched an old episode of Magnum PI, The Martian, and the ending of Episodes VII and IV. I also tried to get some sleep but only managed to keep my eyes closed for about two hours. Food was surprisingly good for airplane sustenance. Frankfurt had very unhelpful signs, but we managed to get through passport check. I was out like a light on the flight to Copenhagen; unfortunately that was a very short flight. Don was there to pick us up. and we were ready to starting adventuring.

(day one) Our first trip was out to Roskilde which is apparently located on the island of Old Zealand^[1]. We visited the Roskilde Cathedral which is surprisingly made mostly of brick^[2]. Apparently this was the first Gothic cathedral made out of brick. Many of the expired royalty was housed in large sarcophaguses. From there we walked down the hill to the Viking Museum. Here they were apparently obsessed with digging up old Viking ships, and building replicas of them. Having missed my big break as an under water archaeologist I was pretty interested in this. We went in to watch the museum video in a dark room and feeling sleepy said “Oh this is a terrible idea” before falling fast asleep. Somehow I picked up a surprising amount because Lena kept telling me stuff and I was rudely like “Oh I know that”. Outside we watched some workers making wooden Viking ships as we had afternoon tea which consisted of a hot chocolate. I discovered free wifi, which I would later find is not that unusual in Denmark. On the way back to the train station I was disconcerted to discover that the path which had been down hill all the way to the museum was somehow now uphill. Back to Copenhagen and the hotel, which was a pretty little spot in the middle of Nyhavn with a nice view of the 17th and 18th century townhouses on the other side of the canal.

On our first day in Copenhagen they were running some sort of race through the city. When we emerged from our hotel they were blocking off the streets around Nyhavn but it wasn't obvious why. Then a little bit later our path was blocked by this stream of peoples! There was nothing to do but find a hole and punch on through!

The Caritas Well (Caritasbrønden), built by Christian IV in 1608, is the oldest fountain in Denmark. We passed by it on our walk to the train station.

I thought this was clever use of scaffolding by one merchant to display some dresses for sale

There was lots of construction going on in Copenhagen. A big part of the big square was blocked off by this green wall. When I took this, the light was reflecting off the windows opposite making it look like it was glowing alien green.

Our home for our three days in Denmark was this cute little canal “nyhavn” off the main river in Copenhagen. Delightfullness ensues.

This is not the boat tour we took (see below). This was departed from Nyhavn.

Copenhagen wasn't just cute little row houses, it also had gleaming modern monsters. And construction. They were building and revamping everywhere.

...and reflecty too...

Just some flowers

The cathedral in Roskilde was the first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick. Included also in this picture is a pipe.

This is one of the ceilings inside of the cathedral in Roskilde.

At the Viking Ship Museum they were not only preserving old Viking ships dredged up from the sea floor, but slavishly building new ones.

And an example a little further along

There were some stones arrayed in a circle near the museum.

Lena on the train ride home.

(day two) I woke up super early the next day so we went for a walk. Nyhavn and its adjacent streets were completely deserted at that hour. The light was really pretty though so great for taking pictures. We walked down the river past many pretty sailing ships. Then we walked by the Maersk complex. They had a pretty neat model of one of their container ships and an oil drilling platform, along with a holographic video of how neat they are as a company and their services are still needed even though Solar and Wind are pretty neat ideas too. I really like models. Past that was a building with these funny looking stations which we later found out is where the royals get on boats to get to the Royal Yacht parked a little further down the river.

By the time we got back to the hotel it was time for breakfast. The marmalade was to die for. Everything was really tasty. Mum had arrived the night before after we went to sleep so the four of us went to see the Little Mermaid who was being harassed by bus loads of enthusiastic tourists. It turns out that the statue is just a little further down the river from the Maersk building so we had almost arrived there by mistake^[3] earlier that morning. After that we went up the Rundetaarn^[4] which is a 17th century astronomical observatory, which now mostly serves as a nice view of the city. After a detour back to the hotel to get my Copenhagen Ticket^[5] which I had forgotten in my sleepiness, we made it to Rosenborg Castle. Originally a summer house for Christian IV back in 1606, it is pretty ostentatious^[6]. My favorite picture was of the ceiling in the room where the displayed the crowns. The reflecty was nice. After that, we hadn't apparently seen enough castles, because it was time to go to Kronborg in Helsingør^[7], popularly marketed as “Hamlet's Castle”. This was pretty good too. Toward the end of the day we went through the underground and got nearly lost in maze like dark cellars bellow. I asked “How is this not like the best part of this place?” Nobody disagreed. It was time for them to kick us out of the castle proper but we walked around the perimeter on our way back to the train station. A spooky fog came in, which would have made a great opening to... well either Hamlet or Scooby-Doo. Back in Copenhagen we had dinner at one of the restaurants in Tivoli Gardens. Lena managed to get us a wonderful seat away from the madding crowd and the food was pretty delicious. Dessert was even better.

Nyhavn early morning deserted

I also noticed the locks, like I saw in China.

Prominent on the waterfront, along with the Littler Mermaid was the Maersk building.

Carl Frederik Tietgen in all his industrialist glory. I snapped this on the way to the Little Mermaid, which I didn't photograph on film because all of the tourists were rudely climbing all over her.

On our way to see the little mermaid, I took a picture of this less visited statue peering over the trees. Then a guy appeared out of the bushes, which was slightly disconcerting.

Detail from Alexander Nevsky Church. It was built by the Russian government in Copenhagen in 1881.

Wider shot.

Inside the Rundetaarn someone was using the beutiful light to shoot some portraits.

Rundetaarn from the outside.

I thought the figures on the side of this building were interesting.

And here is an elephant

Rosenborg Castle had guys with guns who looked like they meant business.

Lena was able to touch the ceiling in this spiral staircase in Rosenborg Castle.

Found in the bacement of Rosenborg Castle.

Also found in the basement of Rosenborg castle. I liked the reflections on the ceiling. And the handy place to rest my camera for a long exposure.

These were outside the train station in Helsingør. So Hamlet would have seen them on his way to work.

We had just enough time for a quick (late) lunch at this take out place in Helsingør before we were off to the castle.

Kronborg was by the Danes used to enforce a toll on passing shipping way back in the day.

Funnest part of Hamlet's Castle was navigating the cavernous basement.

We went back to Nyhavn to checkout the resturant scene for dinner, but didn't find anything that suited.

Tivoli Gardens

And the other direction

Little sphere ponds and a poster at Tivoli.

(day three) Woke up early again today and walked around the canal again before breakfast which was itself a repeat performance of wonderful. We took a boat tour of the city. Some of the bridges in the city are very low. At the end of that tour Christiansborg Palace was just across the river so we went to see how just how ostentatious the current Danish royals are. In addition to being the seat of the Danish Parliament, it is where the King receives important guests. There were lots of beautiful halls. In one big one I saw a photograph of a function and played the game of spot the important dignitary. I made out Lula and Angela Merkel. There were also some cool ruins under the palace which were fun and a nice respite from the heat outside.

We were finally castled out^[8] it was time for lunch, so we had pizza, soda and ice cream. Nice! As I type this I am on the train to Linköping in Sweden, where we will spend the rest of our vacation.

On our little boat tour of Copenhagen we saw this funny circle foot bridge.

Everyone was staring at this giant enflatable man and the boat tour gudie was like “I have no idea what that is”.

Someone was also filming stuff on the stern.

We cruised by royal yacht.

With royal sailors I suppose. The telephoto zoom was working pretty good that day.

There wasn't much head room under some of those bridges. The last bridge was a longer one and our tour guide sung a tune and was rewarded with a sitting (because of the head room) ovation.

Sign detail, fish and ship.

Sign detail, ship and ?

There were some ruins under Christiansborg. I enjoy ruins.

Christianborg steps.

Christianborg chandelier.

Christianborg statues.

elsewhere in Copenhagen...

Some advertising and the end of the roll.

Postbox.

Our last stop in Copenhagen was the ice cream shop.

---

1. It is funny when you are so familiar with the New thing like New York or New Mexico or New Zealand what a surprise it is to find the Old York or Old Mexico or Old Zealand. Not that they call the originals “Old” of course
2. When I was studying at the University of Arizona, they told me that there was a rule that all the buildings on campus needed to be made of 90% brick, and the architect for the library hated brick and to get around the rule made enormous walkways around the Library made of brick to follow the letter if not the spirit of the rule. This could be totally fabricated, but the narrative did fit the large number of brick buildings on campus.
3. On the boat tour that we had the next day the guide pointed out with some pleasure how much darker the ending in the original The Little Mermaid was than in the Disney version
4. or “Round Tower”
5. Great deal: you can do just about everything that you want to see plus public transport for a fixed number of days for a single price
6. After seeing the home of FDR and his neighbor Frederick William Vanderbilt, I concluded that it is far better a thing to be rich than to be president. Now I am pretty sure that it is even better to be Danish royalty
7. or “Elsinore”
8. When Lena said “I want to see castles!” when we were discussing our trip to Europe, I promised her: “Don't worry, Europe is lousy with castles!”

Comments

[lucymorningstar]

It all sounds wonderful, I'm glad you're having a good time! :)

[plicease]

vacation is great.

[oakfarm2.livejournal.com]

Funny I just was in Linköping, or well, I just changed trains there. I have one hour and 30, so I took a walk and I wrote a little while having an ice latte at the station.

Not trying to “ top you" but now I am reminded that I have been to the viking museum in York, England. The viking settlement there could definitely be called Old York. (I have never been to New York, so if you have you can top me.) Btw I have been to one or two archaeological site in sweden, too, and I even have though the I should visit the viking settlement in Newfoundland. I just like history.

[plicease]

To me even sleepy Linköping is mildly exotic, where as New York where I lived for six years is very plain and ordinary :)

[arwen-of-lorien.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this post. The architecture is beautiful and I love all the brick buildings, unlike the architect of the University of Arizona Library, hehe.

[plicease]

Thanks. I enjoyed studying in the Library, but the outside meh.