Erynn came along to Copenhagen on one of my business trips. We were able to have two days to ourselves to explore the city. The city is about as perfectly "European" as a city can get. Everyone dresses in black and is beautiful. The streets are clean with only affluent people walking around. Everything is orderly and where it should be, and they even have public bicycles that you can use to pedal around the city. Each of the bicycles has a chain that is released if you put a Kroner coin into it. To get your money back you lock the chain back up when you're done with the bike. This scheme would last about 30 seconds in Britain. I actually think Cambridge, a city well-known for its pedalling populace, bought a bunch of public bicycles. Apparently within a week they were all stolen and sold in Holland.
The focal point of Copenhagen for us was Nyhavn, or New Harbor. Along the quay are a bunch of old merchant buildings that are hundreds of years old and are now pubs, cafes, and flats. We took a tour boat around the city to get a feel of what the city looked like, and above are two photos of Nyhavn.
And here is a picture of me on the tour boat with Nyhavn in the background. We really had a good time, but this photo was taken during the 5 minutes it wasn't raining on the boat trip. I don't think I've ever been as hopelessly exposed to the rain as I was on this boat trip. We were fully unprepared and were deluged. This also explains the lack of photos from the boat eventhough there were many photo-worthy sites.
Here's the only other "dry" photo we took from the tour boat.
We really enjoyed walking around the city. Along the theme of the "perfect European city," everything was just pleasant. ahhhh Here I am in front of the Christianborg, which is just some random government building.
And me again in front of the Slotholmen. There's a neat little canal that encircles what used to be some important government buildings, but are now just ordinary government buildings. But anything with a swimming pool will surely bring the property values up some day.
This is the Hoejbro Plads, which is just a square we saw on our way to see the old stock exchange.
From the Hoejbro Plads you can see the old stock exhange (borse) in the background of the first picture. The second picture is a close up of the stock exchange. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of all the buildings with interesting spires. There had to have been a competition at some point in time because many of the buildings had intricate spires.
Greed is Good! Long live Wall Street. I love that movie.
To the north of the city is a beautiful park and old military base. About a 20 minute walk away from the city centre is the famous mermaid statue. This stupid thing is mentioned everywhere. When you go to Copenhagen the first thing people ask upon your return is whether or not you've seen this thing. Well let me tell you it is probably the most disappointing site on the trip. The statue is about 3 feet tall and not that amazing. At some point a concerned citizen cut the head off the mermaid, which is actually the most interesting factoid about the statue. But here it is to prove that yes, we in fact, did see the mermaid statue in Copenhagen. Next.
Walking back through the park on our way back to the city and the royal palace, we saw the beautiful little church of St. Albans.
I don't think the royalty in Denmark is all that big of a deal. In this photo I'm standing smack dab in the center of the palace grounds looking towards Federick Street. I'm sure they've locked the door, but come on!
And at one end of the palace square is the Marmorkirken. Kirken meaning church. You could see this church in the background of the previous photo.
And here is Peter (I actually don't know his name, but everyone in Denmark is named Peter) making sure the door stays looked to the king's house. This was one of the only times I wish I had a video camera. I'm used to all the pomp and circumstance associated with the British palace guards, but these guys just walked back and forth with their arms crossed. Way too casual. That's why I think I could have really met the king if I really wanted to, but since the Danes don't even care about him I didn't bother either.
Before we left we stopped at the Tivoli Gardens. It was manicured like any self respecting amusement park should be, but it was the opposite of exciting. It's in the center of the city and is filled with locals of all things! I think all the foreigners stay away because it's so damn boring. I think I overheard someone explaining that since they're Danish it wouldn't be proper to have too much fun on a night out. Anyway, here is Erynn in front of one of the pavillions being pelted by the persistent rain.
© 2001 Doug Rathburn