Copenhagen

Guard

We docked in Copenhagen on Monday morning. On our way into port we saw the bridge between Malmo and Copenhagen. When we leave tonight, we will sail over the tunnel section of that bridge. With any luck, it will still be light and I will get a picture for a subsequent post.

We headed out on foot to the city to explore. We wandered into an old military installation that was still in use as a base of some kind. We were greeted by a seemingly fierce guard who turned out to be quite friendly. <grin> On the other side of the military base was an old, but still active, Anglican church.

AnglicanChurch

Near the church was a beautiful fountain. Garrison Keillor (GK) lived in Copenhagen for a period and told us that this fountain, and its associated statue, was much better than the statue of the Little Mermaid which is iconic of Copenhagen. He was absolutely right (more on the Little Mermaid later). Legend has it that the woman in the statue turned her 2 brothers into oxen and had them plow Denmark into existence (according to GK—with limited connectivity, I couldn’t corroborate that story). In any case the woman is whipping those oxen and she looks pretty tough. Whatever the story is, it was a beautiful fountain. 

Statue.1 Statue.2RealGuard

We headed fora place to take a tour of the canals by boat. We found the Royal palace (the Danes are very much a democratic socialist country, but they love their royalty). Here are their fierce looking guards, we happened to be there during the changing of the guard. Those hats MUST be hot.

RealGuard.2ChurchExt

Nearby was a gorgeous church modeled after St. Peter’s in Rome. It is the largest dome in Scandinavia and is as beautiful inside as outside. Our friend Mary is standing with Caroline. It is a Lutheran church and is undoubtedly used for ceremonial state functions. It is an active church and they were quite emphatic about being reverent and quiet in the building. It was hard to get a good picture of the dome. Below is a picture of the altar.

ChurchAltarLittleMermaid

We did a canal cruise which was a good way to see the city. As a part of that we saw the Little Mermaid statue from the back. It is actually quite unimpressive in spite of the crowd of tourists looking at it. Our tour guide told us that it has been decapitated, painted, dressed up, lost and an arm, and even travelled to China for a World’s fair there. The tourists certainly seem to be enthralled by it.

The canals were lined with boats, both active sail or motor boats and house boats. The house boats are permanently connected to water, electricity, phone, and internet and are not movable. In fact, if someone did try to move them they would likely sink because they are not structurally sound to move. Even with that issue, they are sought after addresses in Copenhagen.

After the canal boat ride, we had a very nice lunch at a place recommended by out guide from the boat. Caroline had Dover sole (which was wonderful), Mary had  the lunch plate (salmon, shrimp, and crab saddle smorgas (Danish for open face sandwiches), and Chuck had mussels as well as a bit or more of the other dishes.  We ate in a secluded quiet courtyard, so much nicer than the multitude of canal side restaurants that were crowded and touristy.

After lunch we walked to the Tivoli gardens through a popular shopping district. The Tivoli gardens was a bit of let down since it is an amusement park that charges admission and there is not much (nothing) to see from the outside. By then we were tired and we took a cab back to the ship.

As I write this, I am sitting on our verandah deck looking at this. Copenhagen is a beautiful city; we will come back for a longer visit if the opportunity presents itself.

Verandah

After dinner we went to the hear the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band (Pat, Richard, Gary, Peter, Lee (sitting in for Richie on keys). As usual, they were great. In the first set, they played Freddie the Freeloader, a jazz tune most notably recorded in Miles Davis’ seminal album, Kind of Blue. In the second set, the saxophone for Kustbandet (the Swedish jazz band that it on board) joined the band. The addition of a sax made for a very cool sound and they really started rocking. Here is a short excerpt (it is a big file, >100MB, so it may take some time to load).

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© Charles Eklund 2012