Copenhagen, Day 1

Oh hey, long time no see!  I'm back!  I will make my excuses, triumphant return, etc, later, because for now I want to get right to some of my recent adventures.

I am in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Hands of those who knew what country Copenhagen is in, and again if you could easily point it out on a map!  Denmark is in a bit of an interesting place geographically and culturally.  It's part of Scandanavia (along with more northern brethren Norway and Sweden), an area which refers to "historical cultural-linguistic affinities" amongst the countries (for those indignant on Finland and Iceland's behalf, I won't get into it too much but their "Scandanavian" characteristics came much later).  However, its only significant land border is with Germany and it does not share the same land mass as the other two.   It is a small peninsula jutting upward from the north of Germany along with a collection of islands nearby.  Copenhagen, the capital city, is itself a series of islands, and a mere 6 miles or so from Norway, separated by the sea.

So while historically Denmark certainly developed with "Scandanavian" characteristics in modern times it seems to be the least "Scandanavian" of the group.

Incidentally, I realized this was the first NEW country I've visited since going to Greece after freshman year of college (same trip as Turkey).

Anyway, all you guys really want to know is what I did and see pictures so let's get to it!

On the train into the city from the airport I had a conversation (in French) with a nice French guy who was in Copenhagen on business, and had never been before either.  His English was passable but my French was better so I helped him figure out some stuff and we chatted.  (This will become relevant later, is the only reason I mention it now.)

I had signed up for a hop-on hop-off tour today so I did that first thing, without hopping off anywhere.  One, it was rainy, two, the place I wanted to start walking was where the tour started and ended, three, the bus driver was really cute.  It was good to get a feel for the layout of the city, figure out which areas I wanted to visit later, and get some background.  I ended up going back to a few of the places today and will visit some more tomorrow.

One place from the tour I will not revisit, however, is the Little Mermaid statue.  You have probably seen pictures or heard of this statue: it commemorates the beloved tale by Hans Christian Anderson, and is probably the most famous image associated with Copenhagen.  The poor original mermaid, though, was decapitated and otherwise vandalized so the current one is a different mermaid by a different sculptor.  No wonder she looks so sad.

But there is nothing else to see around the statue, really; it's sitting on what is more or less a commercial dock/port.

When the tour ended I went over the the Tivoli Gardens, probably the most well-known attraction in the city.  I knew what it was generally, so I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't quite this.  The Tivoli Gardens are less gardens than well...an amusement park I suppose.  Except not quite.  It is a park - not so much gardens - that has all kinds of amusements: fast rides, kids rides, pantomime theater, open air dramas, a music stage, a concert hall, light shows in the evening, a playground, tons of restaurants from hot dog carts to gourmet places, gift shops, and something that appears to be a theme hotel.

It was conceived in the mid 1800's, and the claim is that the designer wanted to distract people from political troubles by giving them all kinds of ways to entertain themselves.

The main entrance

 

One of the more commercial corners

The pantomime theater

One of the rides for kids, I think

There are roller coasters and things too but I couldn't get good pictures of any of the bigger rides.

Then I wandered over the the famous Anderson Bakery for a Danish hot dog and pastry.  There are a few things here that are indelible parts of the national cuisine, and I feel obligated to try them: beer, herring (prepared many ways, but smoked is a favorite), hot dogs, and various pastries.  They take hot dogs very seriously here.  The typical "Danish hot dog" is 100% pork, has ketchup and a distinctive mayo (a type of remoulade), very thinly sliced pickles, and tiny crispy fried onions.

So here is my beer, hot dog, and mini danish. 

Next stop was the National Museum, a place that, while it does have a ton of stuff on Denmark alone, also has extensive exhibits on other cultures.  It's really big so I stuck to the Danish stuff only.  It covered from pre-history, starting with the Stone Age, through the Viking period, the monarchy, and finally modern history.

They have a good number of bog people, ancient artifacts like weapons and tools, some clothing, archeological finds, etc.  I won't bore with most of the details, because I think probably what people are most interested to see, in terms of Danish history, is Viking stuff.

This is a poor picture but look!  Viking helmets!  Actually, these are from a period that is not really the Viking period, this is Bronze Age.  But you can see that they are predecessors to the stereotypical Viking helmet.

This looks like some sort of sculpture, but look closely and you can see it's a bunch of horns hanging together.  These are Iron Age instruments only found in Scandanavia.

 These are braids of hair cut off to show respect for their gods, or something of that nature.  The longer the braid offered, the more prestigious it was.  I don't know how close this would have been to the original hair color, being that these are probably around 3,000 years old, but I find the color interesting!  They would not have all come from the same person.

Here is a room just full of rune stones.  They are pretty cool.

Moving forward, there was another floor that focused on Danish history from about 1200-1650 or so.  This dealt with the rise of Christianity and the monarchy.  A lot of the stuff was very familiar, but I was struck by how different the Scandanavian religious art is compared with the Western European examples I normally see.  It's simpler in style and much less focused on pain and suffering, at least until a later period.  The early crucifixes, for example, have Jesus serenely watching over his people as king, rather than having him bloody and injured and near death.  If anyone is interested I can post some pictures but I won't at the moment. 

The museum is housed in an old royal palace, and they restored some of the eighteenth century apartments on the 3rd floor.  I wandered through those a bit, noting that the Danish monarchy clearly shied away from the extreme opulence and splendor of the French court of the same period.  Also the portraits show that the royal Danish women were rather unfortunate-looking.

Finally there was a section on "stories of Denmark, 1600-2000."  This was super interesting to me as a historian, as it tried to go through the daily life of Danish people in all parts of society, and analyze how it had changed over time.  Rural, village, urban, landed gentry, bourgeois, peasants, through four hundred years.  Very cool.

...Except when it got to the end, the very modern history.  It made me feel old!  Especially this one part of the exhibit on the 1990's, where I spied this PlayStation 2.  What!  In a museum!  I don't think I've ever felt quite so old.

Finally, done with the museum, I stopped by its cafe for some tea and promptly was given the biggest "tea mug" I've ever seen.  I don't think this perspective does it justice.

And that's all for tonight!  We're still only halfway through my day today.

Next time: my journey to the current royal palace, the royal guards, the independent city-within-a-city in the middle of Copenhagen, and dinner.