Last day in Copenhagen

On my last day in the city I didn't want to do too much or wander too far since my flight was in the late afternoon.  So I decided to go to an area that I hadn't seen before, somewhat less touristy and with a very different feel.  Most of the things I've been describing have come from the central city or around it - near the canals, docks, and the oldest sections.  They've been tourist or business areas for the most part.

This neighborhood to the west of my hotel is mostly residential, very quiet and bourgeois.  It's a later addition to the city, and you can tell how influenced it was by Parisian city planning and architecture. 

There were almost no people on the street - it was so quiet I was worried I was headed in the wrong direction, since I assumed people would be out around noon on Saturday.  It was raining though, maybe that's why no one was around.

I saw this sign; I don't know what it means but it kind of amused me.

On this trip I did not go inside one church.  Not one!  Surprising, I know.  It's mostly because I'm not that interested in late Renaissance Northern European architecture, and there really aren't any churches older than 17th century in Copenhagen.  Here is one that was very pretty from the outside, though.

So my primary goal of the day was to tour the Carlsberg beer brewery. We have Carlsberg in the US, I'm pretty sure, but it's not that popular.  It's very popular in Northern Europe and the UK, though, and this was the original brewery of the company, dating from the mid 1800's.  Most of the buildings are later, though, and I suspect Carl Jacobsen, the son of the original guy, is solely responsible for every art deco building in Copenhagen. 

The previous two are part of the brewery complex, these next two were a water tower just outside its walls.  I particularly love the elephants!

Inside the brewery there are tons of different buildings - aside from the ones to do with brewing there are business buildings, a Carlsberg brand store, and lots of other things that I don't even know.

Also, weirdly, outside there is some project adventure or team building type of course?  Like, ropes to walk across, walls to climb, etc.  And this car suspended between trees.  I have no clue why.

There was a group of older Italian people near me while I was walking in, and they obviously assumed I couldn't understand Italian (I can't speak it but it's close enough to Spanish and French that I understand quite a bit) - they kept referring to me.  Anyway, they were saying how the complex reminded them of Auchwitz (??!!), I think because of the chimneys you can see here.  But wow, from the pictures I've seen this really does not resemble a concentration camp!

One thing I really liked about the place was that each of the buildings and such had dates on them.

 They have a ton of cars and wagons and such that used to deliver beer, from the 19th century to mid 20th.  For example this old Model T Ford:

The original guy who made the Carlsberg brand used swastikas a lot on his logos and such, and the museum took great pains to point out that this was long before the symbol was appropriated by the Nazis, I suppose so no one thought this guy (who died well before the 1930's) was a Nazi himself. 

Some other guy - not related to the family who built the brewery - houses his collection of unopened beer bottles in the museum.  It's the largest of that type in the world, with over 21,000 bottles.

Instruments for making beer barrels long ago:

And large casks they used to store beer:

You can see from the outside buildings that the family was also really into the arts, but they particularly liked sculpture.  In a courtyard in the brewery is part of Carl Jacobsen's personal collection, which includes casts of Rodin sculptures he bought.  He also was the one who donated the original Little Mermaid statue to the city; here is a small copy of the original:

Compare her to the modern, perhaps less attractive but more melancholy statue.

This device has something to do with the bottles, I don't know.  It looks cool.

When I was deciding what to do on Saturday I was between a couple of activities.  What firmly made up my mind was the fact that the stables at the brewery still have horses!  I spent way too long hanging out with them.

This guy here, Marco, stuck his head out to say hi as soon as he saw me approaching.  Thinking he was just being friendly I went up to pat him.  He was clearly looking for a treat, so I showed him I didn't have anything...and he proceeded to take a bite out of my scarf's fringe!  Bad horse!

Moving on, just outside the brewery is a park that I think the brewing family helped to set up.  Again it looks rather depressing at this time of year, but I think the main part of it will be beautiful when spring and summer come.

This was, and, I believe, remains, military quarters that were never used by the royal family, but for whatever reason it's still called the Fredericksberg Castle.  It's at one end of this large park.

The park itself reminds me much more of something like Central Park than the public parks in Paris.  Although it has its share of perfectly manicured lawns and flower beds a lot of it is just forest-y, full of weeds, and generally nice to stroll around.

This tree is rather interesting but there was nothing explaining it at the site - I got this information when I looked it up.  Apparently when kids in the city area turn 3 years old they give all their pacifiers to this tree as a sign of becoming a "big kid."  In return the pacifier fairy gives them a gift!  Some of them dictate sweet little notes to their pacifiers that they also leave on the tree, saying goodbye.

This is the main entrance to the park - I sort of came in the back way so I went out here instead of in.

And that's all for my long weekend in Copenhagen!  Overall I really loved it and I definitely want to go back sometime.  Today or tomorrow I'll be posting some of my general thoughts about the city and people.