Bloggo ventiottesimo: Kobenhavn: Friday

Having spent a very restful first night in Copenhagen I awoke Friday looking forward to breakfast and a boat tour. Breakfast was quite wonderful, a buffet featuring cereals, all sorts of bread five or six kinds of lunch meat, cheese -- not much fruit, sad to say -- but Danish pastry of course! You've not lived until you've tasted a Danish in Denmark! Delicious! As a very frugal traveler I packed the meat and cheese into a sandwich for my lunch. I have heard differing views on the etiquette of this. Some think it completely improper; I think it fine -- the food is set out for me. Does it matter if I eat it at the table or eat some of what I've already taken a little later? Weigh in if you like! No one ever does when I ask them, but I live in hope!

That done, I headed out for my first walk outside my immediate neighborhood, and happily found it easy to get to Gammel Strand, a strip that runs along one of the many canals in Copenhagen. I was there for boat tour, as were two Asian women, and two European women as well. Shortly an older Australian fellow joined us. Then a very pretty young Danish woman parked her bike next to the pier. There were twenty or thirty others at least parked there already, so she could have been going anywhere.

Copenhagen - a city of bicycles

Copenhagen is not without its traffic snarls, lots of automobiles on the road, but they are nothing compared to the the number of bicycles. The bike lanes are clearly marked and woe to the pedestrian that steps into one. The Danes fly by, sometimes two or three abreast, on their cycles. The city has adapted completely, it seems to me, to this means of travel, nothing like London or New York (or even Ithaca) taking your life in your hands every time you mount a bicycle. The rest of the public transport system is impressive as well. Interestingly, unlike other European cities I've visited, I've noticed few if any motor scooters, and a damned good thing if you ask me. But you won't -- you say you will, but you won't...

But back to the young Danish woman: she turned out to be our tour guide! There were only six or eight of us as it was the first boat out that day, and she seemed relieved to know that all of us were English speakers. She was prepared to do the tour in three languages: Danish of course, English and German. No matter how good you are at this, it's got to be nerve-wracking, working between three languages almost at once. She turned out to be excellent with her English, less so with her sense of humor. She told the jokes she probably tells daily, but in a very perfunctory manner/ Still, I enjoyed them, and I enjoyed her tour.

It was nice enough, sunny, if a bit nippy, to be out on the deck as opposed to the under glass-covered, heated cabin. I wanted to snap photos, and outside was much better than in. Everyone one else on the cruise had the same idea. She and the cap'n, an excellent pilot, maneuvering us through some of the tiniest tunnels I could imagine this boat squeezing through, slowing for preferred photo opps, All in all this approximately hour and ten minutes was a great way to see a good bit of Copenhagen! We passed several museums, the amazing Operaen (the Opera House)...

 and the New Royal Theatre...

...we sailed in and out of canals where every apartment or house seemed to own at least one pretty boat,

the guide pointed out the restricted area that was the property of the Danish Navy, which included a big battleship, a world war II submarine, and nicest of all a beautiful four-rigger, that was used to teach young students "the ropes" literally!

Several others joined us at one of the most popular tourist destinations in Copenhagen, the Little Mermaid statue, and as we passed a group of eight or ten kayakers maneuvered around us.

Little Mermaid (lost up left)
& kayakers

It was a fresh, bracing way to begin the day, and I saw some of Copenhagen within an hour which I'd probably not see if I spent a week here.

The end of the boat tour - Gammel Strand

Off the tour boat and on my own, I began museum visits, though the day was so lovely I walked outside a good bit as well. I visited the National Museum, which interested me primarily for its Viking rooms.

Viking horns at the National Museum

Once you get into the 17th and 18th century one fancy room after another begins to remind you of the fancy halls you've seen in many other museums in many other cities. Then to the Radhus, the Town Hall, with its immense great hall and a lovely garden court, then the Glyptotek, which housed a good bit of ancient sculptures from Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as a collection of Danish paintings that I probably should have appreciated more than I did. My intention was to find the Teatermuseet (yes, that would be the Theatre Museum), which was almost impossible to find, and when find it I finally did, alas it was closed. Open today and tomorrow, so I'll  check into it. It is housed in an old theatre, so no matter what the exhibit it should be interesting simply for the space.

Between museums, to be exact between the Radhus and the Glyptotek, I took a prolonged lunch stop at Tivoli Gardens!

This is a mix of tacky and charming. I couldn't help but think that several American friends might think it dwarfed by U.S. style theme parks, but this park is not themed, just an area in the center of a metropolis which features food stands and posh restaurants, lovely gardens, at least two or three stages for performance, and all sorts of carnival rides. In fact, as I walked through it I was amazed to see how much was packed into such a compact city space, except that it didn't really seem packed to me at all (if you receive my meaning in that twisted sentence).

It was there that I chose a bench on which to sit and eat my sandwich, when much to my surprise and delight, Harlequin and Columbina passed by, greeted me and posed for a photo! I asked the lovely Columbina (why bother with Harlequin when Columbina is nearby?) if there was to be a show today, and she told me that one would start in just ten minutes. So, although I hadn't planned it, I got to see a commedia dell'arte show!

I wrote above that Tivoli is not a themed park, just an eclectic mix of fun for all ages. Well, beginning yesterday there WAS a theme of sorts: Halloween! Pumpkins abounded! Kids dressed up in costumes as well, and the commedia show was on a Halloween theme. It went something like this: Harlequin, (the lovely) Columbina (beautiful dancer as well), and Pulcinello arrived on stage but began to sense something strange -- sounds, movements, etc. In the yard below the stage, several witches started to sneak around and gradually made their way onto the stage and burst out in cackly song and awkward witchy dance. This surprised the three commedia characters (as you can imagine), and at one point the witches turned their heads into pumpkins, but they almost immediately took control, tying all the witches together in a rope. The witches became penitent, asked the audience to tell the commedia types to set them free, and then they ALL danced together -- they left the stage as drums could be heard in the distance, and joined the boys' marching band (half of whom also had pumpkin heads) in a Halloween parade through the park.
Great fun all in all, and a lovely afternoon for it!

Commedia, witches & Halloween? Tivoli Gardens!

That was when, instead of going back to the hotel for a rest, I set out instead for the Theatre Museum. When I found it (finally) closed, I decided I MUST do something else before retreating to the hotel, so I set out in search of Nyhavn. I think this ordinarily would be very easy to find, but I was tired, got turned around, and somewhat frustrated, gave it up for today or tomorrow. I DID find Stroget, the long pedestrian zone with all sorts of shopping opps, from very high end, at one end, to cheesy and cheap at the other. It was my good fortune that Stroget ended back at Tivoli, which as you may recall was just the other side of the train station from my hotel. Then I DID crash.

I there was one disapppointing aspect to Friday, it's that as so often happens with me I push myself beyond my limit. I was pretty exhausted, had had too little water, and really did need to rest. In fact when I went out in search of dinner I settled instead for a street sand which sold Polser -- these are red sausages, long and thin like hot dogs (only longer and thinner than we're used to) -- and which are immensely popular among Danes. After the first bite I could tell why! Yum! Bad-for-me food, but tasty, and also very inexpensive!

After that a quick stop at a 7-11 -- they too abound in Copenhagen -- that's a surprise -- Starbucks of course, McDonald's it goes without saying -- but 7-11 stores? I bought some bottled water and a pint of Carlsberg (what else does one dring in Copenhagen, except perhaps for Tuborg?) and locked myself in for the night, where I published section of this blog, tried to process some of the many photos I took on Friday, watched some TV -- English language movies are not dubbed, but subtitled in Danish! and then fell into a deep sleep.

Off now, after another tasty breakfast (and packed lunch from it) to Kronborg Slot -- at least I hope so! More anon!