Tuesday – July 6
Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen! In my mind, I keep hearing Mario Lanza singing “Drink, drink, let your hearts fly…”
First off, the art and the architecture of this city are stunning. 16th century stonework surrounded by some of the most amazing contemporary works I’ve ever seen. When we were trying to find contemporarily-styled components for the building of Hale Nani in Phoenix, I often said it was like trying to build sand castles in the arctic—there just wasn’t much to be found. In Copenhagen, I’m sure the problem would be quite the opposite. It is shop after shop, window after window of “oh wow, look at that.” How could one possibly decide?
Our hotel breakfast included exposure to the world’s coolest cheese slicer. It used two equally sized blocks of fine Dansk cheese and a spinning plate and wire arrangement that stepped down the cheese blocks to produce very uniform slices—hard to describe but way cool. Tummies full of cheese, meat, fruit, yogurt, pastry and coffee, we headed out to see the town. We began following a formation of Danish Royal Guardsmen. With the drums, belted uniforms and enormous bearskin hats, it’s hard to miss these guys, but somehow we lost them on their way to the palace for the changing ceremony, but we did find Kastellet, one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe. It is a pentagon, surrounded by moats and once was completely encircled by ramparts. Today it still serves as a military barracks.
From Kastelet, our walk brought us to Copenhagen’s famous harbor. We knew she was gone, on loan to China, but it was still a bit disappointing to not see Den Lille Havfrue, the Little Mermaid atop her stone. I did, apparently to the amusement of several other tourists, manage to get a photo of Spit Squirrel, one of Zoe’s dog toys, on a stone immediately adjacent to Mermaids perch. I would have gone for the actual rock, but that would have involved, wet pants and soggy shoes and besides, that’s why they invented Photoshop.
After saying goodbye to Den Lille Havfrue, we hopped on an on-off harbor tour ferry. The ferry makes stops at 16 ports through the harbor and canals. When you board, the crew cautions that the boat passes under several very low bridges. As we approached one such bridge, I caught sight of an incredibly beautiful three-masted ship. I think I had the timing down, so I rose to shoot a quick photo. The crew didn’t seem impressed with my timing and I almost created an international incident. I did however, get the picture.
One of our last stops on the boat was Trekroner Søfort (Sea Fortress) located at the entrance to Copenhagen’s harbor. The original fort was built in 1713 upon the remains of three ships that had been sunk. The structure that stands today was begun in 1787 and it remained in use until WW I. Trekroner was one of many fortresses that surrounded Copenhagen. Invading sovereign lands is certainly not a new phenomenon. Walking through the barracks, kitchen, ramparts, etc. but the last boat of the day was arriving and spending the night on the island would probably not be pleasant.