Europe Trip: Part 2 of 3 - Copenhagen

Swans Originally uploaded by abostick59.

It is my practice to try to write five hundred words of something every day, ideally first thing in the morning. By the rules I have set myself, they can be about anything at all, or nothing, but generally what they turn out to be is reporting on the events of the previous day. I have been doing this since the beginning of the year, and I kept it up through Debbie's and my vacation in Europe last June. It has been this morning writing, with the non-travel-related bits taken out, that is the basis for this trip report.

Europe Trip: Part 1 of 3 - Lund
Europe Trip: Part 3 of 3 - Amsterdam

6-23-2007

Saturday morning, in Copenhagen.

Yesterday morning, I wrote while eating breakfast. The plan was that David would meet us at the hotel at 10:00 AM, which he did. We got packed, and checked out, and headed up to the Kulturen Museet to check out the Midsummer preparations. It had rained heavily durning the night, and it was still steadily sprinkling. Nothing would really start happening until noon. We decided to go to the Villa Nottle and hang out there, deciding what to do next.

What we decided was that Debbie, Cathy, and Emma would go to the Midsummer activities, while David, Akiva, and I stayed behind in the apartment. I would meet Debbie at the hotel at 1:30 PM, where we would pick up our luggage and head for the train station. Which is what we did.

We caught the train for Copenhagen just before 2:00 PM, and arrived at about 3:00. We found our way to the hotel, a couple of blocks away from the central train station, and got checked in.

We talked some about what to do. Debbie had been feeling the burden of planning everything and through it on me. That afternoon was the best time, it seemed , to visit Christiania, the self-proclaimed free city on the site of old military barracks. I mapped out a route to walk there, and we followed it.

I don't know how to describe Christiania. Debbie seemed to have a sense of how it worked and what the mindset was in a way that continues to escape me.

We walked along Pusher Street and found a food court where we could buy hamburgers and pommes frittes. Deb had been feeling quite hungry. I had hoped that food would help Debbie's mood, and perhaps it did. Afterwards, we walked through more residential and pastoral parts of the place, and talked about what it meant.

Then we headed back. We walked together to the Christianhavn Metro station. Deb had said earlier about what would be best for her would be to be alone for a while. I suggested that she take some sort of transit back to the hotel, while I walked. She had said that walking was out of the question for her. She agreed readily. I walked back along a different route, along the pedestrian mall that was the main tourist shopping district in the city. I got to the hotel room perhaps ten minutes before Debbie did.

After sitting and doing not much of anything, I got the computer set up to use the hotel's free wifi. It was after 9:00 PM at this point, and I didn't have much mindshare left for actual surfing or blogging.

We watched an episode of Firefly using my PowerBook as a DVD player, and I went to sleep immediately afterwards. I was woken up by the sound of voices in the street at about 4:00 AM (it was quite light), but soon fell asleep again. We roused ourselves at 8 (Deb had been up earlier, using the computer) to go downstairs for breakfast. We came back up, and I got this writing done.

6-24-2007

It is Sunday morning in Copenhagen. We have to get checked out of the hotel before 11:00 AM, and we have a 6:10 PM plane to catch to Amsterdam.

Blegdamsvej 17 Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Yesterday, we set out first to find Blegsdamvej 17, the site of what was once the home provided by the Carlsberg brewery to a distinguished Danish scientist and, when occupied by Niels Bohr was later converted into the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics. In the 1920s and 30s, it was the epicenter of the quantum revolution. Everyone who was anyone in the world of physics theory eventually made the pilgrimage to Blegdamsvej, and it sometimes seems like if one did and one managed to live long enough, one would eventually receive a Nobel Prize for one's role in the development of quantum theory.

So I have made my own pilgrimage, and got an assortment of pictures. Unfortunately, it was not the sort of place that was prepared for or welcoming of tourists. Debbie and I had cold drinks in a cafe across the street.

Oestre Anlaeg Vista Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We then walked through a series of parks, past the seventeenth-century earthwork fortification that guards the harbor, and had lunch in a cafe on the edge of Churchillparken. From there we walked along the waterfront to see the Little Mermaid. The statue was a tourist magnet, and at the same time I found myself tearing up at the thought of the story of the unfortunate woman of the sea who gave up everything she knew for the love of a sailor, and spent the rest of her days on land, every step feeling like walking on knives. She sits on a rock on the harborside and stares wistfully back at her home.

The Little Mermaid Originally uploaded by abostick59.

I had been telling Debbie earlier that Copenhagen, being a seaport capital, was more cosmopolitan and worldly than even Paris or London. The story of the Little Mermaid is a dream-expression of that cosmopolitan nature, the foreign-born sailor's wife pining for her home. I wonder what women gazed at her over the years and saw themselves?

Then we found the Museum of the Danish Resistance (which turned out to be the front side of the building of which the cafe where we ate was the back). We spent maybe forty-five minutes there looking at the relics of the history of Denmark during the Second World War and the Nazi occupation.

From there, we made our way back to the hotel, and took some downtime. After that, we went out again to walk through the shopping district and find the restaurant, Riz Raz, that David and Cathy had recommended to us. It was perfectly adequate for the money, but nothing special. Then we walked back, while I ate an ice cream cone. An episode of Firefly ("Objects in Space") and then bed. I slept soundly, but we were both woken by the sound of nearby fireworks some time like midnight.

6-25-2007

Monday morning in Amsterdam.

Botanical Garden, Copenhagen Originally uploaded by abostick59.

Yesterday morning we got up for breakfast some time around 8;00 AM, although it isn't clear, because the church bells that normally rang at 8 other mornings rang at 9:30 on Sunday morning. I finished my writing and was on the Internet, uploading some photographs to Flickr so I could post one or two to As I Please. I had just started to draft a post when the time came to pack up our things so we could check out of the hotel before 11:00 AM.

The plan for the day we had settled on was to take the S-Train to Østerport, walk through the same park we had walked through before, and arrive at the Botanical Gardens and spend some time there. If timing worked, it was my thought that we would also look at the National Art Museum, the massive edifice in the park, but we never got to it.

Hothouse Canopy Originally uploaded by abostick59.

We spent a little time in the hothouse, which was very warm and muggy, filled with tropical plants and trees. We climbed a spiral staircase and walked around the canopy of this forest. Then we went outside and sat for a while, looking at the vista of the gardens, with a round lily pond nearby and a larger lake further away.

Debbie and I walked around the lake in the gardens. We watched the ducks and other waterbirds (including some sort of crane or heron) in the lake. We found a place by the water to sit. Ducks approached us, hoping that we would be feeding them bread. We also saw turtles, one having climbed onto a log floating in the lake, and one poking its head above the water close to us.

We wandered on through the gardens, visiting the cactus hothouse, disappointed that the orchid hothouse was closed to the public. Then we left in search of food, wandering around a large block until we found a storefront that sold bagels and salads, with ice cream on the side. We each had a bagel with a topping, and a soft drink.

From there we walked through the Botanical Gardens again to the other side, across a plaza, and down one of the pedestrian malls back towards the Tivoli Gardens, the central railway station, and our hotel. We sat in the hotel lobby for a while until it was time to take the train to the airport.

The airport was an unexpected hassle. The line to check in was long and slow. Security was easy (although a guard took my backpack apart, searching for God knows what), but once through it, we had a wait to find out just from where our plane would be departing. Apparently, gates at Copenhagen airport are not assigned until the last minute. A long walk to the gate, and another wait until they announced boarding — getting into a line and waiting for a while before they slowly let us on the plane, checking each passenger's boarding pass and passport. The plane was completely full, but I wasn't too uncomfortable, and the flight was not long. I had a window seat, and was able to see sundogs reflected off the cloud cover beneath us.

Once we landed in Amsterdam, it was an even longer walk to the baggage claim area. I began to notice something about the Netherlands and its people: their sense of way and movement clash dramatically with mine, leaving me with the impression that they are intolerably rude. Part of me feels like I am an Ugly American for saying this; and at the same time I didn't feel this way in Sweden or Denmark.

Our train connections were easy and quick. Julie Phillips' directions to her family's flat were clear and easy to follow. The last straw of rudeness for me was the Dutchman who rode his bicycle onto the tram platform to consult the map, leaving no room for me to haul the wheeled suitcase past him. But it was just a short walk to the flat, and Julie and her husband Jan van Houten made us feel very welcome. I was too exhausted and cranky to show my appreciation, however.

As I woke up in the night, I became aware that I was getting a sore throat, and I definitely have one now. I don't feel otherwise under the weather, but I am concerned. I will try to take care of myself while trying to enjoy this city.

Posted by abostick at August 3, 2007 11:00 AM