A walking tour of the city, Copenhagen day two
With a city as big as Copenhagen, it probably requires more than a week to justify all its glorious museums, historical sites and cultural artefacts. So after taking a detour to Malmö, Sweden, yesterday, we embarked on day two (26-Nov-05) of a more detailed tour around the Copenhagen city (Do read the first day around Copenhagen).
We started again with Strøget but instead of going right to the end, we decided to take a detour at the Georg Jensen store and turned right into Højbro Plads, which is like a square with fountains, street performers, musicians etc. There is an immense statue of the founder of Denmark, Bishop Absalon on a horse (Ok what’s with the idea of putting everybody on a horse?)
Just next to this statue, a store was stocking up on Christmas trees (I think these are Christmas trees!).
And here is another shot of the statue, this time, from the front.
As you can see, Christmas is definitely in the air (It is late November!)
Moving forwards from the statue, you cross a bridge over a canal. Both sides are quite picturesque. Here is one shot, where I forced Damian to include me in.
And here is a shot of the other side.
The area that we crossed into over the bridge is called Slotsholmen, which is where Denmark’s government sits, including the parliament and the bureaucracy. The main building is called Christiansborg Slot, and this is like an old palace with a museum underneath, stables on the main ground and government offices over it. Here is a shot of me in one of the guard cubicles at the entrance.
We didn’t actually go to the museum as we decided we will take this site in when we buy the Copenhagen card, which gives free entrance.
Moving on, to the left of Christianborg Slot (when facing it) was a spectacular building that I later learned is called Børsen. Even more surprising is the fact that it is actually a stock exchange, constructed in 1620s, and still functioning, making it the oldest stock exchange in Europe (God which is the oldest stock exchange in the World?). Just look at the front of this building and you will realize what I mean.
Moving behind this building, we crossed another bridge over a canal to get to what is known as Christianshavn. Here is a shot over the bridge of some office complexes (I think these are office complexes).
Moving straight on this bridge and going nearly till the end, we turned left and walked about 250 meters to arrive at Christiania, a social experiment that has had mixed results. Since I don’t know much about Danish history and whatever I know has come from Lonely Planet guidebooks, I can’t really explain the rationale behind this place. Take a look at this photograph, which is at one of the entrances to Christiania. This may give you an idea about what this social experiment is about, and why it is controversial.
The people of Christiania proclaim themselves free of Danish laws and don’t pay taxes or rent and the sign leaving Christiania says it all: “You are now entering EU�. Here is the front of that sign.
Photography inside is banned, and perhaps for good reason. Once thing that I noticed was that there was a heavy presence of police inside, with groups of several men travelling together in an obvious sign of authority.
With this interesting side tour over, we travelled back to Nyhavn about which I had talked in my first post. This time, we walked back to the second bridge over the canal (with a detour to a bakery where I had another one of those yummy danishes), and took a water taxi from there. We paid nearly 32 kroner for a ride of 2 minutes and cursed ourselves for being stupid.
This time, I was ready to take pictures of Nyhavn. Here are some samples. Note that the sun was out, the first time in three days, and with it, there were a lot of people on the road (it was also Saturday).
A gorgeous building right at the end of Nyhavn. Don’t know what it is although the name at the top may suggest something.
Almost right opposite to that building is the house where Hans Christian Anderson, the famed author of ‘The little mermaid’, amongst other classics, lived and wrote most of his works.
The area is lined with very colourful, very Danish, buildings surrounding the canals. Here is a look:
And another:
We had already been to Nyhavn on day one, and didn’t want to stroll through it again. So we decided to take a short walk to the residence of the ...
.. Danish Royal family, called Amalienborg Slot. The residence is actually made of four separate identical grand mansions overlooking a common square. Since the buildings are occupied by the Royal family, you can’t go in them, except for one, which conducts guided tours. You can of course, stand in the square in the middle and take photographs. Here is one in the square.
You can only see two residence in this picture to your left and right. The big dome that you see in the background is a church, and I will get to it later. Also, notice the
Statue with the person on horse (Sorry no idea who this person was). Here is a frontal shot, where you can see one of the other mansion.
Of course, what would a royal residence be without changing of guards ceremony? It starts at 12, but don’t worry if you miss it, as it not much to write about. Here are a couple of shots anyway.
Now back to that church that I talked about earlier. Turns out it is called the Marble Church or Marmorkirken and the dome that you see is massive. Here is a shot of the dome from the inside.
The church interiors are very impressive and stately. Here are some more shots.
Out of this church and by now getting hungry, we decided to go to Strøget to an all you can eat pizza place. I didn’t like the place much, but for 49 kroner, I couldn’t complain. On the way there, I noticed that the fountain area between Strøget and Nyhavn had been constructed into an ice skating ring.
We were running out of ideas about what to do in the city, since a couple of things we wanted to do after we got the Copenhagen card, and that would only be possible the next weekend. We decided to take a canal tour of the city, as it is was inexpensive (50 kr) and lasted for some time. The trip was a good idea, and it starts at the top of the Nyhavn area. The boat that you travel in has a top made of glass, so you can see all around you. Initially I decided to stay inside because the wind outside was making it too cold, but there were some very loud tourists inside who were making it difficult to listen to the commentary by the tour guide. I just couldn’t fathom why they would pay good money to take a tour when they weren’t really interested in it. So I decided to go outside and take some pictures as well. Here is one at the starting, can’t recall what it was exactly.
Or the next one.
These are some sculptures made by refuges from former Yugoslavia made with the help of the International Red Cross.
This was an indoors golf course.
The name on the building is a sponsor.
The next snap may have to be taken from the front. This is the famous little mermaid statue.
Apparently, the head of the mermaid is not the original one, as vandals have broken it twice.
This is a smaller replica statue of David by Michaelangelo himself.
Finally, a view of some of the expensive boats lining one of the internal canals.
Once the tour was over, we decided to kill some time in Nyhavn at a bar, drinking more of Denmark’s own Carlsberg. However, dusk settled fairly quickly, bringing with it tiredness. We walked back to the central station, interestingly passing the red light area. There were as many Indian eateries in this area as there were ahem sex shops. There is a relationship here but I can’t seem to work that out.
Comments
Cool article. thank's.
Posted by: little lamb | April 7, 2006 01:46 PM