Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark

Today's adventure involved a train ride up to Helsingør, the home of Kronborg Castle.  Or as fans of the bard may know it -- Elsinore, the home of Hamlet's castle.

Helsingør sits on a very narrow strait that separates Denmark from Sweden.  Originally Kronborg castle was built so that the Danish king could force merchant ships to pay him a toll to pass through the waterway.  Later when Sweden and Denmark were at war, the castle served as a defense against Swedish invasions.  Cannons played a heavy role in both scenarios.  In the photo below you can see just how close Sweden is.  I'm guessing the Swedes aren't too concerned about the artillery still being aimed their way...

Of course nowadays the main reason to visit the castle is to Ham it up (see what I did there?) while spouting lines from Shakespeare's most famous tragedy.

"Alas, poor Yorick!"

As you tour the castle, actors re-enact some of the most memorable scenes from the play at various times and locations throughout the day.  The famous soliloquy in the ballroom is a highlight.

All together now, "To be, or not to be..."

We also got to witness Hamlet's duel with Laertes.  SPOILER ALERT: In case you weren't paying attention in high school, the play doesn't have a happy ending.

It's okay, they're all just sleeping.

When we came back to Copenhagen, we had a quick chance to stop by and watch a few rounds of the Swoop Challenge.

In case you don't know what that is, don't worry -- we didn't know at first either!  Daredevils parachute out of a helicopter, then do their best to skim across a shallow lake while doing aerial tricks and attempting to stick a landing on an inflatable target.  We discovered it was just as hard as it sounds.  Only a handful of the jumpers we watched ended up on the target.  I don't think I'll be trying it anytime soon, but it was thrilling enough just to watch.


Swoop Challenge Copenhagen 2016 from Solsticecatamaran on Vimeo.

Two Not-So-Boring Museums

We saved two museums until the end of our trip, mostly because I was a little worried that they'd be boring.  But we actually discovered something unexpected in each place!  Yesterday happened to be a free Wednesday at the Thorvaldsen sculpture museum, so we walked over there to check it out.  Bertel Thorvaldsen became famous as a sculptor in the early 1800's and spent most of his life in Italy perfecting his classical style.  He came home to Denmark at the end of his life and donated all of his casts to a museum named in his honor.

Thorvaldsen designed many famous monuments throughout Europe.  I had not realized that he designed the Löwendenkmal, or Lion of Lucerne, which commemorates the bravery of the Swiss guards who died trying to protect Louis XVI during the French Revolution.  It's an enormous monument cut into the sheer side of a cliff face.  I saw it in Lucerne during my first backpacking trip through Europe and the memory of the noble dying lion has stuck with me all these years.  The image below is just a small cast from Thorvaldsen's studio.  If you've never seen the monument itself, the wikipedia page has a photo but it's difficult to get a sense of scale -- it's actually 18 feet tall and 30 feet long.

Today we headed over to the National Museum to learn a little more about the history of Denmark.  They had some great Bronze age and Viking age stuff:

Ceremonial Horned Helmets

Stick drawing of a Viking Longship

But the really interesting find for Kevin was in a section on daily life in Denmark throughout history.  An entire apartment had been relocated to show where the poorer working classes would have lived in 1800 in Copenhagen.  We were very surprised to see the address the apartment had been taken from: Adelgade 91 -- the very same apartment building where Kevin's great-great-grandfather Carl lived with his family ninety years later!  So even though the building has since been torn down, it was cool to see that a tiny bit of it has been preserved for posterity in Denmark's National Museum.

Picnic, Pokemon and Pub Crawl

We have just about one week left in Copenhagen.  Having already visited most of the local museums and attractions, we've been looking for alternative things to do.  The weather has been beautiful so today we picked up some smørrebrød and had a picnic in Kongens Have.  We learned that open-faced sandwiches actually aren't the easiest picnic food to eat.  Luckily we brought along some cutlery, and plenty of napkins.

In the park, every kid and their brother was glued to their cell phones & running around playing Pokemon Go.  Kevin gave it a whirl and managed to catch one in the park.  He later caught one in a church pew while we listened to an organ concert, and even one in our apartment.  We have no desire to "catch 'em all", but since it's been in the news so much (and we've seen so many people playing it) it was worth downloading for a little fun.

Speaking of fun, in the evening we signed on to do a walking tour/pub crawl.  There were about thirty people in our group, not bad for a Tuesday night.  Yes, we were the oldest ones there by a couple years, but it was cool to meet some other travelers and hear some tips (especially from those who've been to Sweden, where we're going next).  Plus, I can't believe we've been here nearly a month and only just now learned where to get the cheapest pints!

Roskilde

Today we took the train for a quick daytrip to see the sights of the nearby town of Roskilde.  First up, the Viking Ship Museum!

The three Viking ships we saw in Oslo were buried in clay alongside important people who had died.  In contrast the Roskilde ships were intentionally scuttled in the late 11th century at the mouth of a fjord to defend against invaders.  So they aren't quite as well-preserved, but there are five ships of different types: two longships, a fishing vessel, an ocean-going cargo ship, and a coastal trading ship.

Our tour guide explained how the ships were excavated and preserved, and how the museum has used them to get a better understanding of how the Vikings were able to sail to the far corners of the early Medieval world.

Boatwrights at the museum have constructed a fleet of replica ships that you can sail on in the summertime.  We found out the hard way that these are historically accurate replicas; there are no handy diesel engines involved!  In order to get in or out of the harbor, passengers have to row.

We had signed on for an hour-long trip.  Our tour guide gave us a quick safety briefing and taught us the basics of rowing, stowing the oars, and hoisting the sail.  In this photo, she is adjusting the sheets.  But if she's up there, who's at the tiller?!

Haha, you guessed it -- this guy!

Kevin had the helm while we were under sail so that the guide could handle the sheets and answer questions.  It was a great trip, we even managed to sail on a reasonably close haul on the way back.  Of course, we still had to row back into the harbor at the end!  Which turned us into some very hungry Vikings.  We went for some New Nordic Viking food at Cafe Knarr near the museum: smoked salmon, and a plank with Viking sausage, beer-braised pork, pearl barley salad, and Nordic cheeses.  Oh, and of course two kinds of mead!  Skål!  Huzzah! (Or whatever Vikings used to say...)

From the museum we had a great view of Roskilde Cathedral, our next stop, on the hill above.

The Cathedral was built in brick (a new technology at the time!) starting in 1170 and taking more than a hundred years to complete.

Roskilde is where the majority of Danish monarchs are buried, in increasingly ornate tombs and chapels.

We were fascinated by this mechanical clock that dates from the 1400's.  Every hour, St. George slays the dragon (which emits a whistly "scream") and then the other man rings the bell to sound the hours while the lady shakes her head.  The clock also displays 24 hours instead of the normal twelve.  Weird and whimsical.

Sunday Bike Ride

After three weeks of walking around, we finally decided to rent some bikes to get the full Copenhagen experience.  There are many bike rental places to choose from.  After a little research, we both opened monthly accounts with Bycyklen (City Bikes), which is based on a checkout system.  There are more than 100 "docking station" locations around town where you can find their distinctive white bikes.  Each bike has a tablet mounted on the handlebars.  You just log in with your account to check out the bike, and then you're on your way!

It's all very high tech.  Last night, Kevin had logged into the website and plotted a route the the beach area near the airport.  Once we checked out our bikes, his bike downloaded his route for display on the screen.  It didn't work perfectly (we had to supplement with google maps on Kevin's cell phone) but it was still helpful to see the map on the screen in front of you.

Another cool thing about the bikes is that they have an electric motor assist that makes it almost effortless to pedal.  Very handy when going up hills, or if you are just plan lazy like me you can just leave it on all the time.

We passed several beaches along the way, and they were packed with Danes enjoying their sunny Sunday.  I especially liked this awesome wooden swimming pier.  Out at the end of the pier is an area where you can lay out a towel on a bench and jump right into the water and you never even have to get sand between your toes.

We ended up biking eleven miles today.  I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to check out and return the bikes, and it actually works out to be cheaper than the bus if you are just using it to get from point A to point B.  We'll definitely be doing some more biking before we leave Copenhagen!

Open Air Museum

It was bright and sunny today, so we hopped on the bus to the Frilandsmuseet, Denmark's Open Air Museum, which is just 30 minutes outside of town.

The museum has a huge collection of buildings from the past 350 years.  Most of them are farm buildings - homesteads, barns, etc.

Not sure what was stored in this super-tall barn - Egyptian pyramids, maybe?

The museum is really spread out because some of the farms actually have fields growing hay, or large pastures for livestock.

All the usual barn animals were there -- horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and even some piglets.  Mmmm...bacon!

Some, terrific, radiant, humble pig

What was nice was that the interior of almost every building was fully furnished with pieces from the same era.  It was kind of cool to peek inside and get a glimpse into 18th and 19th century farm life in Denmark.

Almost all of the houses had thatched roofs of some kind, but this one was the shaggiest example.  The thatching was at least 3 feet thick.  It looks like a cartoon, but it was awfully cool inside, even on a hot day.

After walking the entire museum, we stopped at the museum cafe for lunch.  (Yes, I had a pulled-pork sandwich, sorry Wilbur!)  When I checked my fitbit, it had clocked us at 6 miles just within the museum.  Time to order a well-deserved cold, cold beer!

Tivoli Gardens

The other day we were on the bus and a Danish mom got on with her toddler-age son. I don't understand much Danish, but as we passed Tivoli Gardens, the boy excitedly exclaimed "Der er Tivoli, Mama!" (There's Tivoli, Mama!).  And then, a moment later, with a sweetly wistful sigh "Jeg *elsker* Tivoli..." (I *love* Tivoli...).

Tivoli lights at night

Bumper boats!

I, too, love Tivoli.  It's hard not to.  This amusement park has been around since 1843 and is still attracting millions of visitors to this day.  It inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland; I can see many similarities between Tivoli and Disney's Fantasyland, especially.

Ballet performance at the Pantomime Theatre

View of Tivoli from the Ferris Wheel

There were at least two concerts here for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival that we planned on attending, so we knew we would be coming here at least twice.  We took the plunge and decided to buy the Annual Pass (årskort) which includes admission for a year and pays for itself if you go at least three times. As of today, we are three weeks into our trip and have visited Tivoli -- no joke! -- seven times.  One time we went just for dinner.

Ribs!  With bibs!

But our main reasons to visit have been the Saturday big band and Friday Night rock concerts.

The Tivoli Late Night Orchestra

My personal favorite concert was Oh Land (a Danish pop singer).  If you've never heard her music, take a listen to some of her songs especially "Lean", "White Nights", "Renaissance Girls", and "Green Card".

Oh Land

And of course, there are rides at Tivoli.  It's much smaller than, say, Disneyland, but there's still something for everyone here.  You actually pay for the rides separately (either individually or via all-day wristband).  So we waited and just got wristbands to do all of the rides in one day.

We drew the line at the scary airplane ride that went upside down and corkscrewed the entire way.  We are kids at heart, but I guess even we have limits!

But I guess you're never too old to go on the swings!  Truly, jeg elsker Tivoli!

Daily Life Around Copenhagen...

Well we've been here in Copenhagen for nearly three weeks, and while we still aren't quite "locals", we are settling into daily life in the city.  We've done most of the top touristy things and are now just soaking up the atmosphere here.  The sun has finally come out after a couple weeks of rain.  The park just down the street, Kongens Have (The King's Garden), has been filled with groups of people picnicking, tanning, and just enjoying the weather.  It seems like the "thing to do" on any sunny afternoon.

Also in Kongens Have is a merionnette puppet show that runs every afternoon except Mondays.  The current show is titled "Det Vilde Vesten" (The Wild West) so of course we had to stick around to watch!  I would say it's only mildly offensive in its stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans.  I will make sure to look around for totem poles next time I am in Monument Valley, I must have missed them last time...

In several of the parks here we have seen these interesting pacifier trees.

I have never seen this in the U.S., but here it's a rite of passage.  When little ones have outgrown their pacifiers, their parents take them to one of the designated trees (there are several scattered in parks throughout the city) and they tie them to the branches in colorful bundles as a way of saying goodbye to that phase of childhood.  Such a sweet tradition, don't you think?

We have bus passes to help us get around the city, but for the most part we walk everywhere.  Occasionally we spot something, an interesting alley or gate for example, that we take a little detour to see more closely.  Here is an interior courtyard/parking lot that you wouldn't normally see unless you had driven through the gate to park your car.

It's so nice to have the time to wander and not be constantly rushing from one tourist attraction to the next.  We feel very lucky to be able to see the city at such a relaxed pace!

Have I mentioned how bike-friendly Copenhagen is?  Every street has a wide bike path, and people cycle through the city rain or shine.  Last Saturday, there were no less than four consecutive weddings happening in the Kongens Have park.  But even more surprising was the choice of "limo" for the bride and groom -- bicycles, of course!

There are also plenty of cars here in the city.  I've lost count of the number of Teslas driving around (there is actually a Tesla dealership one street over from us).  I would say most of the cars on the road look pretty fuel-efficient, but this one really took it to the next level.

We've also finally started to learn where the best food can be found.  Sankt Peders Bageri near the university is the oldest bakery in the city.  On Wednesdays -- and only on Wednesdays -- you can get a Onsdags Snegle (Wednesday Snail), which is a tasty cinnamon roll coated in sugar or icing.  They make about 4000 of them every Wednesday.

And since we're talking about food, we have continued to look for good smørrebrød.  We found a relatively good place a few blocks away.

Mmmm...pork and herring! The bread is hiding under there somewhere.

We ordered for takeaway and had a picnic on the pier.  We're not quite locals yet, but we're getting there...