Carlsberg Brewery

Last Friday we went to the Friday Night beergarden party at Carlsberg Brewery.  Carlsberg started small here in Copenhagen, but has grown to be one of the largest brewery conglomerates in the world.

On Fridays, you can tour the old brewery (which is now a museum) for free.  One of the highlights of the tour is the world-record-holding collection of unopened beer bottles.  22,564 to be exact.  Brings to mind the catchy old song, "22,564 bottles of beer on the wall, 22,564 bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, 22,563 bottles of beer on the wall..."

You can watch the assembly line at the small onsite brewery.  Maybe one or two of these bottles will end up in their collection.  Or in our fridge.

Cheers!  Or, as they say here in Denmark -- Skål!

The Marble Church and Trinitatis

What else have we been up to lately?  Because we're here for a month, we're not in a big rush to see all the sights.  We try to find one or two points of interest to do in the morning or afternoon, take long walks around the city, eat delicious pastries and strange sandwiches with no tops, and just generally enjoy the atmosphere of Copenhagen.  For example, today we took one of the canal boat tours which was a nice way to get a different perspective on the city.

We had to stay seated going under the canal bridges

The Marble Church and Amalienborg Palace from the water

Around the corner from our apartment is the Marble Church (Frederik's Kirke) which is topped by a massive dome.  We've seen it from the outside nearly every day, but finally decided to check out the inside this week.

We have also made several visits to the Trinitatis church near the University of Copenhagen.  Since Kevin's great-great-grandfather was baptized here, we took a look inside.  The baroque interior is surprisingly ornate for a Lutheran church.  We came back on a different day to hear a recital on the church's Italian Baroque pipe organ.

At one end of the church is a round tower that was used as an observatory.  You can climb up the tower for a nice view of the city from the top.

Interestingly, the tower was built with a ramp instead of stairs.  The city occasionally hosts several bicycle races to the top.  People have also ridden horses and cars and even unicycles up the ramp.  We just opted to walk.  We're boring that way.

The (Very) Little Mermaid

One of Copenhagen's most overrated (in my opinon) tourist attractions is the statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid.

View of the statue from the water

After being here in the city for two weeks, the other day we figured it might be time to finally make an effort to see this inexplicably popular statue.  It wasn't hard to find, we just followed the swarms of tourists heading to the waterfront.  For an iconic statue it's pretty small, and it looks even less impressive when it's being mobbed by throngs of people trying to snap the perfect selfie.

So. Many. Tourists.

Sorry if I disappoint anyone, but that was as close as we got.  I couldn't bring myself to fight the crowds for a better photo!  Luckily there's lots more to see in this part of the city.  We were in the Kastellet (Citadel) park, which is a star-shaped island fortress.  There are many buildings, barracks and storehouses from when the fortress was in use by the military but my favorite part is the pretty windmill at one end of the island.

We enjoyed our walk around the park, it was very peaceful.  (Probably because all the people were too busy mobbing poor Ariel!)  Here are a few more sights from around Kastellet:

The Prinsesse Marie garden

Gefion fountain

Saint Albans Anglican church

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

You may be reading the title of this post and wondering if it's just a bunch of nonsense words, but it isn't.  "Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek" is the name of the museum we visited today.  "Ny" means "new" in Danish, "Carlsberg" is a reference to the museum's founder (the Carlsberg beer magnate), and "Glyptotek" is a Danish variation on the French word "glyptotheque" which just means a collection of sculptures.  I did not know that last part until I started writing this post, so there's a new factoid for some upcoming pub trivia night.

The museum is mostly filled with -- you guessed it -- sculpture and statues!  The Egypt section also has a few mummies and other grave goods.

Room after room is filled with Greek and Roman sculptures, reliefs, and busts.

Some of the faces seem to have lost their most prominent feature.  Ever wonder where all the noses are?  Well wonder no more!  It used to be common practice for antiquities dealers to "fix" damaged statues by plastering in what was missing -- noses, ears, fingers, etc.  The Glyptotek has removed all these helpful anachronistic additions to their own display case.  This type of collection has its own name, too -- a "nasothek".  There's some more useless trivia for you!

Gives new meaning to the phrase "Got your nose!"

I'm not much of a sculpture fan, but I am a huge fan of that awesomely 80's Ray Harryhausen movie "Clash of the Titans".  So in the modern sculpture exhibit I was instantly drawn to this image of Perseus slaying Medusa.

As I said, sculpture's not really my thing.  But I do love Impressionist paintings and this museum had a really nice collection including masterpieces by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and Manet.  New to me was this pointillist-style work "View of Mont Blanc" by Paul Signac.  I had never heard of him before but will definitely look for more of his work.  This was definitely the highlight of the museum for me.  Well...this and the noses, of course.

Freetown Christiania

Today we took a walking tour across the inner harbor to the Christianshavn neighborhood.  The baroque Church of Our Savior dominates the skyline.  For a fee you can hike up the exterior spiral staircase.  As we learned first-hand, the church has a beautiful carillon that plays a tune every hour and sounds like a larger-than-life music box.

Crossing the Knippelsbro bridge to Christianshavn

Criss-crossed by small canals, most of this area is residential with new modern apartment buildings alongside houseboats and historic structures.  This part of the city has never burned down, so some of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen are located here.

One of the many canals in Christianshavn

One tiny subsection of this neighborhood is known as Freetown Christiania and has a very interesting history.  In the 1970's a group of squatters moved into some old unused military buildings and have been living here, commune-style, ever since.  They make up their own rules, have their own flag, and consider themselves independent of Denmark.

The residents definitely don't consider themselves subject to Denmark's laws, and soft drugs (marijuana and hash, but absolutely no hard drugs) are sold and consumed openly here -- especially on a street appropriately nicknamed "Pusher Street".  This place isn't completely lawless, though.  There are three rules: have fun, don't run, no photos.  The first rule is obvious.  The second rule is in place because generally a runner will come through warning of a police raid, so false alarms by oblivious tourists are frowned upon.  (You don't go for a recreational jog through Freetown Christiania.)  And that last rule is serious -- there are signs all over saying "no photos" and there are actually men walking around wearing balaclava/ski masks that will get in your face if they think you are taking photos.  They mean business.

A mural "herbs are okay, but hard drugs -- no way!"

We had heard about and were curious to see the area, but I was really glad we were here with someone who knew their way around.  There's a maze of streets and some sections of the neighborhood look a little rough around the edges (not all...many buildings were colorful works of art).  And although we had our camera safely tucked away, it did make me nervous walking by the guys with ski masks on Pusher Street.  This was not friendly, happy, free-love hippie-town...these guys were here to sell drugs and enforce the "no photos/evidence" rule.  I probably would not have wanted to just wander through here on my own as a looky-lou tourist.  And although there was no real danger or threat to me, I was a tiny bit relieved to see this sign:

All That Jazz

We specifically timed our visit to Denmark to coincide with the annual Copenhagen Jazz Festival, a ten-day extravaganza that attracts big-name paid acts as well as hundreds of free and inexpensive ones.  The tagline on the posters around town reads: "10 days, 120 venues, and more than 1300 concerts".

This dixieland band's name means "Blue Monday"

We've been able to hear one or two concerts (or bits and pieces of them) every day.  There is a printed schedule (in Danish) and an English version is online, so it's been extremely easy to find.  You can also just randomly hear jazz playing as you walk around so even without a schedule it's not difficult to find the concerts.

Gypsy jazz in the rain

We've seen everything from Dixieland jazz with banjos to gypsy jazz with a fiddle; soft-spoken scat vocalists to honkingly horrible free-jazz saxophones.  There is definitely something for every taste here.

Set list - most emceeing was in Danish, but songs were sung in English

What we've enjoyed most is just the massive enthusiasm for this (originally American) art form.  Young and old, people come out and enjoy the concerts.

Kira Martini's Quintet

Today was a Saturday and we were excited to hear the Copenhagen University Big Band accompanying vocalist Debbie Cameron.  They didn't actually play any jazz, but we didn't mind that at all since the entire set was dedicated to James Bond theme songs.  She did a killer rendition of "Skyfall", and "Goldfinger" brought the house down.

Debbie Cameron with the University Big Band

In the evening we headed over to Tivoli Gardens to hear the Tivoli Late Night Orchestra.  We had high hopes for some big band swing, but were hugely disappointed when the concert theme turned out to be "Funk, Motown, and Pop".  This event probably shouldn't have been included in the Jazz Festival schedule.  A band covering Burt Bacharach's "Never Fall in Love Again", The Beatles "Got To Get You Into My Life", and Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" does not count as jazz in my book.  But, hey, it's hard to complain too much when you are out on a beautiful Saturday night at one of the world's oldest amusement parks!

Christiansborg Slot

Today we headed over to Christiansborg Slot.  My Danish is really coming along -- slot just means "castle".  I also know the words for garden (have), harbor (havn), street (gade), and tower (tårn).

That last word, tårn, really came in handy today since we took the elevators and stairs up to the tower of Christiansborg for the view of the city.

We specifically picked a clear day for our visit in the hopes of seeing Sweden.  We found it!

No one lives in Christiansborg anymore, but lots of people work here.  It is home to the Danish Parliament, the offices of the Prime Minister, and several opulent reception rooms used by the Queen during state dinners and the like.  It's so fancy they make you wear bright blue plastic booties so you don't damage the floors.

In addition to artwork and fancy furniture, the palace showcases more than a dozen modern tapestries given to the Queen on her 50th birthday.  They are beautiful to look at, and each tapestry celebrates a different era of Danish history, present, and future.  Our tour guide gave a great talk about the tapestry dedicated to the past century.  Without her explanation I wouldn't have noticed all the little details.  Take a look, can you spot any of the following: JFK, Groucho Marx, The Beatles, or Albert Einstein?  Good luck!