I knew three words in Danish before we came here: Hüsker Dü, Haagen Dazs, and Dagnabbit.
(The above is a joke, not an example of my ignorance.)
Tak Tak. You're welcome.
Up early, as every day, but the hotel has good, fresh coffee on twenty-four hours a day, so I head down to the eating area, pick out a good spot by the windows, and read, write and drink.
Ole is the guy who does the night shift, and so we talk off and on. He has just started this job, prior to that he was a teacher, tenth grade. He lasted for fifteen years, but got really tired, and "...you know, with all the students and the parents... Ahhh, the parents, it is just too much!" He has a little trouble with my name at first, thinking that it is Æd. That is one of the three extra letters they use here, the Å , the ø, and the Æ.
Kind of like when Prince changed his name to that symbol.
I wish my name was Æøå.
Ole and I talk about the interesting things you see late at night, or early in the morning, out walking the streets or working the night shift. Just then one of those bicycle-rickshaw type carts goes by, totally lit up with Christmas lights, blasting out the deep bass of a rock-n-roll song.
We just laugh.
He gives me a fresh Danish, hot out of the oven, and I have another cup of coffee. The perks of being an early riser.
I got Gail up, and we made breakfast by 9:30. The hotel has a pretty nice spread of food; I had three meats, four cheeses and bread, then finished with yogurt and grains. Gail stuck with Danish and toast.
Today we are going to walk: up through the Strøget shopping district to the Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Plaza) then past the Tivoli Gardens over to the island community of Christianshavn. This is about a ten kilometer loop, without counting any of the wandering in and out, back and forth.
We set out. It is sunny, a little cooler, and the forecast is for rain this afternoon, but it is hard to believe, so I don't take my coat. We take longer going up the Strøget today, looking in a couple stores. Legos were invented here in Denmark, so they have this huge Lego store, with a giant dragon, Queen's Guard, and a cool kind of 3-D hanging picture of a Copenhagen scene. We stop in to look at the bakeries, and down at the end where the Strøget empties into the Rådhuspladsen, there is the Hard Rock Café, so I stop in to buy a shirt.
We walk around the Rådhuspladsen, looking at the statues. One is of the two trumpeters. Actually, they are tooting on a "lur" which is what the Vikings used to call the troops into battle. Then there are the Golden Women up on a tower, one with an umbrella and one on a bike, supposed to tell you if it is a nice or rainy day. It doesn't seem to work, but the idea is they ride out on a sort of track. There is a thermometer running up the side of the building, it read 18°C which is about 64°F.
There are a lot of impressive towers and cool buildings lining the plaza, and we then walked into the Rådhus itself to see the grand hall. They do a lot of weddings here. In fact, there were some of those bicycle-rickshaw things waiting outside to carry one wedding party away, complete with cans on a string.
We headed down the street past the Tivoli Gardens. We did not stop in, just not that interested in an amusement park, really. But I hear that it is pretty cool, and the gardens are supposed to be nice. We crossed the bridge over into Christianshavn, and found our way down along the canal.
There was this canal-side café we saw yesterday, and so we wanted to take a break there for a drink.
We snagged a water-side table, ordered drinks, and then a couple from Scotland sat down next to us. We had a nice talk, though at times we could have used a translator.
They are retired, and spend time traveling the world. He used to work on the ships, so currently he is taking his wife around to see the places he used to go. The company he worked for would ship barrels of Carlson beer over from Copenhagen to Scotland.
As we sat and drank, we were pretty amused by the stuff going on in the canal. The tour ships glided by, and everyone on the ships wanted to wave at those of us in the café, like we were celebrities. Honestly, I got tired of the paparazzi.
Then there are the little party boats you can rent for a few hours. Groups of two, three our four people would slowly float by, drinks and food on the little table, drinking and boating and trying to not run into anything.
The best was the bridal shower, a group of young women who came by, hooting and hollering, mooning the crowds on the shore. They stopped right across from us, held up some sign, then decided to get out of the boats for a while. See the photos below.
It was starting to cloud over, and a few raindrops fell, but it was still warm enough as we set out again on our walk. We moved back into Christianshavn, past the Vor Frelsers Kirke with the interesting spiral steeple.
We were heading into Christiania.
Christiania is an old, free-spirited, hippy type commune. The story is that in the early 1970s, a group of people squatted in an abandoned military site, and resisted all efforts to get them to move out. Now it is a "Free City" with their own flag (red with three yellow dots) and ten rules. Things like "no cars" and "no hard drugs." That is not to say there are no drugs here: the main street is called Pusher Street, and there is a major marijuana presence here.
Not that it is legal, mind you. But there are pot plants everywhere, and booths selling "herbs." In spite of the counter-culture, kind of free-wheeling spirit of the place, they have signs that say "No Photos, Have Fun, Do Not Run (it causes panic!)" everywhere. The people involved in the herbal trade all wear black masks to cover their faces.
It is really a shame you cannot photograph the area, because like any such place, the artwork is just outstanding.
In fact, that is one of the main reasons we wanted to go see the "city," the art and the unique lifestyle. Back beyond Pusher Street there are some really cool little self-built houses, interesting playgrounds for the kids, and many organic and vegetarian places to eat.
On the other hand, there is the "squalor" of the place, for lack of a better word. Maybe "grubby" or "shabby" is a better way to describe it. Anyway, it is worth a visit, just to see an alternate lifestyle, to think about how and why they live like this, and observe the actual results of "doing it their own way." It has been almost 45 years now, and they are still going strong. As a side note, yes, we felt perfectly safe there, and no, you should not go if you are scared of "alternative" lifestyles destroying civilization, your own religion, or the world in general.
The way that I figure it is that they are just the poorer version of the people who live on houseboats in Sausalito. Or just like the homesteader types who live in the Northern California hills, "off the grid."
We found a different way out, which led to a bike path, which led to a canal, to a road... we totally did not know where we were exactly, but it turns out that it was exactly where we wanted to be.
We were down at the waterfront, near Christiansholm (by the Opera House) where the huge street-food pavilion was.
We walked in and though it all, and settled on some Brazilian BBQ pork, which we took outside. It was nice, sitting on the edge of the dock, eating, until a seagull pooped on Gail.
Now that kind of puts a damper on things.
So, the mood ruined, we cleaned up and started back again.
Some guy was handing out free cans of beer, so we grabbed one and drank it was we walked along the canal, then to the waterfront, then back across the bridge and over to Nyhavn.
The clouds were gathering, it was getting colder, and it became obvious the rain was going to happen. It was close to 17:00, so we decided to tuck into a café, grab a meal and drinks, then if the rains started we could hole up in our room and read, drinking our bottle of red wine.
That is exactly what happened. By 19:00 it was pouring rain, but we were full, happy and warm in the room, reading.
We slept really peacefully in the cool air, the sound of the rain on the windows and rooftop.
Photos, Day 5
Sunday, after the rain, I have a lucky day.
Another fresh, hot Danish this morning, and more Ole information.
When Gail got up and we went to breakfast, the candles were all lit in the dining room. We love it how the Danes use candles everywhere. Every house we can see into, our hotel, every restaurant, they have candles lit. It feels so warm and intimate.
It is very cloudy, no rain so far. The sun is poking out of the clouds...
This must be my lucky day.
We are going to walk way across town to the Carlsburg Brewery, and see the sights in the Vesterbro area. The Vesterbro used to be the rough, working class neighborhood, now it is becoming an area of art and café culture. We'll head there one route, walk back another way, should be a total of around 12 KM (7.5 miles) not counting side trips up and down alleyways.
We head back to the City Hall Plaza, then hook past the train station following Vesterbrogade. Along the way, we stopped in a little, nondescript bar for a cafè, (espresso) a water, and to use the WC. We stood at the bar and ordered; the barista asked me if we were going to sit outside?
I said no, we'll just take it at the bar. He looked rather surprised, but smiled.
Can you believe that he then just gave me the coffee, free!?
"It is just a little coffee, for a little price," he said, "The water is free, and so I give you the coffee free. Welcome to Danmark!"
This must be my lucky day.
I left him a nice, five kroner tip anyway.
After a while we came to the Carlsberg Brewery. It was founded by J. C. Jacobsen and has grown to be the fourth largest brewery in the world. It is in 35 countries... and I have never had one before.
The thing we liked right off is that we could lead ourselves through the brewery, we didn't have to follow a tour. And, our "tour" came with two free beer samples.
Except that the lady at the desk was really nice, and I spent some time talking with her. So we walked away with coupons for four free beers.
This must be my lucky day.
We wander upstairs to the Jacobsen beer hall, on the second floor, looking down on the bottling line. We both ordered the Weissbier first.
It is unfiltered, good taste but missing the crispness and clove note of the great German Weissbiers. For me, it was not wheaty enough. Gail liked the touch of citrus flavor.
I asked the guy next to us if he would take our photo? He did, then as he turned to go, he gave me his drink vouchers because he doesn't drink.
Nice.
This must be my lucky day.
Personally, I think it's dumb.
But nice.
Not me, boy. I am not giving away drinks.
I am an equal opportunity drinker. I even drank Guinness (yuck!) at the brewery in Dublin and actually enjoyed it. The proof is here.
This happened to me once before, at port tasting in Portugal... People on the tour just abandoned their samples at the end. I mean, come on... what's the point of going then?
So, now we can drink with lunch, later.
We wandered off through the beer museum where I learned seven amazing and interesting facts:
1. In 4000 BC they were growing grains, setting the foundation for making beer.
2. And they were using human skulls as a drinking bowl.
3. By 1370 BC primitive beer was being produced. I am imaging the taste, sucking a warm, frothy, grainy beer out of an eye socket.
4. I didn't know they had movie cameras way back then, but evidently so, because there is an old black-and-white- film of the cavemen making beer. See the photos below.
5. I know. I couldn't believe fact number four either. I even rubbed my eyes to make sure it wasn't the "beer talking."
6. At first, the workers actually lived at the brewery, which was such a sweet deal they would often marry on the sly so as not to lose the housing benefit.
7. The brewery provided all meals, cooked and catered by Mrs. Jacobsen. But, when they expanded to an amazing 36 employees, it became too much cooking, and so they then had to bring their own food.
8. To make up for that, their pay was increased, and each worker got a daily, yes DAILY ration of four pots (4 litres) of beer. FOUR LITRES!
We walked into another room where they had the most amazing collection of over 22,000 unopened bottles of beer, from different countries and different years.
Think about that.
Twenty-two thousand unopened bottles.
Oh, the waste.
I say, drink them and show off the bottles with photos of the satisfied testers.
22,558 bottles of beer on the wall
22,558 bottles of beer.
Take one down, pass it around...
Can you imagine if an earthquake hits? It will be a tragedy.
There is a cool collection of old cars and beer delivery vehicles scattered around here and there, and real horses in the horse parking garage. They seem to keep busy getting petted, and pulling the occasional wagon.
An interesting tidbit is that starting in 1881, up until about 1930 or so, the trademark for Carlsberg Beer was the swastika. Yes, the same symbol used by the Nazis. Carlsberg had it first... well, actually they were about 20,000th in line to use it. Quick research tells you that it has been a symbol of good luck since the Neolithic, (10,000 years ago) and is still a sacred symbol to at least two major religions. So, there are still swastikas all around the brewery.
There is a sculpture garden, with a Really Little Mermaid, since technically J. C. Jacobsen actually owns the real thing. He bought it, but gave it to the city of Copenhagen. But he gets a copy.
We ended up in the courtyard of the old brew house, just outside of the stables. They happened to have a bar-b-que going, so we thought we'd have lunch.
I had a Tuborg Classic, just slightly darker than the regular Carlsberg which Gail ordered.
From the grill, I had a thick cheeseburger, Gail got the grilled sausage with wild garlic, and we split the purple coleslaw made with with Jacobsen brown ale.
The burger was huge and yummy, the coleslaw tart, with real bite, and the sausage was excellent with mustard and crispy fried onions.
It all came with bread, made with beer grains, so it really has that beer taste. I am suddenly inspired: perhaps this is the way around that whole pesky "no beer at work-for-lunch" rule.
It grew colder and started to sprinkle so we moved inside for our last samples: a red Tuborg and a Tuborg Pilsner. My red was the heaviest beer of the day, and it really tasted of rye. Gail's Pilsner was more crisp.
So, here is a shout-out to my buddy Carl: Guess what I'm bringing over for the ball game when we get home?
Burgers.
Just kidding, Carl.
It was all great fun. The problem I really have with beer is the lousy AU/C ratio.
I get filled up in under a litre of beer, and you just don't get that many alcohol units for the amount of calories consumed. It is just too filling.
On the other hand, on a hot day...
Walking back through different neighborhoods, we ran into a huge outdoor rummage sale running in the center median of one boulevard. Gail had fun looking at assorted stuff.
There are election posters everywhere throughout Copenhagen, since it is time to elect some 160 new members of parliament, and a new Prime Minister. We have been looking at all the candidates... some are on the socialist (right wing) and some are the liberals, and then there are the "alternative party" candidates, including some who we would call the Green party. It is interesting that not one party has had, or has now, a majority in the parliament.
A lot of the posters have been defaced, and I had fun taking photos of some of the funnier ones.
We have decided to vote for Ida Auken simply because she is the cutest one, and she has the least number of defaced posters.
This is an unofficial tally by the way.
But I won't be surprised if she wins, especially looking at some of the Greens, who need to work on their posters.
I took a lot of photos of funny and quirky things we saw on the walk, including a reference to Einstein" in the same title as "Sex." It is worth looking through the photos below.
We stopped at a pastry store to get some real Danish. There are a lot to choose from. I finally settled on a Kanelsnegl, which looked like a cinnamon rolled up thing with some frosting inside.
Now look at that word: Kanelsnegl.
How would you say it?
Right. So I walked to the counter and asked for a Canal-snaygel.
She looks at me.
So I pointed it out.
"That's a kah-nail-snah. Twenty kroner, please."
Our last stop of the evening (for the day is quickly passing here) was at Café Norden. We sat outside under the heaters, and I had a cappuccino. It comes with cookies, which turned out to be crispy ginger snaps, so I sweet-talked the waitress into a few extra cookies.
Gail had a strawberry daqueri.
As the sun moved in and out of the clouds we wrapped up in the blankets (every café has blankets out on the chairs for the customers) and alternately froze and baked. The fountain in front of us drew people over, and a guy on a guitar was playing almost a full concert set over on the right side of the square. As soon as he finished, the bells started tolling, a rolling thunder from the steeple at the other end of the plaza.
We read, ordered two glasses of wine, and pretty well wasted the evening right there.