The only way for me to fly home from Greenland was to go to Copenhagen. Greenland and Denmark are both countries in the Kingdom of Denmark (whatever that means). Doing a little research before I left, Copenhagen sort of reminded me of Seattle. The cities are about the same size, around the same latitude, have similar weather, recycle, value culture and are both broken up by lots of water (Copenhagen is on an island). So naturally I extended my layover to about a week and turned it into a vacation.
Copenhagen is a wonderful mix of old and new. Despite having been a city since medieval times, most of the buildings were built in the 1700s after a massive fire destroyed over 50% of the medieval city. Afterwards the King decreed that all building must be made out of brick. So most of the city is old (but not super old) brick buildings and then interspersed are sleek modern buildings indicative of Danish design.
The whole city is flat. Like pancake flat. In fact the whole country is flat. The highest point in the whole country is 560 ft and its on the mainland portion of Denmark near Germany. The hill I live on in Capitol Hill is 450ft, so all I have to do is climb the Volunteer Park water tower and I am at a higher elevation than all of Denmark.
The city is full of parks. For a densely populated metropolis it has the most dedicated green space of any city I have visited. Not only was I able to stroll through 5 different public gardens, one of which was an expansive botanical garden with a lake. It is also common for blocks of apartment buildings to have a private park area imbedded in the center for its residents. The apartment we stayed at shared a courtyard park with maybe 10 other buildings and included a basketball hoop, fire pit, walking path, trees, grass etc.
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| King's Gardens |
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| Small lake within a city park |
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| Conservatory at the Copenhagen Botanical Gardens |
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| Closer view of the Conservatory |
Denmark is the home to famed children's story author Hans Christian Anderson. They will not let you forget that either. Danish people are an incredibly proud people and they are very proud of their storytelling citizen. Streets are named after him, rides at the carnival take you through his stories, gift shops have animatronic versions of him in front of merchandise and the most famous city sight is a statue based on his character.
If you tell anyone who has been to or is from Denmark that you will be visiting Copenhagen, they will inevitably ask you if you are going to visit the Little Mermaid. Well I hope no one Danish is reading this but I did visit the Little Mermaid, I took a picture and that's that. In a small corner of Copenhagen, the oldest part of the city with a few standing medieval buildings is a waterfront park that is home to this famous sculpture. Sitting on a rock with the canal water lapping up around her is a beautifully melancholy mermaid.
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| Little Mermaid Statue, Copenhagen's most famous city sight |
One of the best ways to see the city is by canal. A one hour canal tour takes you under low bridges through narrow canals to many parts of this vast city. Along the water are some of the most remarkable buildings in the city. A beautiful brand new Opera House, the Royal theater and the library.
The opera house is beautiful and the outside is covered in beautiful curved metal that make different sounds when struck. You could literally play music on the building. The opera house was given as a "gift" to the city by evil corporation and shipping giant . I use the word gift loosely since they claimed the entire building cost as a charitable donation on their taxes passing the cost to tax payers.
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| Copenhagen Opera House. I did not take this photo but I did have the same view from the canal boat tour. |
The Royal playhouse is also a new stylish waterfront building. Their opening production was Hamlet which is cute since Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark.
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| Royal Theater of Copenhagen |
The library is a magnificent resource. Not only is it a beautiful building inside and out, it is a functional research library. Walking around this lovely building you could see it was well utilized. The library also known as the Black Diamond is built at an angle so that when the sun is shining the water reflects onto the black glass and makes the diamond shaped building sparkle.
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| Night view of the Copenhagen Library. I did not take this photo. |
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| View from within the Copenhagen Library |
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| Fairytale 17th Century waterfront wharf of Nyhavn near downtown Copenhagen |
Not only is Copenhagen a beautiful place to walk around, it also has some amazing food and museums. It is a wonderful cultural metropolis and I am excited to share more about our visit in upcoming posts. Look forward to a detailed description of the Post and Tele museum, the National Museum of Denmark, Tivoli Gardens (the original Disneyland) and all the fabulous food!
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