Copenhagen: Part One

I's 9:30 and I finally have the pictures sorted out, cropped, ready to upload. Now, if I can just cobble together some text about them I'll have one heck of a post.
But I'm limiting myself to one hour- and I'm a slow typist. So you might have to stay tuned for the next installment. Here goes.

Friday night Orrin arrived home at 5:00. Quite a feat, considering work is supposed to be over at 3:30 on Friday's and we live about a three minute drive from work. My luck was not going to hold though, since we got a call from his colleagues in the U.S. around 7:00 and he was on the phone until 10. Oh well. I got everything all packed up into two tiny backpacks. Once change of clothes for each of us and two pairs of clothes a day for Silas. Lucky his clothes are so small. Of course he ended up wearing the same clothes for the entire trip. But you know if I had planned on that, there would have been poop explosions everyday.

We headed off to the Dublin airport Saturday morning at 6 am. Silas giggled and danced in the car seat before sweetly falling asleep. The trip somehow ended up only taking two hours, instead of the three and a half we had planned for, so we were left hanging out in the terminal for a while. We perused the pharmacy for some of the world's most expensive sunblock. And camped out in the seats reserved for "those with mobility impairments." Please don't think I am a giant jerk for doing so, but I think having a squirmy one year old strapped to you qualifies as a mobility impairment. And I certainly would have moved along if anyone with crutches, a walker, cane, or even a slight limp had happened along. OK, sorry.

The flight itself was to Malmo, Sweden and was uneventful. We landed, bought bus tickets across the bridge to Copenhagen and sat on a sweltering hot bus for 15 minutes while we changed Silas out of his red thermal long john pj's into his cute little rip-stop nylon jumper that would be his uniform for the next four days. The bus ride was a little less than an hour and Silas divided the time into trying to make friends with the man sitting behind us and trying to figure out the accordion movements in the middle of the bus when we turned a corner.

We arrived at the main station about 3:30 and headed out in search of the bike rental place. Unfortunately, they closed at 1:30 on Saturday. So we would have to walk to our lodging. We passed by the famous Tivoli Gardens, an old-fashioned amusement park place, and the first of many vast stashes of bicycles. Orrin spent the entire walk scanning the piles of bikes looking to see if one was unlocked. Not a single one was. (Although they do have these sneaky little locks that are just under the seat theat slide between the spokes of the rear wheel to keep it from turning. Very discrete and clever.) And really what would we have done if one hadn't been?

The weather was beautiful, if a bit hot. And the walk was nice, over a canal, and past many pretty buildings, statues, and fountains. We arrived at about 6:00. We set our bags down and headed out do get something to eat. After wandering around the little neighborhood of Christianhavn (Christian's Harbor) we finally settled on a place called The Spicy Indian Kitchen. I know not very Nordic, but it was close by, and cheap, and I was very hungry by this point. We bravely ordered from the Danish menu and only later found out that they had an English menu available when a family from America came in. Orrin ended up with a nice lamb curry with eggplant and I had a very tasty beef and spinach. Silas downed most of my mango lassi and some of Orrin's. We ended up having to tie him to a chair while he munched on tomatoes and rice. Certainly can't do that with a Baby Bjorn! Thanks to Mom for the lovely, and multi talented carrier. It was indispensable for the entire trip, as you'll see in the upcoming photos.

On our way home we stopped at a 7-11 -yes it's even called that in Denmark- and bought some tea and milk for breakfast. We stopped at a fruit market and bought a basket of blueberries because they looked so good, which ened up being the staple of Silas's diet for the entire trip. The rest of the evening we just hung out in our room, let Silas crawl around, and made plans for Sunday's adventures. Our room consisted of two rooms, one with a double bed and one with two singles, which also had a breakfast table. The house had a common bathroom and a kitchen upstairs. It worked out really nicely for us- and was very cheap.

Sunday morning Silas and I ventured across the street to the bakery. Where I milled around for a while until I realized you had to take a number in order to be waited on. So when it was finally my turn I pointed to a couple different items, a crispy sort of fried tasting roll covered in sort of white poppy seed, an almond crusted rhubarb filled turnover, a slightly squashed looking cinnamon roll, and an incredibly delicious custard filled danish. On our final visit to this bakery on Tuesday morning, I would be told, "They're all Danish." Which, I suppose, is true, being Denmark and all.

After breakfast, we headed down to the old town center for a walk up the Strogest, or "walking street." The first square we came to had a nice garden and statue in the center that is flooded in the winter for ice skating. Around the wide pavement of the square they had set up a photo exhibit of Steve Bloom's wildlife photos from the book Untamed. We spent at least a half an hour wandering through these amazing photos. If you ever get a chance to see them or the book, I highly recommend you check it out.

We walked up through Nyhavn (New Harbor) which was the area of Copenhagen where H.C. Anderson lived. Past more canals, fountains, and statues. We walked up through the palace complex where the Danish royalty live. Queen Marguerite in one mansion, and her son in the other. We stopped for green apple and raspberry sorbet packed into fresh waffle cones. So what if it was 10 in the morning. They were waffles, people. That's morning food.


Back on the main walking street, we pass by this lovely fountain of Charity. Yes, the water is spraying from her breasts, and also if you look carefully the boy on the left is spraying water also. According to certain guide books, this was originally at eye level but in the Victorian age it was deemed distasteful and raised up in order to be more discrete.
At the Carlsburg Glypotec Art Museum there was more bare breasted beauty (and you thought that breastfeeding picture would be the end of it). I really liked this sculpture and wish I could have gotten a better picture of it, but it was nearly closing time. If you could see the entire sculpture, the woman is covered in babies- maybe seven or so all climbing around. But I just love that she looks so strong and calm and nuturing.

Walking along we got to see many many bikes in all shapes and sizes. Tandem bikes, bikes with trailers, rick-shaw bikes, bikes that looked like flatbed pick-ups. My favorite were the kanga-roo bikes, like the one shown below.

We spent an couple hours in the National Musuem, which houses all the artifacts of the country. They do an excellent job with the exhibits and have great English language descriptions and histories. In the end our stomachs and Silas forced us to hustle through the last of the displays. But not before we took some lovely shots of Silas as a pillaging Viking, and me as an innocent milk maid.

Ok, I'm past the time limit I set for myself, that pretty much sums up Sunday anyway. We walked through a section of town called Christiania, which is a squatters colony on an abandoned military site. It's supposed to be a kind of counter culture, free- spirit place. It was interesting to see how some of the "hippies" had fixed up their houses, and certainly interesting people watching. But, because as we were leaving we saw some police going in with riot gear, it's also a place you aren't really suppose to take pictures. It's a pretty touristy place, and I actually wouldn't be surprised if the police were all part of the show. It certainly felt very low key and safe for the half an hour we were strolling around.

So, tomorrow will be the next installment, and I'll tell you all about Monday and our return trip. Whew!