Copenhagen Business School offered to take the international students and faculty on a canal and harbor tour. We boarded the boat at the end of the famous Nyhavn (which I will show you pictures of in a future blog entry). We headed out into the harbor for some spectacular views.

Our guide did the entire tour in English which was nice. In Sweden we did a canal tour and it was half in Swedish. We saw the Opera House, Little Mermaid statue, the special dock where the royal family departs, and many other points of interest.

The above building previously did boat repairs and the like in the middle. It has been converted into a high end set of apartments and condos. It appeared to be made entirely out of glass and steel. The architecture is obviously very different from the typical Copenhagen brick.

We went by Christiania, sort of a hippie communal area. Our guide indicated that the homemade houses right on the water would soon be torn down by the government as they are illegal. The 69 reference is explained here in a prior entry.

We went through the canal around Christiansborg which had some pretty tight fits. The scenery was excellent, and I got a much better feel for Copenhagen. I highly recommend such a tour should you ever find yourself in Copenhagen.

Posted on July 16th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: christiania, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, pictures. Comments Off on Copenhagen Canal Tour

The only thing at the Danish supermarkets cheaper in Denmark than in the states is beer. Most things are about 2 times more expensive. But beer can be had for as little as US$.50 a bottle. On average it is about $1 a bottle, about the same as the states. That’s cheaper than bottled water here! At a bar or restaurant, though, you’re likely to pay much more in Denmark (about $6 to $9 a serving usually).

The above three bottles were purchased individually (not in six packs which is also different). The most expensive was only about $.75. The one on the right was quite potent at over 10% alcohol. The others were more typical pilsners at about 5%.

The Carlsberg Factory is not far from our apartment. After reading Guinness on the flight to Denmark I thought it might be fun to tour my first beer factory.

The rooms where you begin (Visitor’s Center) and end (Tasting Room) the Carlsberg Brewery tour are both quite nice. The tour is nothing special though. It is a self-guided tour and is more of a museum-like tour than an active factory-like tour. The coolest part is right at the beginning when you get to see the largest collection of different beer bottles in the world. Ironically, Guinness gives Carlsberg the distinction. You can read the Guinness notice on the wall.

If there was a Guinness record for largest collection of dusty beer bottles, Carlsberg would win that award too with the same collection. It didn’t look like anyone had done any cleaning in there for many years.

While tourists flock to the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, the one at Carlsberg sits all alone. It is an exact replica, done a bit smaller, and is part of the tour. The larger version in the harbor was a gift from Carl Jacobsen whose father founded Carlsberg Brewery.

At the end of the tour you enter a very nicely done tasting room. Included in admission is a coupon for two drinks (about a dozen different beers or soft drinks are available). This is the only part of the tour that includes a view of the operating brewery (through glass). Nothing was happening in that part of the factory while we were there though.

The price of admission for the tour is less than what it would cost you to purchase two beers at a restaurant or bar in town and the atmosphere in the tasting room was great. The walls are lined with sayings and other displays including the Ben Franklin quote near the top of this blog entry.

If you want a factory tour that allows you to see someone actually making their product then I’ve seen better (Jelly Belly Factory Tour and Harry & David Factory Tour). However, at the end of those tours there is no “Skål.”

Posted on July 15th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: beer, copenhagen, frederiksberg, little mermaid, living in copenhagen. Comments Off on Danish beer

I think part of my love of clouds came from Bill King, the long-time announcer for the Oakland A’s, Raiders, and Warriors. I remember Bill giving play-by-plays of not just the A’s games but also of the clouds on days when they were particularly impressive.

Lest you think that I took all of the photographs in today’s blog entry and yesterday’s during the course of a single afternoon, you should know that the pictures were taken on no fewer than seven different days.

Posted on July 14th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: clouds, copenhagen, Denmark, living in copenhagen, nature, pictures. Comments Off on Cloud connected (part 2 of 2)

I have always been a fan of clouds. Don’t ask me why, but I like ’em. Not just your ordinary single layer of high-sky clouds. I like multi layers, multi colors, and lots of movement. We get some nice displays of clouds back in Ashland, Oregon but not with the regularity I have experienced so far in Copenhagen. Nearly every day features at least one display of not just one or two types of clouds but many types and colors all at once. You may have noticed them in a few of my prior entries.

This entry and tomorrow’s will feature many images of Danish clouds. I was inspired to do these two entries after going to the National Art Museum (Statens Museum for Kunst) in Copenhagen on Friday. There I saw four paintings by three different Danish artists that featured the kinds of clouds I’m talking about. I’ll include those four different paintings as well.

You are going to need a good-sized screen to see these as they are meant to be seen. Click on the images a couple of times to get to the largest view.

Posted on July 13th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: clouds, copenhagen, Denmark, famous danes, living in copenhagen, nature, pictures. Comments Off on Copenhagen clouds (part 1 of 2)

. . . I think it was the Fifth of July. Actually, I know it was the Fifth of July as it was just last Saturday!

Everything changes in Copenhagen on the weekend. People seem much more relaxed, the car and bike traffic disappears (relatively speaking), and you can find lots of people having a good time at the numerous, large parks.

I love the parks here. Each has a unique, distinctive quality, yet all share a common Denmarkian (is that a word?–OK, Danish) feel that is very different from any park you’d find in the states.

60 Minutes recently did a feature story on the Danes being the happiest people on earth. On the weekends, at least, you can really see that at a park. They have laws prohibiting overtime work, a required maximum work week of 37 hours (which means most stores and businesses close right at 5 Monday through Thursday and at 2 on Friday), and forced vacations of at least 5 weeks a year.

Last Saturday we headed out to the largest park in our area, Frederiksberg Have.

While at the park we got caught in a very brief downpour (which seems to happen a couple times a week here in the summer). We headed for cover and wound up under a tree that was loaded with baby pacifiers hanging from it. Some had inscriptions attached to them, and reminded me a bit of Japanese ema. Not being able to make out what the wording attached to the pacifiers said (being in Danish of course), we asked a passerby what the deal was with this tree.

He said that people bring their kids here when they are ready to give up their pacifiers and tie them to the tree. They attach a written fond farewell and thanks for the help the pacifier has given the child to this point in their lives. Before winter someone comes out and takes all of the pacifiers down. Apparently the tree can’t support that many pacifiers and snow.

We thought it was a cute tradition. I think we had to trick our kids out of their pacifiers so the Danish method seems more humane and ceremonial. Plus, every Dane that we saw approach the tree had a smile come across their face.

The park and palace at the end of the park are over 300 years old. Frederiksberg Park contains some canals which were built in the century following the building of the “palace” (sometimes called “castle” in English). Apparently Frederik IV would sail around the canals. Last Saturday, people were rowing little boats around them.

While walking one of the trails we saw pirate signs so Ryan wanted to take that trail. It went through some thick foliage, but we never found the pirate treasure.

A wide variety of games were being played by the Danes, few of which I recognized. Some were playing catch with small balls (no baseball gloves so they didn’t actually catch the ball much of the time), others played variations on soccer, and the above photo shows a group playing something that sort of looked like baseball or cricket (but I don’t think it was either).

Posted on July 12th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: castle, copenhagen, frederiksberg, living in copenhagen, pictures. Comments Off on Saturday in the park…