After obtaining bicycles we were suddenly freed to explore pretty much any part of Copenhagen rather easily and quickly. Bikes have a way of getting flat tires, though, and last week I got one. The plan was for me to go to the bike shop and get it fixed while my wife and kids went to visit a place on the map called Kongens Have. I would meet up with them after my tire was repaired.

After wandering around the edges of Kongens Have for a while taking pictures I realized that the fancy building near the center was actually Rosenborg Castle. I first read about Rosenborg in Music & Silence. Stumbling upon it here, basically unplanned, was a pleasant surprise.

The park around the castle is just as impressive, if not more so, than the castle itself. It includes lots of very different (to American eyes anyway) tree-lined paths, flower gardens, statues, and other curiosities.

We didn’t go into the castle as the highlight is supposed to be the crown jewels (which you can view in photographs on the internet) and at US$15 per person with an extra $5 fee if you want to take pictures it didn’t seem worth it.

My favorite part was finding picture angles that were unusual (like from the bottom where Rapunzel’s hair would hit you, or with the moat in view with The Ugly Duckling floating on the water, or with some of the amazing trees framing the castle). I hope you enjoy them.

Posted on July 8th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: bikes, castle, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, pictures, rosenborg. Comments Off on Rosenborg (Kongens Have)

First off, I must admit to no longer being a big fan of amusement parks. I used to love them as a kid, but as an adult the rides seldom do much for me. Lines, crowds, and steep prices do nothing to make matters better.

Tivoli Gardens was much better than most of my amusement park experiences of the past couple of decades. It had something of a charm that is lacking in most others. The lines were surprisingly short. We never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride. We got there right when the park opened and went on every ride by about 4 p.m. I didn’t think we’d get on everything before midnight so the short lines were a big shock. The kids went on most rides three or more times.

It is said that Walt Disney was inspired to create Disneyland when visiting Tivoli. Personally, I like Tivoli better. Everything is reasonably close together, there are no lines, and old trees and gardens throughout give a much less synthetic feel to the place.

Another thing that is different when compared to American amusement parks is the lack of warnings and instructions. You aren’t told to “please remain seated…” fifty million times throughout the day and warning labels aren’t affixed to every thing in sight. The ancient fun house at Tivoli is practically a death trap, but no one seems to care. I like that.

Be careful when eating or paying for things at Tivoli. We asked for tap water with our meal. At other places we had eaten at in Copenhagen there was no charge for non-bottled water. We were surprised when our bill included a charge for the water. More than US$12 is what we paid for four glasses of water out of the tap! We were warned that if we used a credit card at our meal we would be charged an additional 5.75%. They didn’t warn us at the gate, and we were charged 3.75% for using a card to pay for admission. Our card company is going to charge another 2%.

To me the most interesting ride was the Star Flyer (although The Odin Express had the best name for a ride). I think the kids liked the Rutschebanen Roller Coaster which is almost 100 years old and includes a brake person on the ride with you. The Star Flyer is similar to many of the merry-go-round swing rides found at fairs and amusement parks in the U.S. The big difference is that instead of going 20 or 30 feet in the air, you go over 260 feet in the air. Not only does this make for a strange sensation, but you have the most incredible 360 degree view of Copenhagen imaginable. This ride is really fantastic and one of a kind.  

Posted on July 7th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: amusement parks, copenhagen, living in copenhagen, pictures, tivoli. Comments Off on Tivoli Gardens

On the Fourth of July we went to Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world dating back 165 years. It brought back Independence Day memories from when I was a kid as we went to the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, California on the 4th a few times when I was young.

My wife was reminded that it was the 4th of July at the grocery store earlier in morning by the clerk. Then, when we were getting ready to board our first ride at Tivoli, Vintage Cars, the ride operator heard us say something in English and he says to us, “Congratulations on being an American today!” I thanked him for his well wishes. What does one say to others on the 4th of July? The Danes don’t know any more than I, but I enjoyed his attempt.

Later in the day we ran into the same ride operator on a different ride. This time he was running the Hans Christian Andersen stories ride (The Flying Trunk). He didn’t remember us from earlier in the day but did take another stab at wishing us a happy 4th. This time he said, “Happy Birthday to America!” I had to smile.

I asked him if he had been to America. He said, “No.” He had been to Canada once though. He went to Montreal so he used his French there–not English. The language ability of these Scandinavians is amazing. Some of my students here can speak four or more languages.

Above is the family on the Galley Ships–a ride in which the pirates in the middle fire on the viking ships spinning around them.

Tomorrow I’ll blog some more about Tivoli.

Posted on July 6th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: copenhagen, hans christian andersen, July 4, kobenhavn, Københavns Rådhus, living in copenhagen, pagoda, tivoli. Comments Off on Congratulations on being an American today!

On our first walk around Copenhagen we went through the aforementioned Assistens Kirkegård cemetery where Niels Bohr and Hans Christian Andersen are laid to rest. This place is incredible. It has atmosphere and then some. There is a rich flavor to the entire cemetery. The greens are lush, the trees old, and the varieties endless.

Around one corner you may find a couple having a picnic. Around another you may find curious tombstones in a unique setup. Some gravestones have runes on them as well. I’m not sure if they are Viking, Anglo-Saxon, or, more likely, Younger Futhark or Rok.

The only thing that disappointed was the graffiti. Niels Bohr’s tombstone is a mess on the backside (not pictured). You can see what Hans Christian Andersen’s currently looks like below.

The graffiti relates to The People’s House Copenhagen located at Jagtvej 69. I don’t know all the details but apparently the government sold the building, and the new owners are going to demolish it against the wishes of many people.

This is the front of Niels Bohr’s gravestone. The graffiti on the backside contains several English curse words. I have no idea why.

Posted on June 30th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: cemetery, copenhagen, Denmark, famous danes, graffiti, hans christian andersen, kobenhavn, living in copenhagen, norrebro, pictures. Comments: 1

At long last we arrived in Denmark on Thursday morning. We arrived but some of our luggage wasn’t so lucky. I believe this is the fourth time in my life that some, or all, of my luggage has been lost or delayed. Losing luggage seems like something that shouldn’t happen to a person more than once in their life.

The letter I received from the university said that someone would meet us outside of customs. No one was there. When I called my contact person they said the person was inside the baggage claim area, and I had missed them. Great! How does one go backwards through customs?? It turns out in Copenhagen you can.

Customs in Copenhagen, I should mention, are the easiest customs I’ve ever been through. You just follow the sign that says you have nothing to declare and walk out the door. There wasn’t a single person there to look through your luggage, and the passport stamp didn’t involve a single question. I’ve been interrogated in our friendly neighbor Canada more than once. In Mexico you push a button and about one in three people who get a light when they push have their luggage gone through. Copenhagen was a welcome change.

At our apartment we learned another lesson. The 2^nd floor in Denmark is what we would normally call the 3^rd floor. So when our apartment key envelope said “2^nd floor” we went up one flight of stairs and tried the doors. Our key didn’t work. Luckily the occupants weren’t in or we would have looked like robbers. After much stress (we were jet lagged and very tired which didn’t help), we tried more doors in the building, eventually finding ours on the 3^rd floor.

I feel asleep immediately as did the rest of the family. Somehow my wife woke up after a few hours at about noon (3 a.m. by my body’s clock) and woke the rest of us up so we would sleep that night. I felt like the walking dead for a half hour or so.

I snapped a few pictures from the inside of our apartment, as well as a couple of what we can see outside our windows like the local church–Sankt Markus, before we went out exploring for the first time.

Posted on June 29th, 2008 under Denmark. Tags: frederiksberg, living in copenhagen, pictures, Travel. Comments Off on Arrival in Copenhagen