Five years already?!? Denmark sounded like a fine place for my best travel partner Rich and I to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
First impressions of the country are from the train. The train itself is fast, clean, and smooth. It is so quiet I feel like I must be wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Rich comes back from the bathroom to whisper excitedly, "It's like a real one.. with porcelain and everything!" The landscape is flat, populated by bright, detached houses with modest gardens. Spring is ascendant with the green carpets of lawns and riotous arrays of daffodils and tulips on the borders. There are bike paths everywhere, including one that runs parallel to the track just beyond a hedgerow. Though sunny, it is still a little on the cool side - this is Scandinavia, after all - but the daylight hours are long - again, Scandinavia.
Copenhagen, the capital, continues along the same vein, albeit, in a big city way. It is easily walkable... and cyclable... and possibly even navegable, in the most traditional sense. Copenhagen is built on the islands of Zealand and Amager so there are quite a few interconnecting waterways, and a canal tour is supposed to be a good way to orient yourself in the city. We opted to go on foot, as usual.
A wander along the waterfront will bring you by the Royal Library (its "Black Diamond" wing should cue 2001: A Space Odyssey's score), the statue of The Little Mermaid (from the original story by Denmark's favorite son, Hans Christian Andersen), and the Copenhagen Opera House (like a fly's eye, but in a good way). We took a look at the wooden ships in the Nyhavn heritage harbour and had cozy drinks in a canal-side café in the Freetown of Christiania, an old hippie commune.
For the culturally-minded, Copenhagen has many museums. The National Museum is a good, free one... although a little overwhelming in its wealth of artefacts per exhibit. Looking at the maps, the huge eskimo section in a Danish national museum perplexed me until Rich pointed out that they do own Greenland. Then I just felt sheepish.
For the royally-minded, Denmark is also home to the oldest monarchy in Europe - over 1000 years old. In Copenhagen, you can visit Rosenborg Slot with its pretty formal park (aka Kongens Have) and the crown jewels in the basement. At Amalienborg Palace, current home of the royal family, the ceremonial changing of the guard takes place daily in the central square. It has nearly as much pomp as those of the British royal family's, and yet, I fancy, much smaller crowds. Even only arriving 10 minutes early, we managed to get close enough to see how fresh-faced the soldiers looked and critique their marching steps.
First impressions of the country are from the train. The train itself is fast, clean, and smooth. It is so quiet I feel like I must be wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Rich comes back from the bathroom to whisper excitedly, "It's like a real one.. with porcelain and everything!" The landscape is flat, populated by bright, detached houses with modest gardens. Spring is ascendant with the green carpets of lawns and riotous arrays of daffodils and tulips on the borders. There are bike paths everywhere, including one that runs parallel to the track just beyond a hedgerow. Though sunny, it is still a little on the cool side - this is Scandinavia, after all - but the daylight hours are long - again, Scandinavia.
Copenhagen, the capital, continues along the same vein, albeit, in a big city way. It is easily walkable... and cyclable... and possibly even navegable, in the most traditional sense. Copenhagen is built on the islands of Zealand and Amager so there are quite a few interconnecting waterways, and a canal tour is supposed to be a good way to orient yourself in the city. We opted to go on foot, as usual.
A wander along the waterfront will bring you by the Royal Library (its "Black Diamond" wing should cue 2001: A Space Odyssey's score), the statue of The Little Mermaid (from the original story by Denmark's favorite son, Hans Christian Andersen), and the Copenhagen Opera House (like a fly's eye, but in a good way). We took a look at the wooden ships in the Nyhavn heritage harbour and had cozy drinks in a canal-side café in the Freetown of Christiania, an old hippie commune.
For the culturally-minded, Copenhagen has many museums. The National Museum is a good, free one... although a little overwhelming in its wealth of artefacts per exhibit. Looking at the maps, the huge eskimo section in a Danish national museum perplexed me until Rich pointed out that they do own Greenland. Then I just felt sheepish.
For the royally-minded, Denmark is also home to the oldest monarchy in Europe - over 1000 years old. In Copenhagen, you can visit Rosenborg Slot with its pretty formal park (aka Kongens Have) and the crown jewels in the basement. At Amalienborg Palace, current home of the royal family, the ceremonial changing of the guard takes place daily in the central square. It has nearly as much pomp as those of the British royal family's, and yet, I fancy, much smaller crowds. Even only arriving 10 minutes early, we managed to get close enough to see how fresh-faced the soldiers looked and critique their marching steps.
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