Copenhagen is a little different then I expected. I can tell that this is a very multicultural city. I understand that in recent years immigration has been at very high levels, and it shows. Copenhagen, which means "merchant's harbor", started as a Viking fishing village and started to grow in the 12 century. It has been consistently ranked as one of the best places to live, and somewhere I read that it has the happiest people in the world. I don't know about that, but it is a clean and well organized city. Even in the "bad" pat of town where our hotel is by the station it is still pretty nice.
This morning we started out by walking down to a part of town known as Christianshavn, a working class neighborhood. While we were there we temporarily left the European Union far a while to visit the Freetown of Christiana. This place is not for everyone, or more people for that matter. Back in the late 70s this area was an abandoned Danish military base that some squatters started to inhabit. Over time they set up their own commune separate from the Danish government. Since then there have been attempts to "normalize" the area, but the resident, which now number over 1000, have put up a resistance. In just the last few weeks there have been a few incursions by the local police that have been meet with violent protests and fire blockades from the residents. Walking though this area it felt very much like it was inhabited by artists and eccentric non-conformists. I wouldn't say it's my kind of thing, but I am glad that there is a place like this and I support their efforts to remain independent.
Next we took a harbor ferry over to the main part of the city and checked out an old fortification and current military post called the Kastellet. While we were there we also stumbled upon the top tourist attraction in Copenhagen, a little statue on the shoreline of The Little Mermaid from the story by Danish author Has Christian Andersen. It was very small, and I don't get while it was so special.
We walked back though the Amalienborg Palace, home of the royal family. We saw some of the guards doing there thing. This was also in the upscale part of town and there were lots of consulates there. We walked back though this street called Strøget, full of tourist shops and overpriced food. Every city we went to in Europe had some street like this, which looked like they just funnel all the tourists down it and get them to by a bunch of crap.
So after buying some stuff in stores we headed back to our hotel for a quick nap. In almost every city we have been in we have had a late afternoon nap to recharge our batteries from all the walking. Then we just headed out to a local restaurant for pizza and some beers at a bar and now we are just getting ready to head out in the morning. It has been a fun trip. We learned a lot this time around. The next time I come back to Europe I will do things a little different, but overall things went surprising as planned. The only changes usually ended up working out well anyway. Well, we will see everyone when we get home.
1 comment:
Good post.
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