Cavorting in Copenhangen

When opportunity knocks, answer the door! On two days notice, Marie was offered a ten day assignment in Copenhagen, Denmark. Scandinavia is high on her bucket list so she jumped at the chance. I looked on the Air Canada web site to see if I could get a reasonable fare to join her, but at around $2,500, the best fare was a bit high for a week in Copenhagen. Marie checked Travelocity.ca and found a lower price; I booked for $1000 less. Imagine my surprise to find my flights were on Air Canada to Frankfurt and back from Geneva, with SAS Airlines providing the legs to and from Copenhagen. So the moral of the story is to always look at discounter sites to see what they offer.

Copenhagen (København in Danish), a city of over 1.3 million people, is about1000 years old according to the first record to mention the fishing settlement located on the shore of the Øresund, the narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden. At that time it was simply called Havn (harbour). Vikings were known to frequent the area around this time in history although they may not have actually settled here. They did, however, apparently leave behind a boat - or is it a train? At least it is heading toward the water.

Increasing trade among the Danish Kingdom (Denmark, Norway and part of Sweden) and other countries resulted in a bit of a growth spurt for Copenhagen and in 1167 the Danish King gave the now named København (Traders Port) to Bishop Absalon and charged him with building a fort in the town. Bishop Absalon must have been a tough priest. When I saw his statue a couple of days later, I could not help but notice that he is carrying a battle axe.

København became the Danish Kingdom’s capital in the 15th century. Denmark’s most famous King, Christian IV, made it a substantive regional centre through his ambitious building and cultural programs in the 17th century. He bankrupted the nation while doing so, but many buildings commissioned by him still stand in Copenhagen today. An example is the King’s Brewery, which for a country that ranked 8th in the world in 2004 in per capita beer consumption (90 litres a year) is an important landmark. (Canada ranked 19th at a measly 68 litres).

I arrived in Copenhagen at noon local time and got a taxi to Marie’s hotel. She wanted to stay at her favourite chain, the Marriott, but it was full, so had to settle for the Scandinavian Radisson located on the island of Amager, about 1.5 km from the centre of Copenhagen. The hotel is one of the tallest buildings in the city, built in the 1970s and apparently not upgraded much since then. So it was a bit tired looking, it had no air conditioning and the rooms were on the small side. But who can argue with a free room!

After resting for a couple of hours (jet lag), I went for a short walk along Langebro Boulevard across the bridge over the Inderhavn canal to the island of Zealand where the centre of the city is located. One thing I noticed right away was the number of people riding bicycles on a separate path with separate bicycle traffic signals. Apparently 36% of commuters ride bikes to work every day covering over 1 million kilometres collectively as they do so. Dedicated bicycle paths run throughout the city which also provides bikes to anyone for a 20 Krone deposit. I did not have enough time to do much exploring, so I turned around and wandered back to wait for Marie.

After she arrived, we left and crossed a small footbridge over the former moat of water (Stadsgraven) in front of the hotel to the old bastions in the area of town called Christianshavn (Christian’s Harbour). Dredged from the sea by order of King Christian IV in 1618 -1623 as part of new fortifications, he had the artificial island built to resemble Amsterdam complete with canals through it. A primarily residential area, there are a few sights in Christianshavn. The Church of Our Saviour is a dominant feature with its unique steeple and stairs winding around the outside. Copenhagen is a flat city with low buildings. The many church steeples dominate the skyline. We walked about a kilometre through Christianshavn until we came to Christiania, our destination, for a quick bit of sightseeing.

Christiania is a self-proclaimed free town of about 800 people that started when squatters took over an abandoned military base in 1971. A special law passed by the Danish Parliament in 1989 transferred Christiania’s supervision from Copenhagen to the State, but the legal status of the area and its ‘citizens’ is still debated. To go to Christiania is to literally take a trip back to the hippy movement of the late 60s and early 70s. The ‘main’ street of the commune is called Pusher Street where the open selling of marijuana and hashish, but no hard drugs, goes on day and night. Signs on the street state that no photos are allowed for obvious reasons. The evening we visited, a karaoke rap event was underway in a square in the centre of the commune. Many of the people in the audience (mostly in their twenties) were smoking joints, drinking beer and enjoying themselves. We listened to the 7 or 8 group rappers for a while, but since this genre is not our thing, left this generation’s experiment with pot and free love shortly thereafter to go find a place to eat. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant, my first meal in Copenhagen. Such is international travel.

A few facts are in order about Copenhagen in case you become one of the over 1 million tourists a year who visit. Summertime is of course the busiest for tourism. Located a little further north than Edmonton’s latitude, Copenhagen has long summer days with temperatures between 20 and 25 C. The winter is mild because of the sea’s influence. Copenhagen is very expensive for most Canadians. Denmark’s currency, the Krone (Crown), was trading for about 22 cents to our dollar. A beer at a pub costs around $8, dinner for two is difficult to find for under $125 and averaged $150 for us. McDonald’s, always an international indicator of comparative costs, was advertising a plain hamburger for about $4.25. On the plus side, most of the national museums are free. And almost all of the sights in Copenhagen are within walking distance of each other. Based on my experience, one can see most major sights in five days.

My first full day in Copenhagen, I headed towards City Hall, passing Tivoli Gardens on the way. The rides inside were already going full speed ahead and I could hear the shrieks of the riders inside. The giant swing is supposedly the best ride and it was packed. This famous old amusement park opened in 1843. It is the most visited attraction in Copenhagen, but we chose not to go as there were many other places to see and things to do in the time we had and amusement parks are not high on our agenda.

I got to City Hall Square (Radhuspladsen) and checked out the large plaza and the buildings around it. City Hall is a massive brick building, with a golden icon of Bishop Absalon over the front door and a 105 metre clock tower on one end. As it was still early in the morning, most locals were at work and only a few fellow tourists were out and about. I noticed a small group huddled at the right hand corner of the City Hall building so I wandered over to have a look. They were admiring a bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen who looks out at the boulevard that bears his name, as if surveying the people passing by. Or perhaps reading one of his famous stories to them.

On the opposite side of the square from Mr. Andersen, and to the left of City Hall, two Vikings stand blowing their horns (called lurs). These two were obviously very cooperative Vikings, holding each other's horn; they must not have read the Viking manual about rape, pillaging and outright nastiness that Hollywood portrays them to be. They cap a large stone pillar set right in the middle of the street so maybe they are not so cooperative after all.

Diagonally across the square from them, the day’s temperature is whimsically reflected on the corner of a building. Today's temperature at just after 9:300 a.m. was 21 degrees C. I'm not sure what the golden guy riding a bike, and the woman hiding in the tower on top have to do with the temperature though. As almost all tourists pass though this huge plaza area, the usual assortment of tourist traps (e.g. Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Guinness World Records, Louis Tussaud’s (Madame’s husband?) Wax Museum) can be found around the square or nearby. North American style comfort food (e.g. McDonalds, Burger King) also dominates the immediate area.

I crossed the plaza and entered the western end of the Strøget, a pedestrian only series of connected streets that wind over a kilometre through the medieval part of the city. Strøget is billed as a shopping mecca, but most stores are the same as those in any mall in Ottawa. It is full of strolling people, though, who frequent the many restaurants and cafes found along its length. As I crossed the junction of Gammeltorv (Old Square) and Nytorv (New Square), merchants were just setting up kiosks for the Copenhagen Cooking weekend, an international food fest. I checked out some of the offerings from around the world, but did not bite; somehow eating Australian barbequed beef did not seem very Danish. The Gammeltorv contains the Caritas Fountain and the Courthouse dominates the adjacent Nytorv.

A little bit further down the Strøget, I stopped in at the Church of the Holy Ghost, the foundations of which date back to the thirteenth century. It is a quiet respite from the noise and bustle of the Strøget just outside the church yard wall. Unfortunately, a private service was underway, so I could not go in. A plaque in the courtyard commemorates Danish citizens who lost their lives in concentration camps during WWII. It should be noted that Denmark managed to evacuate most of its Jewish population to neutral Sweden - all the while being occupied by Nazi Germany.

Back on the Strøget I continued until I got to Amagertorv, another square where the buildings date from 1600 and are in the Dutch Renaissance style. Several young people were conducting some kind of folk dance and song beside the Storks Fountain as I passed by and I stopped to watch them. They were having fun and their singing had several onlookers smiling and nodding along with the lilting tune even though we tourists could not understand a word.

It was at this square that I deviated from the Strøget and headed north up Købmagergade, another pedestrian street. I wanted to see the Rundetårn (Round Tower) with the oldest functioning observatory and planetarium in Europe built by none other than Christian IV in 1642. It is 40 metres tall and has a unique 210 metre long spiral ramp made of narrow yellow bricks (the original yellow brick road) instead of stairs leading to the top.

The tower is part of Copenhagen University and half way up, a door opens into the former University Library in the loft over Trinitatis Chapel below (supporting higher education I assume). I did not climb the tower, but Marie and I returned on Saturday and walked up the ramp. Before going up, I took careful note of the defibrillator on the side of the ticket kiosk. But the climb up the ramp was not so bad, with only a few claustrophobic circular steps for the last 5 metres and one got a great view of Copenhagen (and the bridge to Sweden in the distance).

I continued up Købmagergade to where it joined a large street called Nørrevolgade. Turning right, I ambled over to the Botanic Garden established in 1872 on the former city fortifications. Since I had walked about 4 km, I thought a short rest would be in order and the Garden was just the ticket. I sat on a bench where I could peruse the large glass Palmenhus (a greenhouse) across a meadow in front of me and a small lake, part of the former city moat, behind me. Fellow tourists and locals (mostly mothers pushing prams) went by on the path in front of me.

Refreshed after this short sojourn, it was time to move on. I wanted to return to the hotel by way of a nearby castle and a place (Nyhavn) recommended by the server at last night’s restaurant. I consulted my map, and thinking I could exit the Garden near the Palmenhus, continued up the path in this direction. However, when I got to the far end I found that the only exit was by way of the entrance I had used – now about 500 metres behind me.

So I retraced my steps to Nørrevolgade and crossed to walk south on Gothersgade towards Nyhavn. I passed by a military base where an armed soldier guarded a large open gate through which I could see Rosenborg Slot (Slot is the Danish for Castle). A bit further down the same street, I entered the Kings Gardens (Kongens Have) and sauntered along the path bordering the military base towards Rosenborg Castle.

So guess who built Rosenborg Castle? Started as a summer residence in 1606, over the next twenty-two years various additions were made to what we see today. Like many of the buildings put up by Christian IV, it is built in the Dutch Renaissance Style. It must have been quite the place when Christian IV was home and would have been interesting to have been invited for dinner – to a point. A normal menu had between sixteen and twenty assorted dishes for the King and guests to sample. And one had to try all of them. To help ensure this happened, a servant would circulate with a silver bowl and feather to tickle the back of one’s throat to ‘make room’ for more food and a never ending supply of beer and wine. For Royal Banquets and stately events, more than 35 different courses were on the menu. The servant with the feather (and a very strong stomach) must have been really busy at these events!

The Royal Jewel Collection is kept at Rosenborg Slot which became a public museum in 1838. The last King to live there was Christian VII for a short period in 1801 when the British Navy attacked Copenhagen when Denmark was part of the League of Armed Neutrality (even then, an oxymoron was a government speciality). The League included England’s enemy, France. Vice Admiral Nelson, who became famous at Trafalgar, commanded one of the British ships that bombarded the city.

I strolled through the Kongens Have after visiting the Castle, heading towards the harbour. Lots of people (and a purple-pink creature) were in the park, enjoying picnics, sleeping, doing exercises and generally taking advantage of this large green space. From the park’s exit, it was a short five minute walk down Gothersgade to Nyhavn.

Nyhaven (New Harbour) is a bit of a misnomer when one considers it was established in 1670. At that time it was frequented by sailors and had a reputation as the red light district, with many bars and houses of ill repute. Today, the red lights have been replaced by brightly painted houses with many bars and houses of ‘fill’ repute. One side of the harbour is completely lined with restaurants. Although the prices are a bit higher here to eat and drink, the atmosphere is worth it and locals and tourists swarm the place. Marie and I came back to eat later in the evening and enjoyed talking to two Danish men getting happily drunk beside us.

It was getting on in the afternoon, so I started to make my way towards the hotel. Just as I went to cross the bridge over Nyhavn, two men with blue vests ran right in front of me, pulling what looked like police tape across the road from a roll mounted on the railing. Startled at first, it dawned on me it was a lift bridge. Sure enough, a sail boat was heading towards the bridge that already was lifting. The whole operation took about five minutes, the bridge came down, the tape barriers were retracted into their rolls and life went on. I didn’t even notice where the two men who opened the bridge came from or went to (maybe they were Trolls who lived under the bridge as if from a Hans Christian Andersen story).

I headed up the other side of Nyhavn, to Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square) and crossed it towards the medieval part of town where Christian IV had really gone crazy with his building blocks. After crossing another bridge onto Slotsholmen Island (literally, Castle Island), I walked through an archway that led into the courtyard of Christiansborg Palace, finished in 1928, but sitting on the foundations of four other castles including that of Bishop Absalon’s 12th century one. Today’s Christiansborg Palace, in the Neo-Baroque style, houses the Danish Parliament. Much of it was covered with scaffolding holding true to its building style as it apparently was newly broke. So ended this day of sightseeing.

Marie said she wanted to sleep in on Saturday and I had no argument. She was tired from work, and I was still getting over jet lag. But I don’t think she meant we should hibernate. It was almost 10 a.m. when we woke up. With the day wasting, we got organized and walked back into town, following the Inderhaven canal towards Nyhavn where we planned on taking a canal boat trip. These kinds of tourist activities (i.e. boat tours if a city is on the water, bus orientation tours if not) are good to hear a bit about the history of a place as well as to get oriented to where major activities, attractions and neighbourhoods are located. As with all tourist activities which have a price, it pays to shop around. The major company offering the canal rides did so for about $15 a person. Fifty metres further down Nyhavn, another company offered the exact ride, with the same information provided, in identical boats for about $7 a person.

It was a beautiful sunny day and Marie and I and about 100 of our new Hungarian friends (from a tour bus) headed out to cruise the inner harbour and the canals of Christianshavn and the medieval area. We circled the Royal Yacht, saw Christiania from a different perspective, heard snippets from the guide about many of the buildings we passed, sailed by the Danish Naval museum and its ships, and snuck up on the Little Mermaid from behind. Because the boats go under very, very low bridges, they have no tops and passengers are reminded to stay seated. One Hungarian who had his video camera glued to his eye for the whole journey repeatedly stood up and was yelled at repeatedly by the tour guide and others as we approached each bridge. Because he blocked the view for other passengers, I perhaps subconsciously hoped (OK I consciously hoped) that he wouldn’t hear one of the warnings, thus getting an abridged version of the tour, literally and figuratively. Note that manners are important when you travel as they are at home.

After the tour, Marie and I walked through the Nytorv to the south end of the Strøget. We strolled up the street, eventually turning right onto Købmagergade to the Round Tower which we climbed as mentioned earlier. The breeze at the top was refreshing after the climb as it was a warm, humid day. Back at the bottom, we took the street in front of the tower and headed in the general direction of City Hall, while searching for a restaurant. This area of town is called the Latin Quarter (as in Paris, the university students that frequented here centuries ago spoke Latin) and while it had several restaurants, none interested us until we came upon a tiny Thai place in a basement on a side street. We like to eat light food with lots of vegetables when we travel and Thai and other Asian restaurants can always be counted upon for this fare.

After eating we went into City Hall Square where a basketball tournament was under way. We found some seats in the temporary bleachers. The game being played was called Street Basketball and it was extremely rough. Players openly pushed, punched and grabbed each other (thank goodness Denmark has strict gun laws) and the referees only called fouls if a definite scoring opportunity was thwarted. No foul shots ensued, just a turnover of possession. The team that won had the biggest (not necessarily the tallest) muggers – er, players.


It was now late in the day, so we went back to the hotel for a rest to get energized for the evening. Later, we crossed over into Christianshavn again (it being the closest neighbourhood with restaurants) and had a very good dinner at an Italian restaurant.

The next morning, being Sunday, we decided to take a drive (Marie had a car courtesy of work) to see a bit of the countryside and to visit a legendary castle about 50 kilometres north of Copenhagen in Helsingør. Known in English as Elsinore, the town is at its narrowest point of the Øresund– it is only 4 kilometres across to Sweden. Strategically located, it is most famous to Danes as the location of Kronborg Castle, a renaissance castle built in the late 1500s. To Shakespeare aficionados, it is the location of Hamlet. Whether or not Prince Hamlet actually lived (there is an Amleth mentioned in Danish Lore), the play has been performed here on many occasions, the first being in 1816. A stage was set up in the courtyard for this year’s version, starring Jude Law in the title role the week of August 31.

Kronborg is a UNESCO World Heritage site but in its day was not only the King’s palace, but a toll booth. The King used his navy to collect “Sound Dues” from the many ships passing through the Øresund which was, and still is, a major sea lane (for cruise ships too!). Indeed, revenues from the toll averaged one third of the Danish Kingdom’s revenues. The Castle is definitely worth a visit and guided tours in English happen about every 30 minutes. First, we toured the Casements, the underground passageways and rooms where up to 1000 soldiers could be billeted and provisions stored for a six week siege. The only inhabitant of the Casements today is Holger the Dane, a famous mythical character who now sleeps until called upon by a national disaster at which time he will awaken to save Denmark. He did not awaken when Germany invaded Denmark in WWII so I’m thinking it will have to be a real humdinger of a catastrophe in the future that will get him up.

We also visited the Royal Apartments and were amazed by the collection of Medieval Tapestries commissioned by King Frederick II in 1580 that are housed here. He commissioned over 40 of them and the castle has seven, with the remaining seven at the National Museum in Copenhagen. Much of the rest of the decorative glory of the castle was removed by invading Swedish armies and by the Danish military which used the castle as a military establishment from 1785 to 1924, but our guide made up for this with the history he told us as well as many anecdotes about the palace and its former inhabitants.

The castle chapel was the only part of the castle to survive a devastating fire in 1629 and had not been changed much by the Danish Military and others who occupied the castle over the years. It is extremely decorative and colourful. The sculptures on the end of the pews are whimsical and date from the late 1500s. The crests probably denote the occupation of the family that “owned” the pews, including the guy who built the Laughing Cow cheese factory.

As we were leaving the castle, we could see the special forked Danish flag, the Splitflag, flying over the walls. The split or forked version can only be flown by the State and monarchy, with a deeper red version, the Orlogsflag reserved for the Danish Navy. The regular Danish flag, the Dannebrog, is the oldest national flag in the world dating from the 14th century. It apparently was a gift from God, falling from the sky to rally Danish troops during a battle. Since Finland, Norway and Sweden were all at one time or another part of the Danish empire, their flags are patterned after the Dannebrog - a cross on a coloured background.

After leaving Kronborg, we drove to the community of Lyngby near Copenhagen to visit the Frilandsmuseet (Open Air Museum), a large (86 acres) national museum (Government of Canada, please note that Denmark, a country of 5 million people, has national museums that are all free) of more than 50 farms, mills and houses from the period 1650-1950. All signs describing the edifices and inside period furniture and exhibits are in English. The museum can be reached on public transport if you are in Copenhagen.

The buildings were brought from various parts of Denmark, including some of the offshore islands, such as the Faroes. The houses and barns are surrounded by typical gardens, orchards, trees and bushes commensurate with the region and time period. Some of them even have livestock. Lots of families with young children were visiting the park, having picnics in the areas set aside for this purpose. We watched actors stage what appeared to be a Hans Christian Andersen tale of a woman who had to pick among three men (one was more of a troll-like woodland creature) who fancied her. Since it was pantomime theatre, it was understandable from the facial expressions, gestures and sounds made by the participants.

As we walked through the park, it was interesting to see how building technology slowly changed over the years. The first house and barn structures (the barn was part of the house) were made of half timbers, willow like branches and dried whitewashed mud or clay. Some of the structures were leaning precariously, as if ‘the crooked man’ had built them. When they were moved to their current site, they were rebuilt exactly as they were found. Considering the age of some of them, they are entitled to lean a bit. In the earliest dwellings, the floors were usually tamped mud. Roofs were covered in thatch.

As we moved slowly through the centuries, more wood began to be seen in the walls and stones were used as floors. For some reason, Danes slept in closed cupboard like structures until well into the twentieth century. I guess no one ever came out of the closet in those days. Finally brick began to appear, at first for chimneys, and then for walls and floors. The thatched roof, however, lasted well into modern times. We spent two hours here and perhaps saw 50% of the exhibits – our journey in time stopped in the 1920s in a general store. Looking at the labels of the articles for sale, I would have been limited to buying corn flakes as it was the only label I could read. However, time constraints and sore feet precluded us seeing the rest of this huge museum, so we drove back to Copenhagen after a beautiful day in the countryside.

Marie went back to work on Monday and I set out to see a couple of the areas at the far eastern end of the downtown, past Nyhavn. I found that by cutting through Christianshavn I could save about a kilometre of walking each way, so this is what I did. Once past Nyhavn, the first major new sight for me was Frederiks Kirke, affectionately called The Marble Church (Danish equivalent of course). In 1749 King Frederik V laid out the plans for this subdivision of Copenhagen (called Frederikstad in his honour) and for the church. He spared no expense for the church and started building the walls from solid marble imported from eastern Norway (part of his Kingdom at the time). Then he gave up the ghost (literally, dying in 1754) and all building came to a stop. His successor, King Christian VII suspended the project because of the high cost. And what a suspension it was. During the 100 years that nothing happened, the 7 metre high walls were just a ruin.

In 1874 a rich banker restarted the project and it progressed slowly with completion in August 1894. A Lutheran Church (most Danish churches are Lutheran) it is nevertheless quite impressive inside, particularly the underside of the 31 metre wide dome (too wide for my widest angle lens to capture) which is the biggest in northern Europe. The altar and the pipes of an old organ are also noteworthy in decoration for this form of Protestantism.

Frederiks Kirke (I would not have named it after him since he did not finish the job) anchors one end of Frederiksgade. Amelienborg Palace is at the other with the harbour beyond. Amelienborg Palace is named after two previous palaces on this site, the original having been built by Queen Sophie Amalie, the wife of King Frederik III in 1669. The first palace burned to the ground in 1689. The second palace was a summer residence for King Frederik IV and was quite modest. It was later torn down by Frederik V so he could carry-out his master plan for the area (this area did go ahead despite his death). Today’s complex comprises four identical Rococo buildings arranged around an octagonal square that were originally designed to house prominent families.

It was not until 1794 that the buildings became part of the Royal estates when King Christian VII moved in after fire destroyed his previous home (Christiansborg Palace – are you noticing that the Danish royalty had a lot of fires?). Since then various Kings have lived in each of the four houses (depending upon individual preferences). Today, Queen Margrethe II makes Amelienborg Palace (not sure which of the four she likes) her winter home. The Danish Life Guards (that is the translation of their name into English; with those hats they certainly could not save a drowning person) provide the ceremonial guard.

After walking through the square, I turned left at the Inderhavn. Two or three Tall Ships were tied up to the long quay that ran along the water’s edge. I passed them by and then also went by the NHQ of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, one of the biggest shipping companies in the world (you've probably seen their blue shipping containers on trucks, trains or ships). On the other side of this building, I came to the edge of the Kastellet (Citadel) area and the waterfront called Langelinie.

To my left was an Anglican Church of England located in Churchill Park (named after British Prime Minister Winston Churchill) and in front of me was the immense Gefion Fountain, depicting oxen pulling the plough of the Norse goddess, Gefion. A donation by the Carlsberg Foundation (the beer people) on the occasion of Carlsberg’s 50th anniversary in 1897, the massive fountain took 11 years to make and was unveiled in 1908. There are a couple of interpretations of the legend about Gefion. One has it that she tricked King Gylfe of Sweden (the Swedish Empire owning Denmark at the time) and removed and transported the Island of Zealand where Copenhagen is located from Sweden. The one that seems to make more sense, considering what the fountain depicts, was that King Gylfe granted her as much land as she could plough in one 24 hour day. So she turned her four sons into oxen and set to work. The island of Zealand, a land mass of 7,031 square kilometres, was the result. Not a bad day’s work.

I followed the path around the fountain continuing along the Langelinie until I got to Den Lille Havfrue which has become synonymous with Copenhagen. Known as the Little Mermaid in English, she was donated by J.C. Jacobsen the founder of Carlsberg Breweries to the city in 1909. He was fascinated by the tale of the Little Mermaid (the rest of her ain’t bad looking either) by Hans Christian Andersen and after seeing Ellen Price as lead in the ballet version, decided to commission the statue. Since Ellen Price did not wish to pose nude for Edvard Erikson the sculptor, Edvard’s wife swam into the picture and it is Eline Eriksen (no, not Ariel) we see today, kneeling (tailing?) on her stone pedestal. The sculpture was unveiled on August 23, 1913, and each August 23 is celebrated by locals as Den Lille Havfrue’s birthday. This is the reason for the roses still clasped in her arms as I visited her the day after her birthday. If you go to Copenhagen next year, she won’t be there – she is heading to Shanghai China to promote Denmark at the 2010 World Expo. I'm not sure if she is swimming there, or will change her tail for legs and catch a plane.

I was now about 5 kilometres from my hotel and at pretty much the extreme edge of central Copenhagen. So I decided to begin my hike back by going through the Kastellet. Our old friend, Christian IV, built the first citadel on this site in 1626. It is Europe’s oldest military bastion still in operation. Today it serves as the NHQ of the Danish Defence Intelligence (but don’t tell anyone I said so). The complex that we see today was completed in 1664 by King Frederik III and most of the buildings and other infrastructure date from that period. During daylight hours the Citadel is open for people to visit. I walked around the star shaped ramparts which gave me a great view of the Citadel buildings, old cannons dating from the 1700s, the harbour and Copenhagen itself.

Just outside the King’s Gate of the Citadel and across the moat that still surrounds it, a memorial to Danish service men stands guarding the drive. Denmark was occupied by the Germans during WWII and the Danish Resistance was pretty active from 1943 to liberation day. A National Museum honouring the Resistance stands just in front of the Anglican Church.

On my way back to the hotel as I was passing by Christiansborg Palace, a troop of Danish Life Guards marched out of the archway and proceeded to cross the road and head into the centre of the medieval part of town. Where they were going and for what purpose, I’ll never know. Maybe someone had fallen into the canal. But I knew where I was going. I was going to the hotel and a waiting cold one to cap off a long, long walk.

My last day in Copenhagen offered up an opportunity to head out to the Frederiksberg suburb to visit Frederiksberg Slot (Castle). I had put it off because it was about 14 kilometres from the hotel round trip (although I could take a bus, I like walking so I can stop if I see something interesting) and other than the zoo and the castle, there did not appear to be much else in that area to see. But I had already visited most of the rest of Copenhagen, so I bit the bullet and set off. It took me about 90 minutes to get there. On the way I passed through several ‘neighbourhoods’ – Danish, Arabic, Asian, African and Turkish. Actually, the long walk there turned out to be 100% better than Frederiksberg Slot itself.

The castle, on one of the only hills in Copenhagen, is now another military base (for officer training). Officers in the Danish military must not be paid much because the castle is unremarkable and seen up close, the paint is flaking and the woodwork needs work. Visits to the interior happen only once a month, of course nowhere near the date I was there.

The Copenhagen Zoo is on the other side of the castle and I spent a few minutes observing the monkeys before walking around the castle to the back. The view of the distant downtown was unfortunately spoiled by the sports complex at the bottom of the hill. It was as run down as the castle. I found this strange since Frederiksberg is supposed to be a swanky neighbourhood. Wondering why I had walked so far for so little gain, I sat down on a lonely bench and pulled out my map to see if anything else interesting was in the area. My roving eye suddenly noticed the Carlsberg brewing complex and the Carlsberg Visitor Centre about a kilometre to the south of the castle as the bird flies. Now we were talking!

I arrived at the Centre about 15 minutes later and went to pay the 60 Krone charge with the change that had been amassing in my pocket over the past few days. Not yet familiar with Danish change, the clerk could see I was struggling to see the markings on the coins in the dim light and asked if he could help. I dumped the change on the desk, he selected a few coins and returned some back to me along with a voucher for two beers (part of the tour) and I set off to learn the Carlsberg story. And quite a story it was. The first exhibit was a beer bottle collection (it was once private but donated to the Carlsberg group) that contained thousands of full bottles from around the world. I wonder if the collector had sampled each of them before putting a bottle into his collection.

Carlsberg is named after J.C. Jacobsen’s son, Carl, and the hill (berg) where Jacobsen founded a new brewery in 1847. Jacobsen was a pioneer in the brewing industry; under his tutelage Carlsberg Brewery was one of the first to use steam power, greatly improved refrigeration and pasteurization techniques, and one of his research scientists learned how to propagate a single yeast strain. Prior to this the quality and consistency of brewer’s yeast, which changes sugar to alcohol, was a hit and miss proposition. I spent about two hours on the self-guided tour, reading the many bits of information about beer making and about Carlsberg, about how beer influenced civilizations (now I know where Christian IV got his ideas and building frenzy from) as well as watching some interesting videos. One of them was a hilarious1930s beer commercial used in movie theatres that showed the history of beer making from prehistoric to ‘modern’ times.

In 1882, Carl opened his own brewery called NyCarlsberg (New Carlsberg) right next door to his father’s which was shortly named Gamle (old) Carlsberg. An interesting logo used by Carl on his beer bottles was the swastika, which at the time denoted purity and quality. It can still be seen on old bottles in the Centre, as well as on two elephant statues that support an arch across NyCarlsbergvej (New Carlsberg Way) in the brewery complex. Needless to say, the swastika disappeared from the label during WWII. Getting it off the elephants would have been a harder task and there it remains.

As I passed through the stable where the beer wagons and horses are kept, I remembered Carlsberg commercials from the 1970s in Canada that featured a beer wagon and Carl Holman. Carl Holman I am sure is no longer with us except in memory. I also recall that Carlsberg was one of the first, if not the first, brewery to introduce light beer in Canada.

In the airy bar at the conclusion of the tour each visitor can sample two different beers (more can be bought if one desires). I first tried Jacobsen Dark Lager, made from Carlsberg's oldest existing recipe from 1854. A top fermented beer (hops and yeast are added to the top of the malt), it had a sweet, full-bodied caramel taste with a fruity bouquet. Not something you would drink at a hockey game, I was thinking. The second beer I tried was called Carl’s Special, a traditional German type bottom fermented beer. It was amber in colour but had a distinctive bitter hop taste. It would go very well at a hockey game.

Fully refreshed (and slightly tipsy – the 'free' beers were full half litres), I headed back on the long walk through Vestbro (the name of the neighbourhood) by way of a different route than the morning walk. I passed under the Elephant Gate and walked parallel to the Innerhavn canal until I came to the Copenhagen Train Station. Just past it I walked beside Tivoli Gardens before turning right onto H.C. Andersen Boulevard. When I got back to the hotel, I snapped the tab on a cold Carlsberg and toasted the Jacobsens for salvaging the day.

Just after I returned to the hotel, it rained for the first time since I had arrived in Copenhagen. The Norse gods were telling me it was time to go home.