As I write this, I'm sitting on a train about to leave the main Copenhagen train station, heading home to Aarhus. Because I had expert help this time, I'm in for a two hour, 50 minute ride, as opposed to the 3 hour, 30 minute ride to get here. But that's jumping to the end of the story - let's start at (or near) the beginning.
First, the plan. As part of my strategy to feel oriented in Aarhus, I wanted to start seeing the surrounding areas. I figured a train ride and some site-seeing in Copenhagen might do the trick. So, I talked to G about it last weekend (G lives just outside the city), and we put together a plan. I would leave Aarhus Saturday morning, riding the train south through Jutland, and out over the islands to Copenhagen. I would spend Saturday afternoon wandering the city, take a local train north to G's town, have dinner and spend the night there. Then, on Sunday morning, we would come to Copenhagen together and do some more directed, organized site-seeing.
Not to be boring, but that's pretty much what happened.
I was very impressed with the Copenhagen train station, and even the station in Aarhus took me straight back to train rides in Germany a decade ago. I guess northern European train stations have a very distinct feel to them. Anyway, the Copenhagen station was giant , and very cool. I walked north along the main pedestrian zone (Stroget) had a shawarma sandwich, and saw a bunch of street performers. The Copenhagen Jazz Festival is underway, and a big park in the middle of the old city (the King's Park) had some live concerts going on. The park itself was pretty cool, and features a charming little castle.
More light fixtures should look like this
I also made sure to spend some time at the Botanical Gardens. Also very nice. I wasn't a very good botanist though. I went for the overall gestalt feeling, rather than paying particular attention to the plants I was seeing. It was a really hot day, and I stopped at a little cafe in the garden to get a coke. The thirstiness, heat and nice setting made it among my top five Cokes of all time, I think.
Walking along Tivoli Gardens (an amusement park sort of thing) I saw ads for two upcoming performances. First Kris Kirstofferson. Really? I had not thought of him as much of a broad international-appeal kind of guy. Just shows what I know. Anyway, the other upcoming performance was the San Francisco Ballet. Awesome. It's just as if I'd never left Berkeley.
Our train's moving now, through a highly graffitied concrete canyon topped by really green trees. Through most of the trip, though, the view will be green agricultural fields (including a lot of wheat), patches of forest, red-roofed towns and wind turbines.
Back to Copenhagen - by the end of the day, I was pretty tired. I headed back to the main train station and caught a train towards the northern suburbs of Copenhagen. G picked me up there, and drove me to her house, where I met her mother, E2. We had a nice dinner, including a mysterious new flounder-like fish called a Turpin. Intriguing, and also tasty. I caught a bit of the Paraguay-Spain game, was sad to have missed the Germany-Argentina game, and went for a walk.
As a sideline, I'll just note again how awesome it is to be able to leave on a walk at 9:30 and know that it will still be light when you get back. We walked down to the sound, had a look at Sweden across the way, and watched the sun set. Beautiful.
This morning, we had an excellent, traditional Danish breakfast consisting of bread and things to put on bread. It's such a good culinary concept. Then, G drove me and E2 into Copenhagen. We saw where the famous Little Mermaid statue is usually. Unfortunately , it's on loan to China for the time being. In its place was a large television screen displaying a still photo of the statue. Hilarious.
Walking up the round tower - a long continuous spiral
We walked along the water, saw the new opera house (funded by Maersk - you've probably seen their ships), and went to Amalienborg Palace-the home of the Danish royalty. The queen was not in, but we did go on a tour of the crown prince's new residence. It was pretty fun to see that. We had a breakfast at a restaurant near the new theater, and walked down to the round tower (see pictures). Then we met up with G's daughter for lunch, and made our way back to the car. We drove down to the train station, and here I am!
Amalienborg
One more funny thing:
I saw a giant sign that said "Dong Energy." I really wanted to take a picture of it, but was not fast enough as we drove by. It strongly reminded me of the immortal words of some extra in Arrested Development - "Tea for dong! "(who knows what I'm talking about? You? Sweet. High five.)
That's it for now. Thanks for reading!
The trees at the end of that street are the lower border of a cemetery. Let's see what that looks like:
Very nice. Upon leaving the cemetery, I'm greeted by this church
Not long after that, Bam! My building.
My office is on the top floor (3rd floor, oddly enough, thanks to bizarre European floor-numbering schemes), opposite side of the building.
Not long after that, Bam! My building.
My office is on the top floor (3rd floor, oddly enough, thanks to bizarre European floor-numbering schemes), opposite side of the building.