Denmark Detour
Last weekend, I took a 5-hour train trip to Copenhagen- the train went right onto the ferry! Friday the weather was kind of misty, and I didn’t hold out much hope, but the other two days I had beautiful clear skies, so I really lucked out.
After the short ferry trip, some officials came through the train, and at first I thought it was just to check my train ticket again, but it was passport control. Somehow in all my packing, I forgot that rather important detail! I had a moment of panic, and went through many scenarios as I went through my bag(hide in the bathroom? Get sent back to Germany? Call family from jail?). In the end, I smiled apologetically, and handed him my driver’s license, explaining my mistake, and asking him what would happen now. He let me go! No fine, no jail, no turning around right away.
After that, the weekend went really quite smoothly – I stayed at a nice hostel with a great name: Sleep-in Heaven. Copenhagen has a really nice feeling- a bit more relaxed than businesslike Hamburg, it seems to me. Bikes are even more important there ( I didn’t believe it was possible!)- the bike lanes are as big as car lanes!
I tried the local food specialities (so far, I’ve not encountered a place where the local speciality is particularly healthy!) : a Danish pastry, hot dogs, and open-faced sandwiches (there was so much piled on top, that I couldn’t see the bread!). I also tried a waffle with ice cream- I don’t know if that’s Danish, but I certainly hadn’t tried it before!
I saw the famous Little Mermaid statue, and many other less-famous-but-still-beautiful statues. I visited the very impressive crown jewels (Denmark has a royal family), saw the changing of the guard accidentally outside the royal residence palace and saw Kronberg, the castle in Helsignor, a half hour up the coast. ( It’s better known as Hamlet’s Elsinor.) It was built with 20-foot ceilings, on a rather windy point across from Sweden. Needless to say, the kings later decided that it was a bit drafty, so they gave it to the military.
In between all of this history and royalty, I saw two really interesting collections of art. The first was the National Art Museum, which had a special exhibit on Andre Derain. He was a friend of Picasso and Matisse, and also very talented, but somehow he’s a bit unknown nowadays. I was impressed by how drastically his style seemed to change! The rest of the museum was also really interesting- they compared the techniques and subjects of artists from wildly different times. The other gallery I saw was a modern art gallery on the coast- they were doing an exhibit on an American photographer named Cindy Sherman. For many years she’s used herself as the subject of the photos, but with makeup, wigs, costumes, and props, transforms herself into different characters. She even copied some “old master” style paintings – making herself into a “Madonna and Child” or some hairy duke with a pointy nose. Really cool!
One evening I visited the Royal Theatre house ( a new modern building) and saw a new production written by Elvis Costello there. I liked the more varied first half, and the more classical-style soprano. The second half, which told a love story about Hans Christian Anderson and Jenny Lind, a famous soprano, and the RENT-style tenor weren’t my favourite, though!
Anyhow, this could be a lot longer, but you have better things to do, I’m sure! I hope you’re enjoying the longer days, and the start of spring! We’ve just had a lovely warm sunny week here- it felt like May instead of March!
Russ
After the short ferry trip, some officials came through the train, and at first I thought it was just to check my train ticket again, but it was passport control. Somehow in all my packing, I forgot that rather important detail! I had a moment of panic, and went through many scenarios as I went through my bag(hide in the bathroom? Get sent back to Germany? Call family from jail?). In the end, I smiled apologetically, and handed him my driver’s license, explaining my mistake, and asking him what would happen now. He let me go! No fine, no jail, no turning around right away.
After that, the weekend went really quite smoothly – I stayed at a nice hostel with a great name: Sleep-in Heaven. Copenhagen has a really nice feeling- a bit more relaxed than businesslike Hamburg, it seems to me. Bikes are even more important there ( I didn’t believe it was possible!)- the bike lanes are as big as car lanes!
I tried the local food specialities (so far, I’ve not encountered a place where the local speciality is particularly healthy!) : a Danish pastry, hot dogs, and open-faced sandwiches (there was so much piled on top, that I couldn’t see the bread!). I also tried a waffle with ice cream- I don’t know if that’s Danish, but I certainly hadn’t tried it before!
I saw the famous Little Mermaid statue, and many other less-famous-but-still-beautiful statues. I visited the very impressive crown jewels (Denmark has a royal family), saw the changing of the guard accidentally outside the royal residence palace and saw Kronberg, the castle in Helsignor, a half hour up the coast. ( It’s better known as Hamlet’s Elsinor.) It was built with 20-foot ceilings, on a rather windy point across from Sweden. Needless to say, the kings later decided that it was a bit drafty, so they gave it to the military.
In between all of this history and royalty, I saw two really interesting collections of art. The first was the National Art Museum, which had a special exhibit on Andre Derain. He was a friend of Picasso and Matisse, and also very talented, but somehow he’s a bit unknown nowadays. I was impressed by how drastically his style seemed to change! The rest of the museum was also really interesting- they compared the techniques and subjects of artists from wildly different times. The other gallery I saw was a modern art gallery on the coast- they were doing an exhibit on an American photographer named Cindy Sherman. For many years she’s used herself as the subject of the photos, but with makeup, wigs, costumes, and props, transforms herself into different characters. She even copied some “old master” style paintings – making herself into a “Madonna and Child” or some hairy duke with a pointy nose. Really cool!
One evening I visited the Royal Theatre house ( a new modern building) and saw a new production written by Elvis Costello there. I liked the more varied first half, and the more classical-style soprano. The second half, which told a love story about Hans Christian Anderson and Jenny Lind, a famous soprano, and the RENT-style tenor weren’t my favourite, though!
Anyhow, this could be a lot longer, but you have better things to do, I’m sure! I hope you’re enjoying the longer days, and the start of spring! We’ve just had a lovely warm sunny week here- it felt like May instead of March!
Russ
posted by Russ at 12:07 PM
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