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A few days ago, Adina and I made our way south. After an hour and a half in the car and a 30 minute train ride from Malmö and across the Öresund Bridge (a bridge/tunnel that connects Copenhagen and Sweden), we were in downtown Copenhagen. While it had been my intention to explore Copenhagen during last year's trip to Sweden, it wasn't meant to be, and when I left Sweden last September, Adina and I both knew it would be at the top of the list for the next time around. Well the next time around was here and now.
Though Copenhagen is a very easy destination to get to from Halmstad, Adina had never spent much time there in the past. Unlike my days here in Sweden and Adina's early days in Hawaii, times when we both had local guidance providing for local experiences and perspectives, we embraced and accepted that we were full on tourists in this city, with intentions to do the most touristy of activities and see the most touristy of sites in town. Rather than revisit each twist and turn of our time in Copenhagen, I think it will serve better to share a few
of the highlights and let the photos do the rest of the talking.
For any aspiring Copenhagen tourist, the canal boat tour is a must. In a wide and particularly short (height wise, that is) motor boat, we departed Nyhamn, a touristy strip along the water that is lined with street side restaurants and boats that set a Scandinavian mood. The great thing about this boat tour is that you get to see so many sites in such a short window of time because so many of Copenhagen's main attractions are built right upon the water. Within an hour, we had seen half a dozen historic churches, the city's opera house and playhouse, a few castles, some Danish naval sites, the "best restaurant in the world," and some of Copenhagen's most expensive waterfront real estate. Having only been in the city for a few hours, we had already seen so much under the blue skies and sun that had arrived just in time for our trip.
The first adventure of day two was a trip to Tivoli. For those who have never heard of Tivoli, it is an adventure park in the middle of Copenhagen that first opened
in 1843. It is the second oldest adventure park in the world and it served as inspiration for Walt Disney's Disneyland. Though the fairy tale allure that Tivoli is famous for is most vibrant at night, we still got a taste of what this place was all about by going early, and while we gave up some of the "magic" by going in the morning, we benefited by having the park all to ourselves, relatively speaking of course. We bought unlimited ride wrist bands and were able to hop from ride to ride, never waiting more than a few minutes. The first ride we went on in the park was called the Himmelskibet, the world's highest carousel ride, which flung us around its spire more than 80 meters above the city. The view was absolutely spectacular, though dizzying as one would expect. My personal favorite ride of the day was on the park's newest ride called Vertigo. An airplane shaped car seats four people on the end of a long mechanical arm. The car then rotates in all directions at the end of the arm as the arm whips in circles. I read somewhere that this ride has higher sustained
g-forces than any other ride in the world. I wouldn't be surprised. This thing rocks and I think its the best ride I've ever been on. The sampler here on Tivoli's website can give some idea:
Vertigo .
We left Tivoli feeling like two little kids (much the point I suppose) and began the walk across town to a much more adult attraction. No, not Copenhagen's famous Erotica Museum (which we heard is quite worth visiting as well), but Copenhagen's famous freetown, Christiania. Christiania was created on squatted military grounds back in the 70's. While the areas future is highly in doubt these days, for the past 40 years it has been a predominantly self governed area where most walls are painted with bright colored murals, and there is an open cannabis trade upon its streets. Several restaurants, bars and ice cream shops, where, if one desires, they can bring their cannabis to sit down and enjoy, are scattered across Christiania. At first pass, we felt this place was more of a haven for drug addicts than hippies, but after walking deeper into the Christiania scene, we began to feel its aloha spirit. In the heart of this area, people
from all walks of life were smiling, laughing, sipping coffee, dining on lunch, smoking joints, buying their children ice cream, and so on. On this scorching hot day (by Scandinavian standards), we sat at a restaurant called Nemoland, sipping cold beers and people watching. Christiania, like Tivoli, has a fairy tale charm (of course, of a completely different nature). It is certainly a very unique place in this world and one that, if you find yourself in Copenhagen, is worth visiting if it is still around. FYI - There are very limited Christiania photos due to camera restrictions inside.
All in all, Copenhagen is a beautiful city and we had an awesome three days there. Perfect weather and as many activities as we could possibly cram into 3 days. With that said, Stockholm still takes the gold in my opinion, at least in terms of beauty.
Again, make sure to check out all the photos... there's more to our time in Copenhagen than mentioned above.
Off to the fjords of Norway next. Aloha til then.
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Karen Jackson
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This reminds me of areas of High LIne Park in New York where the old rail line weaves through old meat packing buildings. Can you still dock boats there?