Trip to Copenhagen

Karen and I took a long weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a little chilly and rainy for part of the trip, but really nice all in all.

Here is Karen in front of the Central Station in Copenhagen. It was super convenient that the station was only 200m from our hotel.

First night there we went walking around and found this really large thermometer telling us EXACTLY how cold it was!

Here is Karen standing on Vindebrogage with Nybrogade on the other side of the canal. There weren't as many canals as in Venice or Amsterdam, but they were some really beautiful sections.

There is one section of Copenhagen called Freetown Christiania inhabited by 850 people, artist/hippies mostly. The area is a self governed 85 acre section of the city and according to Wikipedia has established a semi-legal independant status.

I had to take these pictures discretely. We read that the inhabitants don't like it when people come in a take pictures of their lives, etc. They illegidly start hollaring at photographers and chase them out.

We found coffee shops, bars, restaurants, home-made souvinere shops, etc. It seemed to be a fully functioning counter culture commune. Here is the very interesting wikipedia Freetown Christiania link.

Here's a look over the top of the area.

We took the Greater Copenhagen guided bus tour on Saturday afternoon and got to see a lot of the city. It was raining for the first half of the tour but cleared up towards the end.

Here’s a picture of some of the canal houses.
We set the tripod up for this one. This is the row of houses on 90% of Copenhagen post cards.
Some of the architecture around the main squares in Copenhagen have been restored to full original glory. Here is one that captures that old 16th century beauty. These buildings are just gorgeous!
Here we both are in the courtyard of the royal family palace. There was a flag flown on the main residence indicating the family was ‘home’. These places were HUGE! Each of the 4 main residence buildings were many times the size of the white house.
Here is a picture I took from the bus of the only historic old dutch windmill we actually in the city. We could have seen so many more if we had gone out of the city… maybe next time!
And here is the world famous statue of the little mermaid (the Disney film is the Dutch Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale). The movie made the story far more well known that it had previously been, but it’s only one of HCA’s many works.
Ans here is the statue of Hans Christian Anderson in the bronze in the corner of the the city’s central square right on Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard!