So here is what happened with Victoria and Linda C. They were walking back from Tivoli Gardens and Victoria started to fall. She reached out to steady herself on the bikes parked along the street. The bikes gave way and down went Victoria. Linda tried to help Victoria get up and saw that she was bleeding. Luckily there were two med students on the street who were quick to give assistance. A waiter from the restaurant saw what was happening and quickly brought out a chair for Victoria to sit on. It was determined that Victoria needed medical attention so someone called for an ambulance and was told it would be faster to call a cab. With the help of the medical students a cab was secured and it took them to the emergency room. When the cab arrived at the hospital, they found that the emergency room had recently been moved and only a trauma unit was still operating. Since the trauma unit was not that busy, Victoria received medical attention there. They were pleasently surprise to learn that emergency medical care is free in Denmark even for tourist. “Denmark has an extensive public healthcare system that offers free consultation and treatment at a local doctor’s, emergency wards and public hospitals.”(https://lifeindenmark.borger.dk/Coming-to-Denmark/Healthcare) They took a cab back to the hotel and if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the cab was rear-ended as they were getting out. Luckily no one was hurt.
Victoria did join us for the day’s activities but did stay on the van for most of the photographic opportunities.
Victoria did join us for the day’s activities but did stay on the van for most of the photographic opportunities.
Our guide Una Stewart, arrived while several of us were having breakfast to say we would be leaving at 10:00. Of course Mom and I were little late getting down to the bus because I was trying to finish up the blog and Mom forgot her walking stick.
As we drove through the city these are the things that we learned from Una:
As we drove through the city these are the things that we learned from Una:
- Copenhagen has a population of 1,308,893
- Copenhagen is made up of 14 Islands
- There are no mountains or rivers in the whole country.
- Much of the water is from fresh water springs
- There are 2 million bicycles in Copenhagen and all of these have built in locks.
- Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand.
- Many of the lakes in the city were part of the moat that surrounded to original city in the 1600’s.
- Copenhagen was founded In 936 AD as a fishing village.
- It has the oldest Monarchy in the world but today it is a democracy with the Monarchy as a figure head
- One of the streets that circles the city is where the wall stood.
- The country was first Catholic but was switched to Lutheran around the 1700”s so the king could have some power over the country.
- The city originally had a wall around it. The wall fell down 1852 because of to many people, little space, open sewers and poor hygiene which led to epidemics.
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Our first stop was to see the famous Little Mermaid, “a gift from Danish brewer Carl Jacobsen to the City of Copenhagen. The sculpture is made of bronze and granite and was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about a mermaid who gives up everything to be united with a young, handsome prince on land.” (https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/little-mermaid-gdk586951). The statue is the head of a ballerina and the body of the sculptor's wife. At that period in history, people did not pose naked so the sculptor used his wife as a model.
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We had passed this areas where the navy barracks were so I asked if we could stop to take a picture. The bus driver pulled off, down a hill to the end of the road beside the old moat. Linda H and I jumped off the bus to get a picture. The best vantage point was up a long flight of stair and over the bridge. So we got a short jog in for the morning.
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Then it was on to see Gefion Fountain. The legend says that this was a wedding present to Gefion. “The Swedish king Gylfe offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she was capable of ploughing within one day and one night.” (https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/gefion-fountain-gdk410604) Next door to the fountain was the very old very beautiful St. Alban’s Anglican Church consecrated in 1887.
Then it was on to see the castles of the monarchy in Denmark. It was amazing to learn that they have castles for every season. The ones we viewed were the winter castles.
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We were finally able to take the boat tour that was missed on our first day. It would have been great if it were not for the kids that were behind Mom and I making lots of noise making it almost impossible to hear the boat’s tour guide over the speakers. It also didn’t help that it started to rain and we had to close the windows making it hard to see. One of the neatest things to see were all of the old barges, tugboats, etc. that had been turned into house boats. I was wondering if there was some television show out there about converting old boats. There were also many old buildings, warehouses, boat docks and piers that had been converted into condos, parking garages, and play spaces. We passed by the new Opera house on all sides and saw several of the house Hans Christian Andersen lived in while in Copenhagen. As we rode under the bridge, you could see locks hooked to the metal grill work. This was from couples cementing their love for each other. We also passed by two small blue round buildings standing beside each other. These are for the Monarchy to use as they wait to board ship.
The Danish Jewish Museum was the next stop on our tour. On the way to the Jewish Museum we learned:
The first synagogue was built in 1766.
The Danish Jewish Museum sits inside the Danish Royal Library’s old Galley House and was designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2004 at its current location. ‘These corridors comprise the museum’s exhibition spaces and, as they wind, they form the letters for the Hebrew word Mitzvah, meaning “good deed.”’ (https://web.archive.org/web/20071007012332/http://www.jewmus.dk/arkitektur.asp?language=uk)
It contains artifacts from the Jewish history of the area and it was considered a work of art in itself. The feel of the museum was very unique with its slightly slanting floors and weird angled walls. One of the unusual items that I like was the old fashioned typewriter with Hebrew lettering.
The first synagogue was built in 1766.
- TheJews were not full citizens so they could not own land.
- In 1814 everybody was given citizenship with the rights to get an education.
- Denmark had 7000 jews before the German invasion
- Only 432 were sent to the concentration camps and only 41 of these did not survive.
The Danish Jewish Museum sits inside the Danish Royal Library’s old Galley House and was designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2004 at its current location. ‘These corridors comprise the museum’s exhibition spaces and, as they wind, they form the letters for the Hebrew word Mitzvah, meaning “good deed.”’ (https://web.archive.org/web/20071007012332/http://www.jewmus.dk/arkitektur.asp?language=uk)
It contains artifacts from the Jewish history of the area and it was considered a work of art in itself. The feel of the museum was very unique with its slightly slanting floors and weird angled walls. One of the unusual items that I like was the old fashioned typewriter with Hebrew lettering.
By now we were all hungry for lunch. Una dropped us off at one Copenhagen’s walking streets, Strøget. It is Europe's longest pedestrian street at 1111 meters which is over 2/3 of a mile long. It has all sorts of shops and restaurants with high end stores at one end and medium priced at the other. Karin and Ellen took off. They were on the hunt for something. Victoria decided to go back to the hotel. The rest of us headed out. Linda C was also on the hunt for clothes for her and Victoria since their luggage still had not shown up. When they say H & M, most of the group went inside to look. Mom, Linda K and I headed to lunch. The afternoon was spent sitting, waiting for our food which took forever, and walking in and out of little stores checking out mostly amber. I was trying to get a grip on quality and cost. I did see a necklace that I was considering. Back at the hotel, Mom rested I blogged.
Five of us headed out to find dinner at the food court near Tivoli Gardens. We made a quick stop in a jewelry store that sells amber to see what the prices were like. Then we checked out the food court. There was nothing that appealed to any of us so I called the hotel and asked them for an inexpensive good suggestion. We were told that the Bistro Avenue was a great option so we headed back toward our hotel. On the way back we made a short stop to check out what a Danish grocery store was like. It was so neat and clean with some very interesting foods. I had to use the Google Translate app on my phone to figure out what some of the product were.
The day ended with a nice dinner just around the corner and down the street from the hotel. Linda, Linda, Linda, Evie, Lee, Mom and I sat at four little tables, had a lovely dinner and chatted until almost 10:30 p.m. It still wasn’t completely dark yet. Luckily there were no mishaps today, except for the fact that Linda C. and Victoria’s luggage still has not shown up. Linda thinks it is still sitting in Frankfurt. |