Our second week here in Denmark draws to a close. I write this Sunday evening, on the train from Copenhagen to the island of Bornholm, where we’ll be spending a few days relaxing after the rough-and-tumble of relaxing of the city. Megan thinks Bornholm may be to Copenhagen as Martha’s Vineyard is to Boston.
So, what have we been up to? Well, a little bit of sightseeing to begin with. Near our apartment is the Vor Felsers Kirke, a church dating back to 1699 with a nifty helical staircase up the spire.
The church houses a carillon (whose Saturday evening concerts we can hear from our apartment) and affords excellent views of the city.
We’ve also done the obligatory hop-on / hop-off bus tour of the city and taken a walking tour of Christiania, the self-governing hippie colony. (More on that in a future post.)
Then there’s the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. On Monday we attended a concert at Tivoli. In the first half we heard a Danish pianist, Christian Dahl, along with a trumpeter and harpist. While occasionally a little too ambient for my tastes the trio were very talent, and the music was often entertaining, sometimes amusing as the artists played off and surprised one another. This improvisational interaction is in my opinion part of what makes Jazz such a great art form. The second half of the concert was a Scandinavian band called Supersilent, four talentet musicians who have devoted themselves to complete cacophany. You might get a similar effect by taking a boy scout troop, giving them supersize Cokes, and letting them loose in a Guitar Center. Megan sat through it all, but I joined about 1/3 of the audience in leaving to enjoy the sunset over Tivoli.
While in Tivoli, we took advantage of the Star Flyer ride and the Daemonen roller coaster, both of which were excellent.
The Danes like to grill out, to the point that all the supermarkets sell $4 portable self-contained grills. Thursday we joined other grilling, drinking groups by the canal on Amager and listened in on a concert at Havnescenen, the floating outdoor stage.
Last night (Friday) we bought tickets to see Danish rock singer Jomi Massage with the DR Big Band performing jazz versions of her songs – a good concert with interesting harmonies – and stayed for some smaller groups in a late night performance.
We’ve just crossed the Øresund channel into Sweden on a long bridge that Megan thinks may be the longest in the world. All the displays on the train have switched from Danish to Swedish.
Tuesday, we took a little day trip up the eastern coast of Zealand. Our first stop was Helsingør, site of Kronborg Slot, the castle that inspired Hamlet. (That Shakespeare’s anglizication of Helsingør into Elsinore is a fairly accurate one should illustrate why English-speakers have some difficulty pronouncing Danish.)
Then it was on to Hornbæk to swim in the Øresund (with surprisingly warm water) and eat fried fish by the beach in the rain.
And of course there was our Thursday tour of the Carlsberg brewery.
More soon. And don’t forget that I’m posting far more photos than I include here in the photo album section of my site.
