COPENHAGEN

“…if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” (Kierkegaard)

 

I was told to start my first day in Copenhagen by walking along ‘the lake,’ a neat canal-shaped body of water north of the urban core and long enough to be crossed by four broad bridges. Though cold, the day was sunny, clearly one of the best the city had seen in months, and a fine excuse for a bike or run on the dedicated trails or just a sandwich with a view. 

My destination was the National Gallery, a massive institution combining collected European art from the 13^th to the 19^th centuries with an only slightly smaller collection of modern visual, conceptual, and video art in two distinct buildings fused by a glass atrium. 

 

The gallery was a short stroll from Rosenborg castle and the manicured King’s Gardens, where groups of attractive (and obviously hardy) Danes sat on dead grass drinking beer in the sun. 

It’s true what you’ve heard: beauty may be subjective, but there is considerable agreement that the Danes have more than their fair share of it. Spend the day walking around the city and you’re bound to experience whiplash at least twice and distraction more than that. The symptoms may be more extreme should you suffer from the particular philia for men in sweaters that ails me. Le sigh.

It is also true that bicycles are the preferred mode of transportation and that Denmark is the birthplace of LEGO.

Model from the Copenhagen lego store

In much of the city core cars are entirely absent. It’s all narrow cobblestone streets that every so often give way to lovely town squares.

 

Each square has a handful of cafes where outdoor seating is an option even when the temperature is just a few degrees above freezing. Fleecy blankets draped over most every chair made these seats look slightly more appealing (though a fire pit would have been much more so).

I spent much of my second day in Copenhagen enjoying the exhaustive collection of the National Museum. The museum possessed huge quantities of bones, shards, and artifacts and more information on bogs and Viking burials that you could possibly hope for – surely an archaeologist’s dream come true.

After touring room after room of medieval reliquaries and exquisitely carved altar pieces I was too drained to hit the top floor with its middle east collections but I did love this PG-13 mosaic.

I lost my camera in Berlin, so on my second day in the city I had only my ancient smartphone for documentation. I think you’ll still be able to appreciate the canals bordering the island of Slotsholmen

and the views from the 17^th c. Rundetårn (Round Tower)

I did not take this picture

achieved through a spiraling ascent up a helical corridor from which the views changed at every turn.

 

 

From another angle you can see Sweden

I was graciously hosted in Copenhagen by my new friend Jeppe, whose lovely sun-filled apartment provided views of the city designed to infatuate.

But that was hardly necessary. By the time I gazed out this window I had already firmly decided to accept a job offer extended to me in Odense to start in the fall. I had already picked out food for Zelda:

been urged to take a personality test by a missionary to whom my inability to speak Danish provided no obstacle:

and identified the consumer goods necessary for blending in to this new national stylistic milieu:

I will have to start budgeting for avant-garde leather shoes, felted wool ponchos, a sturdy bicycle, and of course, a new camera. Wish me luck, and please come visit!