Showing the city

I've told you about the little train that take tourists around the inner city, but there's alternatives to that. The horse carriages is a new feature here, or rather an old one that has been re-emerging. This one is passing one of the big ads that "decorate" the fence around the metro construction on Kongens Nytorv.

Flea markets

During the summer there's been a lot of flea markets throughout Copenhagen. To me it seems like the number has exploded, maybe because of the economic crisis that has hit everybody. This one is at the central square of Kongens Nytorv and is open every weekend.

The home of an Empress

Along the coast of Øresund is quite a few very large and very nice villas. For most people, owning these properties will remain a dream as the prices along the coast is sky-high. Many of them has been taken over by businesses or has been divided into smaller apartments, as it's often the only way to sell the villas. This one is called Hvidøre and is the former home of Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna of Russia, who was the daughter of Danish King Christian IX after she was exiled by the Russian revolution in 1917. The villa is now owned by the Novo Group and is used as an internal conference and training venue.

Waterskiing

With so much water around Copenhagen, it shouldn't be a surprise that water sports are very popular here.

A Queen

In the park Kongens Have (King's Garden) in Copenhagen this stately statue of Danish Queen Caroline Amalie (1776-1881) looks out over the rose garden. Married with King Christian VIII, she was barren, so the king's son of his first marriage, prince Frederik was the heir to the throne.

Bridge to Sweden

A few weeks ago I told you about the bridge to Sweden, so here is a photo of it, taken from the cozy and sleepy harbour town of Dragør.

Summer is over

The summer is definitely over in Denmark, if it was ever here. So just to make you remember how it was (for a few days) here is a pic from one of the beaches just north of Copenhagen.

Last chance

Today is the last day of the Tivoli summer season in Copenhagen, but don't worry, Tivoli will open in a few weeks again for the Halloween in the school autumn holiday. And then you can have a go at this rooler-coaster, if you like that sort of thing.

More tubs

 

Another place in the Copenhagen Harbour with atmosphere is squeezed in between the H.C.Ørated Power Plant and the new residences at Kalvebod Brygge.

Traffic in the harbour

Copenhagen Harbour is still has a lot of traffic, but it has largely been changed from working boats and ships to pleasure boats, sightseeing boats and small crafts like this kayak.

Not only streamlined

Even though Copenhagen harbour has been under development for a decade or more, there's still areas that doesn't look streamlined at all. One of these is the end of Teglholmen where old hulks, boats rebuilt into houseboats and work boats of all kinds is still allowed to be moored. Hopefully the powers-to-be will still let them be there to keep the atmosphere, even after the area has been changed from industrial wasteland into a glass and concrete desert.

A few minutes from the city centre

 

Only a few minutes by the metro from the centre of Copenhagen is this gem; West Amager, an area of reclaimed seabed used for keeping cattle and sheep on grass and for a few hundred years as an army shooting range. Now you'll still find some cattle and sheep there but the army has retreated and the area is open to the public. And it's being used by a lot of the locals to walk the dog, for the daily jogging or bike ride or just to get a bit away from the notice of the city. Here the only noise is the bird calls and every few minutes a low flying airplane from the nearby airport.

Looking out

 

The statue of Tycho Brahe mentioned in yesterday's post has a view that the real man probably wouldn't have liked. Rosenborg Palace was built by the Danish king Christian IV, whom Tycho Brahe had a dispute with so serious that he had to move to Prague to serve the Holy Roman emperor Rudolph II.

New grounds

 

After the renovations in the Botanic Garden of Copenhagen some new areas has been added to the area. The old observatory of Copenhagen University, that now houses the Department for Science Education of the university, has been opened to visitors of the garden. The hill is btw the highest natural point in Copenhagen inside of the old walls. Appropriately a statue of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe greets the guests.

 

Where's the boat to Malmö?

 

Before the bridge over Øresund linking Copenhagen with the Swedish city of Malmö was built, this was the place where the small, fast boat left for Malmö. This was an hour of sailing and only for passengers. The cars had to drive to Dragør where the car ferry to Limhamn left from. The low brown building along the quay is called Custom House and was the old waiting room for the boat. Today it's has a couple of restaurants, mainly catering for the in-crowd and the tourists.

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Take the train

 

If you're to tired to move around the inner city of Copenhagen why not take the train? This one is with a guide and will take you on a round trip through the old city starting from Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square). I suspect that it is best to use it in the summer months as Denmark can be a bit chilly at other times.

Restaurant Cold Feet

 

Twenty years ago the favourite street food in Copenhagen was hotdogs from a pølsevogn (Danish for sausage waggon). With a surge of alternative fast food like kebabs and burger joints they're on the decline, but you can still get your fix of pork and bread in many places in the streets of Copenhagen. This one on Rådhuspladsen, City Hall Square, is aptly named Restaurant Cold Feet and is open all year round.

 

Empty streets

 

I love to wander the streets of Copenhagen, especially early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, where the streets are empty and the city seems to be either asleep or abandoned. The old streets with the many coloured old houses and cobblestones almost make me feel that time has turned back a hundred years.

An add for service to tourists

 

The tourist organization in Copenhagen has an ongoing ad campaign, where they try to get the Copenhageners to help the tourists better. I think the campaign in itself is a good idea, it's actually about time something like this was done, but the background, that we're hopeless at helping foreigners here, is really way too bad. In a lot of other countries you don't have to stand for long looking helpless with a map in your hands, before a kind soul will offer its help. In Copenhagen you'll have to ask to get help, but then people are usually friendly enough. Yes, it is about time that we realize that we're hosts here to a lot of guests, and behave accordingly.

The Sun in the Rigging

The sun in the rigging of Staatsrad Lehmkuhl from yesterdays post. I do like the details of these tall ships.

Tall Ship

A lot of ships visit Copenhagen and some of them are very beautiful, like the Norwegian training ship Staatsrad Lehmkuhl. I must confess that I'm partial to the tall ships and I really think that they add a lot more atmosphere to the harbour compared to motor ships.

New and old

In the old harbour areas of Copenhagen there's been built a lot of new buildings. In some areas some of the old has been preserved like this little harbour with old hulks right next to the modern residences on Havneholmen. I really like when they try to maintain some of the old atmosphere within the newly developed areas so that it's not all taken over by concrete and glass.

Harbour buses

I've told about the harbour busses in Copenhagen before. Now they have decided that these buses are such a success that their route has been extended so it is now possibly to use them from Teglholmen in the south of the harbour to Refshaleøen in the north. And it is still the same price as for one of the buses on wheels. In the background the Theater House.

A third bridge under way

A third bridge across the harbour of Copenhagen is under way. When it and the two other smaller bridges are finished in 2013, it will be possibly to cross the harbour on foot or on bicycle from Nyhavn to the Opera. The placement of these bridges has been the cause of much debate, mainly from the boating people that fear that their movement will be impeded.

Knippels Bridge

Knippelsbro or in English, Knippels Bridge, is placed on the same place as the original wooden bridge connecting Christianshavn with Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen from 1620. It is a 115m long bascule bridge built in 1937. It is one of the only two bridges across the harbour that can carry motor vehicles, the other one being Langebro which I told about yesterday. It's named after a bridge caretaker in the 17th century called Hans Knip.

The Long Bridge

One of the main arteries of Copenhagen is the bridge Langebro, Danish for the Long Bridge, which connects central Copenhagen with Amager at Islands Brygge (Iceland Wharf) across the inner harbour. It is a bascule bridge built 1954 to replace a temporary bridge built in 1930. There has been a bridge called Langebro at this place since 1886 but it has been remodelled and rebuilt several times since then to accommodate the increasing traffic and is one of only two bridges to carry cars and other motor vehicles across the harbour in the center of Copenhagen.

50 years of Strøget

 

50 years ago there was much debate about the plans to make some of the streets in the centre of Copenhagen into a pedestrian area. The shopkeepers feared that the customers would flee when they couldn't park right outside the shops, the residents feared that they wouldn't be able to get to work and the car owners complained that their freedom of movement would be limited. Now the area is one of the biggest pedestrian shopping and leisure areas in Europe with millions of visitors each year. Even though the shops has changed from local shops to main street chains no one can claim it wasn't a huge success to close off the streets to traffic. This fact is largely forgotten in today's debate about similar plans elsewhere in the city. This weekend the birthday was celebrated with free coffee and cake, as shown on the pic, concerts, special offers in the shops, parades and many other activities.

Happy Birthday to Carstensen

 
This weekend Tivoli in Copenhagen celebrates the 200th birthday of founder George Carstensen. He was the one that convinced king Christian VIII that it was a brilliant idea to open the amusement park on the fortified glacis just outside the west gate of Copenhagen in 1843. With almost 4 million visitors every year it is by far the most popular attraction in Denmark.
 

Season for mist and dew

Late summer is the season in Denmark for morning mist and heavy dew. And what better place to enjoy this than in one of Copenhagen's many parks? This one I captured in my local park, Valbyparken, on the way to work. With the OlloClip macro lens on the iPhone and a bit of editing in tadaa, I think it came out pretty good.