Paddocks to come

Behind the Danish parliament of Christiansborg something new is happening. The old riding court for the training the royal horses are being made into paddocks for the horses instead. Gone is the fountain and soon there'll be green fields instead. The reason is that in Denmark all horses are entitled to some time every day in a paddock instead of having to be locked up in a stable, and that goes even for royal horses,

Time lapse again

 

My latest time lapse from Copenhagen is this one. Taken on Constitution Day, which in Denmark is the 5th of June, it starts very symbolic at the Danish Parliament Folketinget at Christiansborg Palace with the statue of King Frederik VII in the foreground. He was the king that decided to give Denmark a Constitution based on democracy in 1849. The rest of the time lapse will take you through many of the squares in the old park of the city.

 

High

The towers and spires in Copenhagen is at the moment being outnumbered by the construction cranes. Here it's the metro construction site at the central island of Slotsholmen, where the parliament is, that is competing with the tower of Nikolaj Church.

Canals

 

 

Around the Danish parliament of Christiansborg are canals like this one. Quiet and nice on an early spring morning, they are almost iconic for Copenhagen. Small pleasure boats and larger houseboats mingle with boats from the harbour cruises and old museum boats. This canal is called Frederiksholms Kanal and has Christiansborg on the left and the National Museum on the right.

Where the tea lady comes from

During the First World War the Germans started referring to their horse-drawn field kitchens as "Gulaschkanone" which translates to Goulash Cannons. Even today you will find military men referring to modern kitchens as such. (The photo is from the military museum at Christiansborg.)

Later, larger trailers evolved and horses were phased out in favour of motorised vehicles more capable of towing heavier loads. In World War Two these mobile canteens were used as a morale booster in the United Kingdom. The culture of the tea break, and in particular as a result of the successful wartime experiment on productivity and morale, the tea lady was born.

Believe it or not!

-RS

Thinking about the future

The last post of the year (no, I'm not done with the review of the year) features this one of the tower of Christiansborg, where the Danish parliament resides, and with a sculpture thinking. The last day of the year is good time to reflect on the future. Hopefully the current economic crisis in the world will be solved, but I guess it will demand a lot of thinking, a lot of deciding and a lot of action. Unfortunately that is not the three things the current crop of politicians are best at. And with that gloomy thought I wish you all a happy New Year, I hope all your wishes come through and that you and your family may prosper despite all.

The prize in today's voting!

Some of our readers might wonder about the organisation of the Danish Parliament as seen in the photograph of the day.

The Danish parliament (‘Folketinget’ in Danish) consists of one chamber with 179 seats – 175 seats in Denmark and two each for the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

Of those seats, 135 are distributed through proportional representation in the 10 constituencies. Constituencies have as few as two representatives (Bornholm) and as many as 20 (Zealand Constituency).

An additional 40 seats are allotted based upon the total distribution of votes in three voting regions – Central and Northern Jutland, Zealand and Southern Denmark and Greater Copenhagen.

This is what today's voting is about!

The talk of the country

This is what it's all about in the news and among people in Denmark at the moment; the Danish Parliament at Christiansborg (Christan's Castle), or rather the elections for the 179 seats there coming up on September the 15th. The main topic so far has been the sorry state of the economics, with a lot of talk and a lot of promises being made.

Super Hero Elephant

The Super Hero elephant here on Højbro Plads seems ready to storm the Danish Parliament. Maybe he too is tired of the idiocy coming from there...