The Little Mermaid and Other Danish Icons

Date: July 8, 2008
Location: Korsør and Copenhagen
Lat: 54° 49.96N Long: 012° 54.7E

Denmark’s a pretty nice place. The people seem friendly, which is a big transition from Russia. The land is also absolutely gorgeous. It is rows and rows of gorgeous fields in the countryside and quaint buildings in the city. Also wind power is also a huge thing here. However, I feel I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Today, I woke up feeling pretty bad. I’ve had a runny nose the last couple of days so I guess I might have woken up a little dehydrated. I guess the best way to describe it is it was kind of like a hangover. I wanted to wake up to see a representative from the U.S. Embassy speak but after I woke up, I hit the snooze button and went back to bed. Apparently I missed out because Korsør has literally rolled out the red carpet for us. I hear there was a band that was playing when we docked, but I was sick, oh well. I had an FDP to go see Copenhagen at 11:30, so I managed to make it for that.

Korsør is a pretty good distance from Copenhagen, perhaps around 115 KMs or so. We all boarded a bus and started making our way to the city. The drive wasn’t too bad at all; Denmark is a very beautiful nation. It is a significant change from rugged Norway and industrial Russia. It’s long, flat fields are a nice change and are absolutely striking in their own way. Of course, after around 20 minutes on the bus, I fell asleep; but I liked what I saw.

After we arrived at Copenhagen, we went to the Christiansborg Castle. The name is something of a misnomer as it’s not really a castle. In fact, it’s actually the center of all three branches of the government of Denmark. Half of the tour got to tour the Parliament section of the building. My group did not, unfortunately, because the other English speaking tour guide had the day off and regulations forbid too large of a group. Instead of seeing that, we got an early start on seeing the Royal Receiving Rooms.

These rooms were absolutely lovely. They were exquisitely decorated with gold outlay and fabulous paintings or tapestries. The parquet floors were also amazing, in fact, so amazing we had to wear booties on our feet while we walked around so we wouldn’t damage it. The Danes are very proud of their Royal family. I found this interesting as the U.S. has no clear analogue to royalty, I don’t consider celebrities royals.

Copenhagen seems to be the city of green spires. The city only has three sky-scrapers. They were built in the 1960s; the building of such tall buildings was soon outlawed to preserve the sightlines of the spires. All of these oxidized, copper spires were real beautiful, as well as many green statues as well. Apparently the Dane’s like to build in copper.

After this we were given some time to wander around the waterfront. There were some neat fountains down here and an excellent view of the new opera house. The opera house is shaped like a top hat and looks pretty interesting. We also got to see the royal palaces. This is a complex of around five or six buildings. We also got to see the guards with their old style uniforms. Apparently their hats are made from Canadian black bears.

We went back on the buses and drove to see the little mermaid. The statue’s had a colorful life, it has been decapitated twice, blown off her rock twice, and has lost a few limbs. To be honest, I thought the statue was a bit underwhelming. I assumed it would be a bit more imposing. Instead it is this little mermaid sitting on a rock. The funniest thing is the huge amount of people that are elbowing their way in to get a good view of this little statue. It was a nice looking statue, but I guess I was expecting more.

We then headed back to Korsør. The drive was uneventful, but it was nice seeing the same Danish countryside. When we got back to the town, I wandered around to find an ATM to get some Danish Kroner. I also went by a grocery shop. I just picked up a few essentials, such as shampoo, toothpaste, and shaving cream. It’s good I didn’t get too much since the Danes don’t give out shopping bags. I headed back to the ship and firmed up plans on getting to Copenhagen tomorrow. It should be a busy couple of days with riding the rails to both Copenhagen and Sweden, should be a good time.