I fixed our Internet because I got skills, and--at long last--I've uploaded my many new photos from Copenhagen. You can see them in my Flickr account by clicking on the conveniently-located badge to the right. (Also, if you go look at M. Horning's photos--by way of the link to her blog, down there a ways--you can see the crazy Aussie we met at the hostel.)
Our first day in Copenhagen, we arrived on the bus from the airport sometime after 10:00 am and went to drop our stuff off at the hostel before heading out to explore in spite of the dreary, often rainy weather.
Copenhagen is full of castles, because the Danes love their royalty, and we even managed to stumble upon a royal procession leaving the Christianborg Palace. (Mary has a pic of that too; mine was too blurry.) At the Amalienborg Palace, where the royals actually live, we watched the guards in their furry hats march back and forth on the sidewalk and got in the marching path of one while [not at all] surreptitiously trying to take his picture:
How does one get to be a Danish Royal Guard, I wonder? And just think how many pictures of him there are out there, in people's travel photo albums all over the world, though no one would probably recognize his face. I wanted to introduce myself and tell him I had a Danish Royal Guard in my family, there's even a picture of him in the same furry hat hanging on the wall at my parents' house, but then he was shooing us off the sidewalk where he needed to march, so we ran away giggling instead.
Copenhagen is also full of statues. In the yard of the Marmorkirche (Marble Church, which is what they call it, though it's actually named after someone whose name I've forgotten) are a whole bunch of them just standing around, as the Danes apparently ran out of room for them elsewhere:
And then there is, of course, the renowned Little Mermaid. We had a heck of a time getting out to the rock she sits on, because this big fortress surrounded by a moat got in our way, and Mary almost died when a gust of wind caught her umbrella while we were standing upon some very steep ramparts, but I managed to get a blurry picture of the forlorn creature after all:
Mary, as a soon-to-be-famous writer and illustrator of children's books, was on a sort of H. C. Andersen pilgrimage in Copenhagen. We even managed to find the attic room he once rented, preserved the way it might have looked when he lived and wrote there (at about 22 years old), in the middle of this department store, which apparently used to be a hotel:
Our second day in the city we had very welcome sunny weather, and we went to explore the free city of Christiania, which looks something like a cross between a community garden project and some kind of gypsy camp, right in the middle of Copenhagen. If you go look at Mary's photos, you'll see the forbidden one she took of a cafe on the main street--the aptly named Pusher Street--which got her a scolding from a guy nearby who said that they don't allow photography on the main street "because people are selling illegal stuff here". This is why they've declared themselves a free city. I only got a picture of street sign, but I should have taken more, cause the place is indescribable:
We went to the National Gallery, where we saw some stunning statues (I think they're my favorite form of art to look at), some confusing modern and abstract stuff, and this room full of pretty much everything else, which has to be the most overwhelming I've ever encountered in any museum anywhere:
The next morning we took a bus to the ferry back to Germany. The only experience with ferries I've had is on the one that goes to Mackinac Island in northern Michigan, and this one, to say the least, rather exceeded my expectations. On board were multiple restaurants, a duty-free shop that opened once we reached international waters, and lots of tables and seating areas on two decks, not to mention the room underneath for cars and stuff. Here's Mary at the window, musing over the grey Baltic horizon and looking "like a world traveler":
We landed in Rostock, which is also a much bigger city than I expected it to be, so didn't have time to explore at all cause it took quite a while to make our way to the train station, where we got on the train for Wismar. James met us at the station there and we went to Andy's for dinner before going to a birthday party for Cony, of which I have no pictures.
I wasn't ready to come back to Berlin this time around, like I usually am after vacation. Having a hard time getting back into it. First day back, I was at school from 8 am to 5 pm, helping one of the English teachers grade essays. It was crazy, like having a real job or something.
Next vacation is a week at the beginning of February. No plans so far...don't know if my bank account will withstand more travel just yet.
Labels: travels
The top of the Kreuzberg (berg=mountain, hill). I imagine the borough was named after it, or something...oh, yup, I was right. Uh, oops, here you go.
The view from the top, of the TV tower.
From the other side, apparently an old brewery.
Straight down from the monument. When it's not winter, that's a stream/waterfall.
The other way around.
The top of the Kreuzberg (berg=mountain, hill). I imagine the borough was named after it, or something...oh, yup, I was right. Uh, oops, here you go.
The view from the top, of the TV tower.
From the other side, apparently an old brewery.
Straight down from the monument. When it's not winter, that's a stream/waterfall.
The other way around.
