Off I go to get the bus into the old town for more ancient delights... While standing at the bus stop I am looking around and (skip this picture if you are shy) but I saw this:
Since it was an article plugging some of the community pluses of the boonies my cheap hotel put me in (not as good as the Berlin deal by far) - I am only assuming the word has another meaning here and I am not going to ask what that is... A lot of Danish is easy to work out, Toiletter you can guess, Timer means hours, Caad is cold, Brod is bread and a Tog is a train. Still not asking about the one in the pic.
If I had not stuffed my face so much at breakfast I could have gone here: it smelled tasty! I stuck my head in, English voices, plain as day...
So here is more of old town...
The Round House is famous, but I am off climbing towers after what happened in Berlin, that damn Victory Angel will get hers one day....
This is not Nyhavn, this is Christianhavn. I got the metro for just one stop to cross under the water behind me in the picture....
And saw yet another truck load of high school completing kids. They rent trucks and drive around screaming their heads off and the locals wave with smiles.... The way my head is I could wave other things....
Yes the barges filled with cruise ship tourists make it here too...
Even this woman, immortalized prior to the 70's ( educated guess) is thinking the same as me and voicing her opinion....
Another tower I refuse to climb, looks scary too!
Ok, so I came over here to see this, a failed social experiment from the 60s and 70s. It is called Christiania. The hippies basically moved in, in what was then abandoned dock warehouses and such, set up camp, after a while declared themselves autonomous from Denmark and the European Union (although they do take 'foreign' money) - and the police has fought with them on and off ever since. Prob is, they have been here too long, some squatters have homes and go to work in the city now. The government tries to negotiate a dismantling because of drug dealing, marijuana is openly sold here though they don't allow pictures, and this is not Amsterdam. No shortage of people coming to buy and there is no control on the market like Holland. So drug gangs do operate here....the police tried to shut them down a few days before I arrived, but it looks open again to me when walking through. There is no smiles and idle banter at the drug counters herd, just hard core business. I prefer the Dutch way... This is almost threatening
So I tried to sneak a shot in the drug side of Pusher Street as they call it, and it was out of focus, gawd damn it. The guy with no legs seems dissapointed though, sorry :( I guess my career aspirations with Associated Press are over
Back out in lovely middle class Christianhavn, you would never know what is tucked back there....
But this is northern Europe in 2011, so socially it is relaxed, no more barricades in Christiania like the 70s and 80s - they will likely have to be like the Netherlands to control it now I suppose. At the hotel they told me the police love it, as they can keep an eye on one main place to sell drugs, not force it out it many other areas.... Kind of contradicts them trying to close it last week then....
Back in old town Copenhagen, more lovely buildings...
Two contrasting cars, a Fiat 500 and Merc SLK. I ate some expensive sushi here, wasnt so great for the money - I should have had a sandwich
This is Ameliaborg, the queen's palace. Charlotte Amelie who gave her name to a town in the Virgin Islands was here....
There are many big buildings around an open plaza.... Very nice
A fellow tourist
I am back by here to grab a present for my mother...
You will not see this famous statue come Sunday afternoon, but tell no one please....
A war memorial
And yes passing through Nyhavn
Again
Looking for the perfect colourful shot
This is the Royal Copenhagen porcelain shop
This advertised Man. Utd. Soccer games
Those darn hot dogs are back! the birds really dig 'em
And two colourful railing handles..... As a segway to...
Copenhagen is very stereotypically Scandinavian in that everyone is tanned, not sure how with all the cloudy skies, and just like the stuff you see in Tommy Hilfiger windows, they do wear bright coloured check shirts and white jeans. They seem to buy lots of clothes, eat out lots, plenty of nice cars and of course in the Scandinavian way, taxes on purchases are 25% to fund a system that keeps almost anyone from being poor. Income tax is high too. There is less spread in wealth from top to bottom, but still mega yachts and fancy cars abound.... And lovely old buildings. They are not doing badly at all... With real palm trees it might be heaven on Earth.
It doesn't have the raw edge of Berlin, one time city full of spies, espionage and the rise of Hitler.... But it is still very nice.
Back to the hotel now for sleep, I am dying.... I still have some strawberries and chocolate which I am eating while typing this in my bed at the Clarion.
Update tomorrow from the trip home..... If I don't get quarrantined. Quarantine with full board at no cost is greatfully accepted... Anywhere!
- David.
- BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on pictures for larger version and gallery.
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