Denmark's National Museum

In an afternoon we managed only the pre-history and up through the Viking era sections of this immense and wonderful national museum. The prehistory collection is exceptional, especially the paleolithic, and the bronze age items are of great interest, containing many things we'd think of as “Norse” from periods a millennia or two before the Vikings. Denmark has the same kind of bog topography as Ireland, and much of what has been found are bog troves and sacrifices. Although there was no known written language, there certainly were congruences and communications among the peoples of Europe, and beyond, well before the Greeks and Romans, even in the neolithic.

Next to the paddle, the oldest known bow, c. 7,000 BC Skeleton of an auroch, extinct in Denmark by the Bronze age; last known European auroch died in Poland, 1627 The Bronze Age Scandinavians were sun-worshippers, the museum suggests The Chariot of the Sun, Bronze Age (horse not pictured) Horned helmet, early Bronze Norse horns (musical) Rune stone, Bronze The Gundestrup Cauldron (one interior panel only; silver), c. 150 BC, Thracian, probably from Bulgaria, but found in a bog trove dated Bronze age in Denmark 

Christiana

You are now leaving the EU

Danish hippie artwork, one of the few as yet untagged

Ditto

Somehow, this conveys a great deal about Christiana

As does this

Someone's idea of a joke; I hope

Christiana is the little hippie commune in Christianhaven started in the 60s or 70s. The government has tried to close it down on several occasions; it “seceded” from Denmark years ago. Now it is merely a seedy and cheesy curiosity, if you ask me. There's a lot of dope being sold and smoked there—no photography on some streets—and that's probably all there ever was to it.

Tivoli

Entrance to Tivoli

Typical Tivoli scene

Is this Pirates of the Caribbean?

Group bungy; they would never do it this way in New Zealand

Another high ride, spiraling back down

Hard Rock Cafe, among the many restaurants; Bruce Springsteen will appear this summer, they said

Many of the acts were amateurs or wannabes or school groups

I suspect the same ploy as with Missoula Children's Theater and other organizations; involve as many kiddies as possible, parents and grandparents are obliged to buy tickets...

Also right across from the City Hall, ground zero downtown Copehagen, is Tivoli, the grand-daddy of all amusement parks, founded in the 1850s. (We could hear screams from the rides in the Glyptotek). It covers, very economically, about 4 city blocks, and contains beautiful gardens, pavillions, concert stages, dozens of rides, arcades, and some 56 restaurants, cafes and beer gardens...very urbane and very family at the same time, at least on this Sunday afternoon. Many people our age were out, enjoying the sunshine, dining, drinking, etc. It was a very pleasant experience and a very different way (to us) of doing an amusement park. It was all the more pleasant for me since Vicki did not want to do any of the rides, some very violent, which are priced separately.

Glyptotek, Copenhagen

We saw much of the Glyptotek Sunday morning, mostly the ancient collections and then the 19th and 20th century French paintings. It is an amazing museum, overwhelming in its size and coverage.

Right across from Copenhagen's City Hall is

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (as in Carlsberg beer)

Mostly sculpture and archaeology; an amazing Egyptian collection

Roman copy of Greek Socrates

Late Roman sculpture, the Lady of Palmyra

Victor Hugo and his muse, Rodin

Rodin's Burghers

Cruising Copenhagen

Saturday we drove across the Big Island and right into Copenhagen, finding our campground, City Camp, near the Fisketevor shopping center, with unusual ease. After setting up, we decided to get a day pass on the harbor taxi, and thus spent the rest of the day cruising the sights, hopping off and on as interested us. The main shopping boulevard, all-pedestrian, stretches on for blocks, and was hopping with a fair weather Saturday afternoon crowd.

Downtown along the canal, just off the harbor

Canal-level sight

The Copenhagen Opera; far more attractive than that eyesore in Sydney

Queen Margarethe's yacht

Margaretheville

Main canal through Christianhaven

The polar bear statue; everyone else was taking pictures...

There she is, the Little Mermaid, Copehagen's answer to Checkpoint Charlie

A Viking boat replica in a harbor-side park; the Vikes held their community meetings under such boats



Vicki adds:

Copenhagen, Denmark June 6, 2009

We have been able to do a lot of free camping—which has been great, except that it means we rarely have Internet. What we are finding is that big cities have Internet cafes but they are few and far between and often hard for us to find. Small towns don’t have them at all. I think so many people have Internet at home and/or over their cell phones that Internet cafes are a dying business. We have used the T-mobile hot spot at some McDonald’s but it is about $12 an hour so not too practical. We need to compose more off line and then just have to post. But then I can’t really answer emails I haven’t gotten, off line.

Germany allows you to free camp anywhere it is not posted as restricted, so we have stayed in paid parking lots and in Berlin 4 or 5 nights in a rest area off the freeway that was only 2 miles from the city center. It was great and there were lots of other campers and, of course, truckers there.

In Denmark most free camping is not allowed except for up to 11 hours in motorway rest stops. Last night we stayed in our second one in Denmark, this one right on the coast south of Copenhagen near the island of Mon. There were about 20 camping rigs there. Because of our Montana license plates, we get lots of attention wherever we go.

We hope to stay 2-3 nights in Copenhagen. We are in a campground near the city center. It is just a parking lot next to a shopping center with a fence around it and 2 trailers with showers and bathrooms—the electrical hookups are temporary, too—like the kinds used at fairgrounds. For this luxury, we are paying $45 a night. Copenhagen is frightfully expensive. A hotdog and coke at a stand is $8 or $9—at the mall a burger with coke and fries is $18. Now that does include tax and tip, but it does make you catch your breath. We filled up with diesel again today--$111. We are averaging 20 mpg, but it is still $ .30 a mile just for fuel. Thank heavens we weren’t here last summer—I would have had a heart attack with every fill up. We were in a bookstore and hoped to replace the 9 year old travel guide we have to Scandinavia but the Lonely Planet for Norway was a mere $45. so we decided not to bother. We had planned 6 weeks in Scandinavia but it will really have to be great for us to stay that long!

I am sure Mark will tell you about the Hans Christian Anderson House and our megalithic tombs visits. He has gone over to the McDonalds in the mall where there is reputedly free Internet.

Oh, one sidelight. We still can’t get electric from the campsite lines. Our converter that we brought blows every campground outlet that we plug into. The campground guy here says that there is a specialist in American camper conversions about 20 miles from here. So Monday morning he is going to call for us to see if we can get it looked at. As long as we drive a lot we don’t need the shore power but there will be lots of times when it will be a necessity—especially when we visit big cities and will be staying put. Another adventure. (Did Mark mention he backed up Wed. in a parking lot, hit a pole and broke our $700 back window?)