The Baltics: Denmark

In the fall of 2012, I took a tour to the Baltics. Although the Baltic States are officially Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the Baltic Region also includes Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, and Sweden, which all rim the Baltic Sea. Nine countries; nine languages; nine cultures; and seven currencies (not all were using the Euro). I had been to Germany and Poland before, but not to any of the other countries.

I flew from Minneapolis to Toronto and from there to Copenhagen. It was kind of a misty day. There was a grocers near the hotel, so I bought some food for lunch. The entire group would be getting together to meet each other and then have dinner at 6:30pm. There were about 22 people. Only a couple of us were from the US, the rest were from Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Right away, I met a woman named Heike, who had been born in Germany, but had moved to Australia when she was a child. We immediately hit it off and are still friends. Our Tour Director, Andrej, was originally from Russia. He had managed to leave Russia while it was still under official Communist control and eventually made a new life for himself in the US after spending a few years in some of the other countries we were about to visit. He was a very interesting person to talk with about all sorts of things.

Officially the Kingdom of Denmark, Denmark was once ruled together with Norway and Sweden. Its people have been referred to a Jutes and Vikings (along with Norway) as well as Danes. Copenhagen had originally been a Viking fishing village (beginning in the 10^th century) before becoming the capitol of Denmark in the 15^th century. I have both Viking and specifically Danish ancestry, so was very happy to be in Denmark.

The next morning, we began our tour of Copenhagen at the Borsen (built in the 1600s), which was the old stock exchange. It is currently used as the Danish Chamber of Commerce. I thought it was a very unique looking building. It was along the waterfront, with gables that looked similar to some I have seen in the Netherlands and a steeple with entwined dragon’s tails.

Nearby, on its own little island, is Christiansborg Palace, which was built in the 18^th century on the site of an earlier castle. It is the home of the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister’s Offices and Supreme Court, as well as several Royal Reception Rooms (including a Throne Room), a library, the Palace Chapel, and the Royal Stables.

On our way from this area to a 17^th century waterfront called Nyhavn, we passed by a statue of a knight on horseback that I really liked and managed to get a pretty good photo of as we passed. Nyhavn was a colorful area with restaurants and townhouses and loads of boats. Some of the boats were an older type called “lantern boats”.

At the mouth of the harbor is the famous Little Mermaid statue. Unveiled in 1913, the face of the statue was based on a Danish ballerina who portrayed the Little Mermaid in a ballet based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson.

Amalienborg Palace is the home of the Danish Royal Family. They moved there from Christiansborg Palace after Christiansborg suffered a severe fire. It is really four identical palaces situated around a courtyard. We watched a changing of the guard ceremony, which I managed to video as well as photograph. I enjoyed watching the lead guard yelling at tourists to “get out of the way” (in English) as they performed their maneuvers.

The Royal Life Guards march from the nearby Rosenborg Palace (which dates from 1606) in order to have the changing of the guard ceremony. The palace was built in the Dutch Renaissance style and was used as a royal residence until around 1710. This palace still contains the crown jewels. The photo I took as we went by is a little off kilter and fuzzy, but still gives an idea of what the palace looks like.

We also saw the Opera House, a copy of Michelangelo’s statue of David, the 1626 Kastellet military buildings, and the 1740 marble Fredericks Kirke. Then we had our lunch stop by the Tivoli Gardens. This was a large, famous, 19^th century amusement park in the heart of the city. Its many rides include four roller coasters.

After lunch, I visited the City Hall Square where I watched some musicians and took photos of the surrounding buildings. I also visited the Radhus (city hall). It was built very much like a palace. Just outside was a statue of Hans Christian Anderson. His lap was highly polished due to all the children who climb up on it. Just across the street in my photo of the statue is the Tivoli Gardens.

Once we left Copenhagen, we drove through the countryside of Denmark to cross the border into Germany.

Next time –Germany & Poland revisited.