GET ON YOUR FEET IN COPENHAGEN

And lastly; a tip from a very distant native - don’t hurry! Drop into a bar now and then like the Danes do. You can easily get into conversation with the Copenhageners. Most of them will love to tell you about their city.

Stroget

Five minutes’ walk from the main Railway Station you’ll reach Radhuspladsen, the Town Hall Square. This is where Copenhagen’s main street, Stroget, begins.

Stroget is actually five streets that run together for over a mile through the old town connecting the city’s two main squares, Radhuspladsen and Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square).

Lined with boutiques, restaurants, al fresco bars and cafes, department stores, banks, bakeries, and much else, it is probably the largest traffic-free street in the world.

Shortly after your start from Radhuspladsen you’ll be at Gammeltorv (Old Square). Here the young sub-culture can be watched. In the late 60s, it was where the hippies congregated. In the 70s the punks, and in the 80s the punks and the residents.

All along Stroget, musicians, actors, conjurers, and acrobats perform. But the finest spectacle is five or six minutes walk from the Old Square. Here the street widens giving the actors more space for their performances. It is legal to perform in the streets of Copenhagen, and many professional ensembles even grab the chance to get in touch with people they never reach in the concert halls.

Between Kongens Nytorv and Hojbro Plads are the elegant stores – H. Kleis for art, Brodrene Andersen for clothes, Anthon Berg for chocolates, and Holmegaard and Royal Copenhagen for glassware.

Illums Bolighus offers the most impressive display of Danish craftsmanship and design under one roof. Nearby you can find the tobacconist W.O. Larsen and the silversmith Georg Jensen, both of whom incorporate interesting museums into their premises.

The Little Mermaid

From Holmens Canal a couple of minutes walk from Stroget the sightseeing boats make round trips through the canals. They leave every half hour, every day in the summertime.

One of the boats goes to Langelinie in the northern part of the big harbor of Copenhagen. Here you can see the pearl of the capital, the world famous “Little Mermaid”.

When Hans Christian Andersen wrote his fairy tale in 1837 he never imagined that anyone would ever make a sculpture of the mermaid. Nevertheless Copenhagen City Council decided to construct it in 1913. By then H.C. Andersen was dead.

The fairy tale is about a mermaid who sacrifices everything to get her prince and become immortal.

A witch has made clear to the mermaid that she will die if the prince marries somebody else. This is the price she has to pay for the witch to divide her fishtail into two legs.

The prince, who doesn’t realize how much she loves him, finds another woman. He has a dim notion that this woman once saved him from drowning. What he doesn’t realize is that his real rescuer was the little mermaid.

On the wedding night the mermaid is dying. Through her sisters, the witch gives her the opportunity to kill the prince and save her own life. She refuses and is just about to die.

At the last moment the spirits in the sky save her, but she has to pay a high price.

It takes only 15 minutes to reach the sculpture of “The Little Mermaid.”  Read the fairy tale first – the language of H.C. Andersen is something very special.

Nyhavn

Walk back downtown, it won’t take long. On the way you pass Amalienborg, where Queen Margrethe II lives, and just before you reach Kongens Nytorv, Nyhavn (New Haven) appears on your left.

It’s a three-block-long canal filled with tall masted sailing ships, and lined with straight, handsome, 17^th and 18^th century houses.

Sailors all over the world have fond memories of Nyhavn. For more than a century it was a meeting place for them. Here they gather with they arrive in Denmark, and here they drink away their wages until they get a new berth.

Now the houses are modernized, and the old pubs have become fashionable restaurants and elegant cafes.

Copenhagen has got more than 2,000 restaurants, and some of the best for Western style food are in Nyhavn.

The Parliament

One of the most impressive buildings in Scandinavia is the castle Christiansborg which houses the parliament.

It takes only five minutes to walk from Stroget to Christiansborg. When you cross the canal you’ll be standing on the castle island (Slotsholmen.)

The island is as big as a quarter of the old town, and the castle dominates Slotsholmen.

Unlike many other places in the world you can walk right into Folketinget as the parliament is called. Every hour there are guided tours in English. You can watch even when the politicians speak. On special occasions Queen Margrethe II overlooks the proceedings.

Danish democracy goes back to 1849. The king had no objection when the citizens demanded democracy.

“If they want it they can have it,” he said. Not a single shot was fired.

Denmark is still a kingdom, but the parliament makes the laws and the Queen just ratifies them.

Collection of Arms

Behind Christiansborg, still at Slotsholmen, you’ll find The Royal Danish Arsenal Museum (Tojhusmuseet). It’s the largest museum of its kind in the world.

The Arsenal Museum has both military and hunting weapons. On the ground floor more than 1,000 cannons are set up. The oldest one is from 1412, when Margrethe I was Queen of Denmark. The newest one is a Hawk missile. Upstairs are about 4,000 guns and 1,200 knives, swords and sheaths.

The building is something special too. Finished in 1604 it was the one of the biggest secular buildings in Copenhagen. The lower floor contains the longest vaulted renaissance hall in Europe – the cannon hall – its cross-vaults are supported by 16 heavy center pillars.

Museums

If you are really keen on museums the two most interesting ones lie five minutes from the Arsenal Museum. You should reserve a whole day for these two.

The first one is the National Museum on Frederiksholm Kanal. This surprisingly large building – its three floors of rooms and chambers seem to run on for miles – houses a vast, eclectic and often lovely collection of treasures that show Denmark’s history and architecture through the ages.

The second one – for foreigners it’s probably the most notable one – is the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. This is surely one of the world’s greatest museums. Founded by a scion of the Carlsberg brewing family, it contains a stunning collection of antiquities and a fine assortment of mostly Impressionist paintings. The section for Roman statuary is quite remarkable.

The light, airy, and beautifully decorated building is as notable as the assortment inside. Among its many charms is a lush palm court, where even the most energetic and persistent museum wanderer must sit down and rest for a while.

Tivoli

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek lies on H.C. Andersen’s Boulevard, and from the same street you can enter Tivoli, the famous amusement park in the heart of the city. (One of the other three entrances is right in front of the main railway station). It’s best to go to at night when it is illuminated by 110,000 colored lights. Neon is prohibited in the park so these are real light bulbs.

Tivoli is a great funfair, but for the Danes it is more of an oasis. The park is huge with its 20 acres all covered by trees and flowers – more than 400,000! There are benches to relax on and beautiful buildings to look at. Tivoli features gardens, lakes, dance halls, theaters and 29 restaurants.

One of the theaters is the pantomime theater, where they carry on the Italian commedia dell’arte. Almost two centuries after it went out of fashion everywhere else, it is still going strong in Tivoli.

Last year 152 concerts were performed partly from the Open Air Stage and partly from Tivoli Concert Hall. Mostly classical music is played, but also famous rock and jazz musicians have entertained the audience. Only live music can be played on the stages.

Last year four million people visited Tivoli, and though it may seem like a lot, the amusement park seldom seemed crowded.

Every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a spectacular fireworks display ends the day.