Easter Trip to Copenhagen

For the past 7 months my brother-in-law Geoff has been doing an academic sabbatical in Copenhagen, so we thought we'd take advantage and go up to visit him and Sam (James' sister)over Easter holiday weekend. Though James and I got married in small border town in Denmark, I had never been to Copenhagen and James had been there over 25 years ago (ouch that is a while back), so it seemed like a good opportunity to go somewhere new and different.

The first thing you notice about Copenhagen is bicycles of all shapes, sizes, conditions, two wheels, three wheels, old ones, bone shakers, single speeds, gerry-built. You name it, it's in Copenhagen. The weather on our first day was cold, wet, and rainy, so we walked over to the Kastellet (fortress) where Ronan particularly enjoyed the cannons. We also went to see the Little Mermaid. Since it was so cold, we hopped on this tour bus which drives around the tourist sites of Copenhagen, you can hop on and hop off at any of the stop points, so we road the bus most of the day, taking photos from the windows. We got off in Nyhavn where we enjoyed a lovely pub lunch. As a point of interest, while smoking has been banned in pubs and restaurants throughout most of Europe, Denmark seems to be a hold out. Pubs where no food is served still allow smoking, so once the pub where we had lunch stopped serving food, folks began to light up, so we took our leave.

The weather really played a part in our trip, we had rain, wind, snow flurries, and some sunshine. Also, due to the fact that it was Easter weekend, most shops were shut for the entire Easter weekend, with the exception of Saturday. So on Saturday, which was a gorgeous sunny day, we bought groceries and then hit the longest pedestrian shopping zone in Europe. Sam and I went clothes shopping at H&M (my favorite European clothing store) and the lads went to the Guinness Book of World Records museum, then we all met up at the Lego store, which was the highlight for Ronan. My highlight for the day was the pub lunch at the Brew Pub where I enjoyed the Danish spin on the American style Pale Ale and IPA, so very tasty. I also noticed among their bottled beer selection, mostly made up of Belgian beers, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the lone American bottled beer. Seeing it gave me a touch of home sickness. As much as I enjoy German beer, there really is not a great deal of variety and I do miss my Pacific Northwest ales.
Easter Sunday was also warm and sunny, so we took a lovely walk around Rosenborg Castle, a renaissance castle in Copenhagen where the crown jewels are also located (see photo album below). On Monday, we met Yvette, an old friend of mine from high school, who is a working artist in Copenhagen. She took us on a great tour of Christiania, a freetown or commune founded in an old military barracks in the 1970's in Copenhagen. It has been a self-governing commune, where marijuana was openly bought and sold until 2004. Yvette said that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening up of Eastern Europe has also brought with it the more hard-core Russian drug trade, making harder for Christianites to keep the drug trade in check, so they've had to work more closely with the Danish authorities, not always an easy relationship, apparently. It's a truly interesting place, art and bicycles everywhere. We enjoyed a delicious soup in a small cafe, the cook was smoking a huge spliff. Lots of interesting homes and rustic furniture and playgrounds. James has a song he wrote about Christiania many years ago, I think the lyrics still apply.

Anyway, on Tuesday, Copenhagen was back to business as normal and we headed off to the airport to fly home. Great city and a great visit with family and old friends.

p.s. Big shout-out to my friend Josh Murray who took the train into Copenhagen from Malmo, Sweden, on Friday evening to enjoy a few beers, catch up on old times, and discuss the pros and cons of European vs. American life, one of my favorite discussion topics!