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<\/a><\/p>\nIt turns out this City Hall is actually the fifth one built, opening in 1905.\u00a0 Copenhagen is apparently prone to disastrous fires, so much so that one of its city symbols is a fire-breathing dragon.\u00a0 To be fair, if the history books are to be believed and Bishop Absolan founded the city in 1167 (more on this in a bit), then the town did pretty well fire-safety wise for 500+ years.\u00a0 In 1728, a fire broke out at the most popular restaurant in town (its name lost though) that consumed 50% of the city.\u00a0 A third of the city was homeless.\u00a0 And the family that owned the restaurant?\u00a0 They blamed their 7-year-old kid for starting it.\u00a0 I really, really hope his name was O\u2019Leery.<\/p>\n
The SECOND great fire of Copenhagen occurred in 1795 and burned the OTHER half of the city.<\/p>\n
And there are more fires to come\u2026 but we\u2019ll get to them in due course.\u00a0 In the meanwhile, next to the City Hall are the dynamic duo of Lur blowers.\u00a0 These war trumpeters have been silent for some time, albeit as is often the case with statues, the legend says they\u2019ll blow their horns if a virgin should walk past.\u00a0 These kinds of stories always make me sigh.\u00a0 My college has a similar tale told about a thankfully toppled (though probably since restored) civil war soldier statue known as Silent Sam\u2026 who would fire his musket if a virgin walked past.\u00a0 There are only so many stories in the world and why this one keeps getting recycled is probably because it enables tour guides to say the word \u201cvirgin\u201d and elicit titters from the crowd.<\/p>\n
I sound like a prudish hen clucking about such things.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n The tour then took us into the \u201cOld Town\u201d of Copenhagen.\u00a0 In the City Hall Square you\u2019ll find Gammeltorv, the old square, with its fountain, and Nytorv with its public execution slab.\u00a0 So, ya know, you could have a drink and see a beheading \u2013 dinner and a show.\u00a0 Three City Halls got burned down here, as much of the city had been made of wood for so long and thus was little more than a tinderbox waiting to be set ablaze.\u00a0 On the fourth City Hall, they got smart and built the place out of stone, and that building has survived since 1650.\u00a0 Today it remains in use as a courthouse.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Nearby is the Knabrostraede, home to JC Jacobsen.\u00a0 For years, beer was an unreliable drink \u2013 sometimes it was good, sometimes it was terrible (me, I usually think it\u2019s always terrible but I never \u201cacquired the taste\u201d for it).\u00a0 In 1811, a local brewer and scientist experimented with yeast and realized he could consistently crank out the same tasting beer.\u00a0 With consistency and a good flavor in his corner, Carlsberg Beer became a huge, huge hit.\u00a0 He named it after his son\u2026 who was so appreciative that he went off and founded his own brewery to compete with his dad.<\/p>\n A man of science, JC Jacobsen gave his yeast secrets to the public, believing that information and knowledge should be free and open.\u00a0 It also helped then establish plenty of competition in the industry, such that he and his son reconciled and merged their companies back into the Carlsberg brand and became just about the most powerful brewer in the world at that time.\u00a0 They\u2019re still up there, even today.<\/p>\n We would hear about JC Jacobsen some more throughout the tour as he was a great philanthropist and generous with his money to the city he loved.\u00a0 Lots of statues, monuments, and infrastructures came about because of his beer money.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n James, our tour guide, wanted to show us the oldest street in the city.\u00a0 He believes it to be so as there was a citywide 850 anniversary celebration recently and as part of the festivities there were all these old maps of the city throughout the ages.\u00a0 The only street that was on all of them was this one \u2013 Maelstralle.\u00a0 Unfortunately, today it\u2019s under repair\/construction, as much of the city seems to be.\u00a0 Part of this is regular upkeep and part of this is to do with Copenhagen\u2019s attempt to greatly increase its metro system by adding 18 more stops hither and yon.<\/p>\n It was also on this street that during the Second Great Fire of Copenhagen (1795) the city demolished buildings to create a fire break which saved the half of the city that was already torched in the First Great Fire.<\/p>\n Oh, and a scene from The Danish Girl<\/em> was shot here.\u00a0 But since it stars that no talent hack Eddie Redmayne I’ve never seen it.\u00a0 (I have however seen his “you-should-return-your-Oscar” performance in Jupiter Ascending<\/em>… yeesh).<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n From there it was on to the House of Parliament.\u00a0 Denmark if the only government in the world that has all three branches of its government housed in the same building \u2013 the parliament, the Prime Minister, and the Supreme Court are all in the \u201cBorgen\u201d or more properly Christianborg Palace.\u00a0 Like so much of Copenhagen, there had been a couple of fires here.\u00a0 This is the 3rd<\/sup> Palace building.<\/p>\n A bit of history \u2013 Bishop Absalon is tasked with fortifying the fishing town and organizing it in the 12th<\/sup> Century.\u00a0 The Royals moved to Copenhagen in the 1400s and by 1433 they had declared it the capital.\u00a0 By the 1600s\/1700s there was a \u201ckeeping up with the Joneses\u201d thing happening wherein everybody was building opulent palaces and everybody was trying to top everybody else.\u00a0 Thus an opulent palace was built here in 1730.\u00a0 Sixty years later, a fire in the opera house section of the place consumed it.\u00a0 So the Danes rebuilt theirs on the same spot (this is Christianborg 2.0).\u00a0 They got smart and put water tanks in the basement and pipes everywhere to devise a sort of sprinkler system.\u00a0 All well and good for 110 years when a fire broke out in the kitchen.\u00a0 Unfortunately, nobody knew how to work the sprinkler system as that knowledge died with the previous generations.\u00a0 So we wind up with this 3.0 version\u2026 years later the Royals would move to Amalienborg where the Royal residences remain to this day.\u00a0 Since 1910, the \u201cBorgen\u201d has been home to the Danish democratic government branches.<\/p>\n Quick political history lesson:<\/p>\n With the exception of the current monarch (Queen Margaret), all the previous rulers were either Christian or Frederick\u2026 only the numerical addendum changes.\u00a0 There\u2019s about nine of each, alternating reigns.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re ever on Jeopardy, and it\u2019s a question about Danish monarchs, you got about a 50\/50 shot it\u2019s either C or F.\u00a0 If they ask for a number, well\u2026 that\u2019s worse odds to be sure.\u00a0 1:18 or something.\u00a0 Wait, is it 1:17 because the one is part of the set of 18?\u00a0 I was never very good at odds.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the many reasons I so dislike Las Vegas.<\/p>\n On the democratic side, there\u2019s almost always coalition governments as there are nine parties in Denmark.\u00a0 Compromise is necessary and so you have to try and negotiate out deals to appease various factions.\u00a0 Is that better or worse than a two party system?\u00a0 Right now I feel like it\u2019s better\u2026 but in truth, it already feels like there are more than two parties in the USA.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure the Republican Party exists as a single entity anymore.<\/p>\n And maybe the Danish government is on to something in their policies.\u00a0 Denmark has consistently been named one of happiest countries in world.\u00a0 For a while they were number one, but they\u2019ve recently dropped down to third place, behind Finland and Norway.\u00a0 But as our guide was quick to point out, that\u2019s okay \u2013 the only important thing is that Sweden is a very distant 9th<\/sup>.\u00a0 They really hate the Swedes!<\/p>\n The government is well funded as the nation is amongst the most highly taxed in the world.\u00a0 There\u2019s a 25% sales tax.\u00a0 The lowest bracket on income tax is 39.5%, while average overall is a little over 51%.\u00a0 A new car is charged 180% tax, such that the saying is you buy one car for you and two for the government.\u00a0 It may also help account for the number of bicycles on the road.<\/p>\n In return though, the country is abundant with services.\u00a0 There\u2019s quality infrastructure and a high standard of living.\u00a0 Higher education is not only free tuition, but the government kicks in a monthly stipend for students\u2019 living expenses.\u00a0 As a result, the people are typically highly education and debt free.\u00a0 Healthcare is 100% free and there is 12 months paid maternity leave.\u00a0 When going back to work, there\u2019s a highly subsidized childcare package.\u00a0 On top of that, the nation has targeted 2025 as the year they go completely carbon neutral.\u00a0 There\u2019s a big push on this, such that every new home built has to have an electric car charging outlet (electric cars have a huge tax rebate on that 180% deal!).\u00a0 So while there\u2019s a lot of tax, there\u2019s a lot of services too.\u00a0 Better or worse than other systems?<\/p>\n I will say Copenhagen is expensive.\u00a0 Since I base most of my analysis on food and specifically gelato, a one scoop cone runs about 30 danish kroner\u2026 or about USD$5.\u00a0 To play the awful Italian accent stereotype \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019sa one pricey ice-a cream!\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n We found ourselves at H\u00f8jbro Plads, where yet another large statue of Bishop Absalon can be found.\u00a0 Looking as always less like a Bishop and more like a Braveheart Cosplayer, he\u2019s sporting a battle axe and looking toward Sweden, ready to declare war on ancient adversaries.\u00a0 While you\u2019ll recall the history books say he founded the city in 1167, it should be noted that HE wrote the history and people took him at his word.\u00a0 But recently, as part of the subway excavation, the Danish have found a much older city in the strata, leading many to wonder just who did found the city proper and when?\u00a0 The debate has only just begun.\u00a0 And I suppose it\u2019s yet another reminder that history is written by the victors\u2026 but evidence will out.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n The St. Nicolas Church Spire features a ring that looks like a bike lock.\u00a0 It apparently is part of an art exhibit currently going on in this modern art museum and will most likely disappear when the next exhibition moves in.\u00a0 The currently misleading appellation for Church at Kunsthallen Nikolaj<\/em> is because it was a church\u2026 until it, yup, burned down.\u00a0 The Second Great Fire took out everything EXCEPT the tower, which has survived intact since the 1390s.\u00a0 After the fire in 1795, it was decided to rebuild the ground floor as a fire station \u2013 a pretty good idea given the proclivity for fires to destroy large swaths of the town.\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually when the wooded construction tinderbox was replaced, little pig style, with brick and stone, the fire station could be relocated and the building was transferred back to the city.\u00a0 It reopened as a market hall and over the years has since morphed into an art museum and a wine bar.<\/p>\n The spire itself was a gift from the Carlsberg found, JC Jacobsen.\u00a0 And his charitable foundation continues to this day, offering support and grants throughout the city.\u00a0 Other artful contributions to the city include the Dragon Fountain outside City Hall # 5 as well as those horny Lur blowers.<\/p>\n The Foundation is also responsible for the third least impressive tourist attraction in Europe\u2026 but a little more on that in another post, as I feel like that\u2019s a whole thing that needs a bit of it\u2019s own space.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n The Magasin Du Nord is one of the city\u2019s oldest and most grand department stores.\u00a0 Like the name above theirs implies though, it used to be a hotel and only changed hands 150 years ago.\u00a0 Back then it was across the way from the other main building in this area \u2013 the National Theater, a place that housed the city ballet, symphony, and choir.<\/p>\n This is then the story out guide tells us:\u00a0 To this hotel then a 14-year-old boy comes to pursue his dream (14 being considered an adult at that time).\u00a0 To dance!\u00a0 And so he stalked the ballet director all over town, going wherever she went, following along, until finally she asked him what he wanted.\u00a0 To audition, of course!\u00a0 And she relented\u2026 and he was awful, just terrible, deemed by the director one of the worst dancers she\u2019d ever seen.\u00a0 But the stage was calling so he decided to try his hand at acting.\u00a0 Thus from his hotel across the way he once again stalked an artistic director, this time, the theater company\u2019s head honcho.\u00a0 Same thing, all over town, finally the guy relents and he gets an audition \u2013 kid\u2019s a terrible actor too.\u00a0 So he decides to try singing and before he can stalk the choir director, the man cuts out the middle bit and just offers him an audition hoping to resolve this quickly.\u00a0 Turns out, kid\u2019s got a lovely singing voice.\u00a0 Great soprano \u2013 great acclaim with the choir, that is until\u2026 puberty.\u00a0 His voice changes and his career is over.\u00a0 But his friends in the various arts tell him that he always tells funny, interesting, and imaginative stories and what he really ought to do is write.\u00a0 And they chip in to send him to school to learn how to write. \u00a0And he does.\u00a0 And that boy’s name, was Hans.\u00a0 Hans Christian Andersen.<\/p>\n All told, HCA cranked out 3,500 works in Denmark, from fairy tales to poetry to tales both large and small\u2026 including an icy snow queen and a little mermaid\u2026 albeit those who are looking for a happy ending might want to let it go.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Around the corner is Nyhavn, the \u201cNew Harbor.\u201d\u00a0 King Christian IV, known as \u201cThe Builder\u201d because he did so much for the city expansion and infrastructure wise, wanted to turn Copenhagen into an international marketplace in the late 1400s\/early 1500s, and thus wanted to use a channel to bring goods in and out of the city.\u00a0 From there the New Harbor was born.\u00a0 The one \u201cdownside\u201d is it became something of a den of inquity due to sailors making various uses for it as part of shore leave\u2026 eventually the ships got to be too big for the harbor and Copenhagen built a bigger one farther afield.\u00a0 The place really fell into disrepair but saw a real revival in the 1950s.\u00a0 These days it\u2019s a lovely overpriced tourist trap that you should just bring your own bag lunch to and sit on the wall to enjoy\u2026 that is if you\u2019re a savvy local and informed tourist like us good folk on this walking tour.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Across the harbor in Christiana is the \u201cNew\u201d Opera House.\u00a0 It opened in 2005 at a price of over 500 million euros, funded entirely by the owner of the Maersk shipping company.\u00a0 AP Moller knew what he wanted and so despite hiring the guy who designed the Sydney Opera House, he dictated what he wanted and expected Henning Larsen to just draw what he was told.\u00a0 Not an ideal working relationship so Larsen slipped in a few easter eggs.\u00a0 Apparently, Moller hated Christiana (more on this in the other tour), a hippie enclave and home to the \u201cgreen light district\u201d and marijuana sales galore.\u00a0 One of the symbols of the area are three bright circles\u2026 which Henning incorporated into the three main chandeliers hanging before the glass paned windows that Moller demanded.<\/p>\n A lot of people say it looks like a toaster.\u00a0 Moller wanted it to look like the conn of a container ship.\u00a0 Eye of the beholder.\u00a0 Is it a chalice or two faces?\u00a0 A witch or a young lady?<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n We finished the grand tour on the Fredericksborg Axis \u2013 the Opera House to the Royal Palace to the Marble Church (which is made of 100% limestone\u2026 but, hey, it\u2019s all in the branding).<\/p>\n The changing of the guard happens every two hours but the biggest ceremony is at noon \u2013 here\u2019s a glimpse.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> \u00a0<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> \u00a0<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n