Today, I had time to go over some maps and figure out some landmarks, before setting out. I love to just go walking in cities. I must make sure to thank my publisher for turning me on to Rockport DresSports, which are the comfiest dress shoes I’ve ever owned.
Anyway, I looked at the tourist maps over breakfast, and re-traced some of yesterday’s steps. At some points, it felt like the old days of the internet, when you’d download an image and it’d show up rough at first, then increase in resolution as more data came through. Yesterday was a rough sketch of this part of the city. It turned out I’d passed a lot of things that I simply wouldn’t have found without this map (like the Jewish Museum, below).
The weather was also beautiful, which improved my mood a little. And I had a conversation with a clerk at that museum, which helped me talk out some of my impressions of the city, and how it differs from other places I’ve been. Conversation (and it really is two-sided, despite what you readers who’ve actually spoken to me might think) is important to me. “Talkin’: it fixes things,” as Tony Soprano once said.
Here are a ton of pix:
Rosenborg castle, where they keep the crown jewels.
The Danish National Gallery. Unfortunately, the Turner exhibition doesn’t open till tomorrow. Grr.
I love the color of these houses. Dunno what it is. I might paint my guest room in those shades this fall. Turns out that there are rows upon rows of houses like this. They’re so darn old, it’s tough to imagine them being right in the middle of the city. I’m not sure if the scale is conveyed through the two pictures, but there’s no way on earth I could walk through any of the doors without seriously slouching, and I’m 6’1″. So it sorta made me wonder about the ability to keep a city’s history firmly in place, and how difficult it makes modernization. And it made me wonder if modernization is necessary for everyone. And that would be me on vacation, thanks.
Saint Paul’s church. I just liked the color against the sky. It’s really a beautiful day: mid-60s, nice breeze, lots of sun. I’m pretty happy.
The entry to a military garrison called Kastelet (might be a generic name for garrisons). It’s an island base, still functioning.
A monument to the Danish soldiers who died in World War II.
Just a picture near the entrance to the base. I liked the stillness of the water, and the reflection of the grass hill above it. I was hoping it’d mirror well, but the breeze nixed that plan. I still think it’s a nice photo.
Evidently, the little mermaid was not invented by Disney.
Amalienborg, the winter home of the royal family. It consists of four palaces surrounding a square. Here’s another pic of it. It’s got some history.
Frederick’s church, as seen from Amalienborg, and closer up.
The fountain at the Royal Library (Bibliotek, okay?). I like the way the drops are caught in the light. Same shit, different angle.
The doorway to the Jewish Museum. The museum is designed by Daniel Liebeskind, the architect whose plan will be (mostly) followed for the new building on Ground Zero in NYC. It’s a neat museum, explaining the history of Jews in Denmark. I remember hearing years ago that they helped their Jewish population out during the war, but I didn’t know how extensive it was.
Evidently, more than 7,000 Jews got to safety in Sweden after the Germans decided to implement their Final Solution in Denmark, and less than 500 were sent to camps (85% of whom survived to return to Denmark). There’s a little theater where they show short movies about the history of the Jews here, the museum, and Liebeskind’s design. One explained the history of the immigration and acceptance of Jews in Danish culture. By the 19th century, they were pretty well assimilated into Denmark.
But then the Russian pogroms came, and thousands of Jews fled Russia. Well, a lot of them settled in Copenhagen, and were pretty resented. According to the video, the assimilated Jews were taken aback by a collection of refugees who were socialists, Zionists, or hyper-orthdox. And I have to admit, it struck me as sorta comic. I mean, here are these people whose families have spent 200+ years working out their relationship with a country, finding freedoms they really didn’t have in many other European countries. So they’ve assimilated. I’m not sure how observant these Jews were, but they seemed pretty comfortable in the culture.
Then you’ve got this wave of immigrants showing up, spouting any one of three very discordant things (the aforementioned socialism, Zionism or orthodoxy), throwing the status of “normal” Jews into question. As one of the figures quoted in the video said, “Before you got here, we were Danes with a Mosaic faith. Now we’re Jews.”
Oy.
After the museum, I started walking home. I passed over Holmen’s canal, and really liked the composition of colors.
This shot is from the bridge that you see in the last pic, and the archway leads to the Parliament building.