Denmark
Harbor at Sandvig, island of Bornholm in the Baltic
Outside the Jewish Museum in Copenhagen
From the sunny Costa Del Sol in southern Spain, I flew to Copenhagen while Larry drove the Tesla 3,000 miles. He did it in three days and had a smooth journey apart from traffic and road blockages in Germany.
COPENHAGEN
I found my way to the metro in the airport, (no Uber in Denmark) very clean and civilized, and arrived at the apartment I had booked only to find that it was a total nightmare! Advertised as “ground floor,” it turned out to be a basement with windows painted over, and walls painted black. Dark red velvet curtains separated the “rooms,” no furniture in the bedroom and paint peeling off the walls. To make things worse, I felt pretty sick and just did not have the energy or focus to start making alternate arrangements. After a couple of days of awful, claustrophobic misery, I found a hotel not too far away. Larry met up with me there, so he was spared the nastiness of the apartment. This was our first really bad experience renting from Booking.com on this trip. One has to go through the descriptions of the property with a fine-tooth comb, to discover issues like this. None of the reviews mentioned it and although the photographs showed a “funky” décor, I could not have imagined the extent of the problem! In the end, we were given a small refund by the owner.
The wonderful market near our hotel; endless colorful scenes of produce. Gigantic white asparagus, huge artichokes the size of grapefruit, amazing fish of every kind.
In Copenhagen was able to spend time with an old friend from Raleigh, Sys Oppenlander (whom many of my friends knew in art groups) who had returned to her native Denmark about twelve years ago but we had kept in touch. It was lovely to catch up about our lives and about our work, and she was a thoughtful host, showing us around Copenhagen. I also saw her wonderful studio in the city.
Copenhagen is a pleasant city with beautiful old architecture of red brick and ornate decoration, and it also has a lot of innovative contemporary architecture. The neighborhood we stayed in was a a charming, inner city old area with narrow cobbled streets and rows of stately three and four story buildings from the early 1800’s which are apartments now.
The Round Church in central Copenhagen.
There are more bicycles that people in Denmark and that was clear as we walked around. We noticed all ages on bikes, and many young people with their babies in carriers in the front. Some people had their dogs in the carriers! Generally the traffic moves slowly, always yielding first to pedestrians, then bicycles and finally to cars. People are very compliant regarding the traffic lights, no jay walking at all and no drivers trying to run one down. Everyone speaks excellent English, usually without an accent, as they learn English in primary school as the second language.
Famous for it’s design flair (furniture, jewelry, home goods) it is also famous for bold, innovative contemporary architecture. We saw many fascinating examples of this on a small boat tour of the harbor. It was a brilliantly sunny day, and thousands of people were sunbathing on the banks, and diving into the water of the harbor which is perfectly clean and safe.
Sys had some great suggestions for us including a visit to the Jewish Museum in Copenhagen. Although small, the museum is truly an architectural masterpiece which conveys the story of the small Danish Jewish community. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, the space is built into an existing historical space, the Galley House built in the early 1600s. A unique feature of the Jewish community of Denmark is that when Denmark was invaded by the Nazis, the majority of the Jews there were rescued from Nazi persecution with the help of the fellow Danes who marshalled their own fishing boats to take Jews to neutral Sweden. The story is movingly told by a survivor in his own voice, in an animated film. Today there is a community of about 6,000 mostly secular Jews who live mainly in Copenhagen. Although Denmark has had an historically tolerant attitude towards Jews, as King Frederik III encouraged Jewish immigration in the 17th century, recently there has been a rise in antisemitic incidents, fueled mainly by the growing fundamentalist Islamic communities in Denmark. In 2015, the country was shocked by a fatal shooting outside the main synagogue in Copenhagen. We met a woman who had known the young man who was shot, as he was her son’s best friend. It was chilling to hear the story from her.
Here are some views inside the Jewish Museum in Copenhagen. The lit display cases each show a personal item from the history of the community, such as text books, a Torah scroll, prayer shawl, baby clothes, challah cover, making the exhibition very personal and accessible.
FREDERIKSBORG CASTLE
Larry and I drove out to the castle of Frederiksborg, which used to be the summer home of the Danish Royal Family. About 45 minutes outside Copenhagen, it is set on three lakes in beautiful green rolling countryside. The castle was built originally by King Frederik in 1560, but his son Christian IV, rebuilt it in a splendid Renaissance style. Eventually in the mid 19th century the Royal Family gave the castle to the Carlsberg Foundation which today oversees all the operations which include the National History Museum, the National Portrait gallery, the magnificent Church, cellars, gardens and much more. Well worth a day trip if you enjoy seeing the pomp and splendor and incredible wealth of the old European Royal Families.
BORNHOLM ISLAND
Smoke house chimneys
Traditional homes painted deep yellow and red on Bornholm.
Our friend Sys had suggested that we take a couple of days to visit the island of Bornholm, a small, isolated island in the Baltic, of 39,000 people. Although Danish, it is located closer to Sweden. We drove onto the ferry, which was about an hour and a half, and enjoyed two days of peaceful beauty, watching the sunrises and sunsets. Our hotel room overlooked a little bay with a handful of fishing boats. Each morning a few hardy souls came to plunge into the freezing water of the harbor. They would then dry off in full view of the public before dressing to make their way back; thoroughly Scandinavian and very impressive! In fact, the hotel had signs posted saying, “Please wear clothes in our house.” There are many little fishing villages clustered around the coast of the island which one can explore, and I would recommend at least three or four days if you like hiking and unspoiled nature.
They are famous for their tall chimneyed smoking houses for fish, as well as for ceramics made from local clay.
The rocky cliffs of the shore reminded me of the Cape in South Africa.
From Bornholm we took the ferry once more to drive to Gothenburg, Sweden. From here we drive to Oslo for a few days sightseeing, and then we take the overnight ferry from Oslo to Kiel in Germany where we complete the final few days of the adventure!
