By the numbers
21230 steps
15.77kms
There is something different about the European countries
that I have visited so far. People seem to drink on the streets without a
problem at all. I have even seen some buy slabs of alcohol when they were on
the ferry due to the duty free and getting onto the train with them. I was
watching a guy drink a beer on the train and no one batted an eye. I do find it
all interesting though. Many people also seem to go through the rubbish after
bottles and cans so they can get money from them. It is weird watching some
people ride their bike around and stop at every bin along their ride. That
seems to be the same with the e-cigarettes as well and nearly everyone seems to
be holding one. You only know what they are when you see a big plume of smoke
bellow from their mouths. Totally unlike anything that happens back at home.
Surprise, surprise, I actually did sleep in a touch and
didn’t go wandering off early in the morning. I did look outside and it seemed like it was
going to be wet. I waited for breakfast, which was coffee and pancakes with
peanut butter, fresh baked bread. That satisfied me and stuck around for the rest
of the day. I was worried about the rain, but decided that the cemetery might
not be a great idea, although my second idea might have been just as silly as I
headed to an old fortress known as the Kastellet. The fortress opens at 6am and
is still a working base area, so would explain why it opened so early, but I
was there just after 9am when I caught the train to my destination instead of
walking The information about the fortress said that it was the best preserved
fortification in Europe. You mainly had unrestricted access to the base except
for areas you were not allowed in. I did enjoy a walk across the tops of the
battlements as the earth mound wall was pretty stable and had excellent views
out to sea. I could even see the bus’ for the tourist hordes arriving to see
the Little Mermaid Statue.
I was about to visit said statue after I wandered over from
the fortification. I had to think about which direction I wanted to come from and
decided on the way I had come in from. It wasn’t very far from the starting
place from where I had walked in. The tourist bus’ were everywhere and I came
across a statue I think that was towards those who lost their lives at sea, but
unsure if I read that correctly. When I wandered on the tourists became thicker
and I realised they were looking at everything including posing on some of the
boats that were docked nearby. I shook my head as I walked on as I would never
touch another’s boat without permission. I had a look around the corner at the
statue and found there were huge crowds around it. It was actually funny to
watch all the people who were taking selfies in front of the statue and others surrounding
it with their cameras. Yes I took a picture or two and happy that I didn’t turn
up on a tour bus as I would have had to jump back on and some of them didn’t look
real flash as drivers. I did have a look at several other statues and one
monument had several elderly British tourist exclaim that the dates were too
early for Nelson. I did snort at that.
Near a church or next door to a church by the name of St
Alban’s Anglican church in the direction I was walking was another monument of
some sort that had attracted everyone. I did hear the word Rodan, but there was
nothing about the artist / scuplurist anywhere near it. Its a mystery to me and
I did walk into the church without catching fire. The ladies inside were
patient and handing out cards about the history of the church asking people
where they came from and handing out cards in that language. I took a few
pictures of the windows before leaving and going on my way. I wanted to head
towards the Rosenburg palace mainly for the photo op and then visit the natural
history museum. On my way I did see there was a museum that is under
construction about the resistance fighters. That could have been interesting. I
followed my phone to the palance and the gardens where I realised they had a
long line for people waiting to get in. I managed to catch the changing of the
guard too. Likely would have been better if it was the bigger palace, but
somehow I walked right on by that and I had forgotten about visiting that
building, although I had walked in the other direction and had specific things
I wanted.
Basically across the road was the Natural history museum
located in the botanical gardensd of all things. I walked in and found no real
museum until I walked near the mega butterfly house to find they are still
building the museum due to the construction closing off the road access from a
gate. That explained why there didn’t seem to be much about it other than a dinosaur
called Misty will be housed in the museum. I was annoyed to say the least, so I
decided to walk towards the cemetery, but ran out of puff a little way there as
it just seemed so far away and I wanted to visit a museum still. If I went to
the cemetery, I would run out of time. This time I decided to leave the
cemetery for another time as I seemed pretty far from everything. Looking at my
map, I decided that I would jump onto the metro and get that to the other end
of town where I could visit the Danish War Museum upon a friend’s suggestion
that it was great. I jumped on the metro at a place called Forum and went
several stops at Kongens Nytorv that ended up in a department store that you
could get lost in. It was like walking into a duty free area at an airport that
you had no choice, but to navigate.
I headed into the direction that I knew the war museum to be
located. I was able to go inside and thought there was not much to it as the
bottom floor was about the different cannons that had been used over time and a
hands on exhibition about Denmark’s involvement in Afghanistan. That also
included a vehicle that had been destroyed by a road side bomb. It wasn’t really
my thing about what was going on over there, but it was a display that would
interest a few people especially when the videos were in Danish. If I had known
one side took me back out into the hall of armoury type weaponry then I would
not have walked the way there and back. I went upstairs thinking I would be
leaving the museum in around half hour, so I could look at something else.
Turns out the next floor up was very detailed in information. I started off
with the maritime wars and ship building by the Danish. I thought they had
gotten into a few wars with other countries. Listening to a display about ship
building I learnt the main line timber ships lasted 30 years, but were used for
10 of those years as an active vessel. During winter all the rigging was taken
off and housed in one building where they would be put back on. That was except
for the semi retired ships that would be on standby in case they were needed
and involved many people too.. I think on the bigger ones were were around 100
men involved. The models that were shown in the museum were used to help build
the vessels as the carpenters couldn’t read. Some of the model ships had been
destroyed by fire, but half the collection did survive.
I was enjoying the museum and the exhibits until I ended up
at the other end and found that I had entered into the wars that Denmark had
been involved with and that was not just the ocean wars. I had started from the
2000s going south from there wondering just how many conflicts that had been
involved with. World War 2 didnt happen very much as they quickly surrendered
on being threatened to be bombed out of existence. I could have glossed over
the resistance fighting, but I was goping further down the rabbit hole. Denmark
remembers 1864 as a horrible defeat and I remember the same date as the Waikato
War in New Zealand. Denmark seemed to like going to war with Sweden and that spiralled
down the way to the 1500s. Every display had information and displays of an
object from that time period. I knew it was around 330pm, so I wasn’t int oo
much of a hurry to get anywhere, but 5 mins later I looked at my phone and it
was around 4.30pm and the museum closed at 5pm. The other displays included
model planes, Russian pre World war One uniforms that were lucky not to be
bombed when being delivered to Denmark as a gift. There were even different
types of hats and medals throughout the life of Denmark. I decided, I better
lerave or else I would get stuck inside all night. I walked out and found that
I was very close to the Danish history museum. That would have been good to
visit too if I had not decided on visiting Malmo, but I will come back another
time.
That is my last day in Copenhagen. I did find another build
your own meal, but with steak, but I do not have a kitchen in the hostel apart
from a microwave. The funny thing was I walked past the last hostel, I stayed
in when I was in the city around 10 years ago. It still existed, but this time
there were more people there than I remembered.
I did miss lunch, but wasn’t hungry until after I left the museum and
ended up with a roll and a pasta. Mystery food that I have no idea what I am
eating because I cannot read the ingredients. I wouldn’t even know if they had
to be cooked or not.
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