vickiebypass

Due to a COVID cancelled cruise, I had a large credit with a cruise line that must be used by 12/31/22, so I booked a cruise departing from Copenhagen on July 16th and arrived 3 days early. I’ve been to CPH several times before when I’ve explored the city thoroughly so this time I decided to do some day trips. Since I would be taking the train, S-tog or metro, I chose a hotel very close to Central Station. Normally I would never stay near the main station due to noise and commercial activity but the convenience factor won out. I chose the Axel Guldsmeden Hotel since it looked quirky and nicer than some of the others in the area. Overall, I was happy with my choice.

At the airport, I picked up my pre-purchased Copenhagen Card at the Copenhagen Airport Service Information desk, in terminal 3, to the right of the baggage claim area. I bought a 72 hour CPH card for 108€ since it covered trains, S-tog, buses, metro and all the sights I planned to visit. I don’t know if I saved any money, but not having to deal with buying tickets for the various types of transportation was worth it.

The Axel Guldsmeden hotel is decorated in a style that appeals to me (e.g. old oriental rugs; wood panels; plants; lots of windows) and is two buildings with an interior courtyard. There are elevators in both buildings but you have to walk down a sturdy wooden ramp into the courtyard, through the flagstone courtyard and up another sturdy wooden ramp into the other building (which is where my room was). It was doable but if mobility is an issue, you may want to ask the front deck (who were all EXTREMELY helpful) for assistance with your luggage. I had been upgraded to room 422 (a bid double vs the single I had booked) which was very nice w door to Juliet balcony and another tall window. 4 poster bed, desk, sofa and wall tv. BUT, it was a zillion degrees in there and no sign of AC. Traipsed back to reception, down the ramp, through the courtyard, up the ramp and into reception. Explained to very nice girl who explained that since they are an eco-sustainable hotel, they don’t have AC. She said it gets cool at night and offered me a fan; also offered to move me to another room but since they had given me the best room, any other room might be near the elevator or on a noisy street. She came to my room and said “oh, this is quite warm”; when she showed me how to open the windows, a breeze came billowing in; also plugged in the fan and tested the tv. Then she showed me an alternate room on the 2nd floor but it was across the street from a restaurant so would be noisy. With the breeze, and closing the curtains during the day, I decided to stay put. The bed was comfortable and it definitely cooled down at night, enough so that the duvet was appreciated.

Shortly after noon, I was off to the Museum of Freedom, also known as Museum of Danish Resistance. It’s in Churchill Park by Kastellet and near the Little Mermaid so I took the metro to Marmorkirken and planned to walk the remaining bit. Came out of metro (stations are new, clean, well signed but deep with 3 flights of escalators; all stations have lifts) at the marble church so figured I might as well go in. Round w dome in that spare Scandinavian style. Some brickwork, mostly white walls and frescoes plus marble adornments and statues. Used the luck of a bench away from people to figure out my walking route to museum. Easy. Walked past another church that said “church open” with an arrow, so why not? Small, wooden - smelled of old wood (a good smell). Not much to see but they had a toilet!

Another 10 mins walk or so to museum. New, small round stone building but the whole museum is underground, so it’s larger than it looks from the street. Showed my CPH card and got audio guide (included). Very interesting. Similar concept to the Amsterdam museum: the theme is paths that were taken (in Amsterdam museum the paths were collaborate, do nothing or resist). Similar themes here with focus on resistance. You go downstairs to a large area, dim lighting, with separate areas for stories of individual Danes’ experiences; décor reflects that person’s story. Listened to multiple recordings for each person’s scene, plus had photos projected on the wall. Started in 1939 through a few months after war ended. Overall, I think this was a well done museum; it’s only two years old. I get the sense that Denmark was much more collaborationist than Norway or Holland so will do some reading to understand better.

After the museum it was about 4:15 and my Covid test appointment (rapid test required 3 days prior to ship embarkation) wasn’t until 6:20 but since I was done I figured I’d stop by the lab and see if they could take me early. Walking from the museum to the lab (at the intersection of Gothersgade and Norre Voldegade) was a pleasant walk through a residential area west of Kastellet Park and north of the Rosenberg Palace gardens. Went through older areas of small homes painted sort of a mustard color (Nyboder); Victorian buildings; local cafes and shops; and churches. I spotted a large secondhand shop so zipped across the road and wandered around looking at glassware, paintings, and various clothing and found a treasure – a bright yellow T-shirt with blue writing and a trophy (sort of the Swedish colors). It was so stinking hot on Wednesday that I thought if it’s going to be this hot I need a T-shirt and I always like the idea of a T-shirt that I can wear to the gym and this one appealed to me; but I wanted to make sure it didn’t say something really rude in Danis. There were two youngish guys in the shop and I asked one if he spoke English, he said a little, so I showed him the shirt and asked him what it said; he said it was a shirt for a local Danish football club and it said Yellow Stadium which is what they call their stadium, so it would be safe to wear and cost all of $3.42 – the best souvenir of the trip, I’ll bet. Went into a discount food store and bought a ton, literally, of chocolates. Just candy bars – I always think European chocolate is better than American…don’t know if I’m right but it’s my treat.

Eventually found my way to the Copenhagen Medical office which was easy to find, right on the corner where I thought it was going to be, and they were able to take me right away. They confirmed that they would give me a hard copy of the results in 20 minutes. This Norreport area is a transportation hub for metro, buses & S-tog, so quite busy with commuters, etc. I spotted the5C bus stop to get back to the hotel so I walked around and bought a soda in what I guess is a bottle/liquor shop & had a little banter with the shopkeeper about the merits of Coke versus Pepsi and candy gummy‘s. Sat on a circular bench next to two huge bike parking lots and watched the very strong wind blow several of them over. And people watched. Went back for my results which were negative – yippee. Took the 5C bus right back to Central Station, went to the Max Burger place in the station and got a double burger with bacon and cheese. Brought my food stash to the room, took a shower and since the room was cooling down I watched TV and ate my lukewarm burger which was still good. Exhausted so went to bed at 9 PM.

Next: Roskilde's UNESCO Cathedral, Viking Museum and Best Hotdog of the trip

TDudette

Thanks for this, vickybypass. Info about the hotel ramps very helpful!

bilboburgler

Interesting, on for the ride

Much US chocolate has butyric acid in it.
plus UK chocolate must have 25% cocoa in it and EU has higher figures than that. US only needs 10% according to Google

vickiebypass

Glad to have readers - I always find both of your posts very helpful, so nice to have you along!

Thursday: Vikings, Religion & Hot Dog

Today was my day to go to Roskilde, a town outside Copenhagen, to visit the Viking Museum and Cathedral (UNESCO site). Got the 9:52 S-tog train and arrived Roskilde at about 10:30 (due to track works, had to change trains midway through which I knew thanks to Google). My plan was to take a bus from the train station to the Viking Museum and walk back, stopping at the Cathedral on the way to the train station. Found the right bus stop for number 203, it pulled in, I hopped on along with a few other guys; there was a switch of drivers, he moved the bus and off we went. We were merrily going along and getting into an area with lots and lots of apartments, about three stories high (and lots more being built) then areas that look like senior housing (because a lot of older folks got on the bus at each of those stations, some with walkers, some without); we were still heading toward the water so I thought it all looked fine until we turned away from the shore. I asked the bus driver and he said oh no no not this bus, I said but this is the 203, he said no it’s the 205. Apparently it had been a 203 but when he got on the bus as driver the route changed too. Basically, he said you can’t get there from here so he told me get off in the town center and walk to the Central Square and then walk to the cathedral and follow the path down to the Viking museum….so I spent 25 minutes on a bus which brought me right back to where I started. But the good news is I got to see a little bit more of the town and all of the apartments, senior housing etc.

I wandered along the pedestrian-only main drag which was filled with interesting looking shops; lots of fun; and just very appealing merchandise as always. The Scandinavians have a definite flare when it comes to design, colors etc. I didn’t buy anything but thought that if I decide to build an entirely new, non-fleece wardrobe, Scandinavia is the place to come (with a very full wallet). Got to the town square and the cathedral is very close so I decided to visit the cathedral now, walk to the Viking Museum and then take the bus back to the train station. By this point, it was almost noon and since there was a hotdog cart right there in the Town Center and some nice benches in the shade, I decided to do that. Of course they all spoke English which was good and I got a bacon wrapped hotdog with crispy onions and dill pickles on top; he offered various toppings like ketchup, mustard, mayo and something else but I’m a purist. It was really tasty! Next time I probably wouldn’t have the pickles but it was very good and filling and gave me a chance to people watch so a nice end to a slightly frustrating morning.

Walked to the cathedral - checked the outside of it following Rick Steves suggestions and then went inside. Use my Copenhagen Card which includes with the admission, a very nice multi page guidebook with a map and photos. I spent almost two hours there. It’s a rather plain church compared to French and British ones but it’s a UNESCO site since it was one of the earliest brick churches in Europe. As Rick Steves pointed out, all of the kings and queens of Denmark are buried there and they each built a chapel for themselves which contains statues etc. and their Sarcophagus. As Rick says, it’s a tour through architecture of the ages because the styles changed significantly. Some other interesting tidbits like the glockenspiel and a chapel designed in 2010 with modern iron work gate, mosaic altarpiece and clear leaded stained-glass window. Christian IV’s chapel has an original 17th century very ornate iron gate with lots of ornamentation.

It was about 2 o’clock at this point and the Viking museum closed at five, so I walked through the park to the museum. One of the things I passed was a field full of wildflowers, orange, white, purple, yellow and people among the flowers taking photos of each other (this was just a loose meadow of flowers, not formal gardens). Saw the museum ahead and spotted the bus stop for the 203, for my return trip. Use my Copenhagen Card at the museum and decided to watch the 14 minute introductory video & take the 45 minute free guided tour, and then go to the two exhibits that had looked interesting, followed by checking out the boats outside and then taking the bus back to the station. Lots of kids here, which I expected.

Video was interesting. Guided tour, led by a guy with long stringy hair, was not so great. My dilemma with tours is always that there’s a lot of standing around and not a lot of information is covered. In this case, the talk covered a bit of the same info that was in the video because I guess they can’t assume that everybody watches the video. Also, there seemed to be a whole lot less to talk about than at the Vasa museum in Stockholm; partially I guess that’s because the entire contents of the museum are the five recovered Viking ships and once you grasp why they were sunk &how they were retrieved, there’s not that much to talk about. Unlike the Vasa, not much of the actual ships was recovered, so the museum built iron skeletons and then put in the recovered pieces which was not very enthralling. Two special exhibits: one was highlighting The Tour de France and comparing aerodynamics of bicycles versus Viking longships. They had 3 displays interspersed among the long ships and I thought were interesting (maybe a bit of a stretch to compare the two but thought provoking). The other exhibition was a chronology of a battle in 1644 between Sweden and Denmark with sound effects of guns, cannons and fire. Meh.

Then I went outside to the museum island to look at the craftsman re-creating Viking skills. Because it was the end of the day, there were only two: boat building which was interesting because it was a true workshop which smelled of wood, wood shavings on the floor, all kinds of tools used in working with wood, and a 99% completed replica of a Viking long boat. They’ve built this boat for some July 25 celebration. Just interesting what people are busy doing. The other that would’ve been interesting but didn’t have anybody there to explain, was the rope makers shed which had various samples of rope made out of wool, hemp, seal skin, horse hair etc. there was also a wooden spinning machine that is used to create threads out of all these fibers before winding them by hand.

I had wanted to sign up for the additional tour where you get to actually row a Viking longship in the harbor but I didn’t think I would have time because I thought the museum would be bigger and more entrancing than it was. But I watched a group get their training talk and then row out into the harbor; it looked like hard work and a definite skill to get everyone pulling in the same direction, at the same time. I also checked out the replica of the 60 foot Viking long boat, Sea Galleon. You could get onto it, climb around and ask the staff questions. I didn’t get onto the ship but it was interesting to study the insides, touch the rope and talk to guide about the ropes -they were covered in tar and he explained that tar is made from resins which makes the ropes waterproof and sturdy. I asked him where the sails would be stored and he said that they would be attached to the lower bar of the mast so they could be raised, like with a pulley system and lowered, which I remembered from either the video or the guide.

I was done and the bus will be there in about 15 minutes; as I left I noticed that they were having a classic car gathering on the museum grounds; about four Corvettes, an old Volvo, Z100, and a bunch of other cars; it started to rain but that didn’t bother them – the car owners just put up the tops on the Corvettes and they all got out their umbrellas and sat around in collapsible chairs chatting. Bus came and it was a very quick ride to the train station. I went into a large supermarket (that I think is a discount place) and bought mascara, eye pencil, toothpaste, gum and another 2 tons of candy. Even paid for a plastic carrier bag to lug all my loot. Got to the station and the train was sitting there waiting – how fortuitous! Got into a quiet zone car again, which I do love. Some guy was in there and his phone rang and he answered it and started talking, without getting up to leave, and an older lady shook her finger at him and told him to stop in Danish; he ignored her and kept talking, so she told him again and this time I said shush and put my finger to my lips and pointed out the door; he just nodded and ignored both of us. But at least his call ended and when he had to make a call, he got up and left, so victory to me and the senior lady.

Back at Central Station, I realized I really wanted spaghetti for dinner but there were no Italian options in Central Station; so I went to a little café there that does pizza and got a so-so pizza slice. Lots of dough, not much sauce, barely any cheese and barbecue chicken – never a favorite but it did hit the spot. Bought salted rye bread chips, like pita chips but made with that that really good Danish rye bread that is dark brown with big seeds in it. Quite tasty.

Next: Art & Amusement

bilboburgler

10 years ago I cycled to the museum and cathedral from Copenhagen. Stayed at the Hostel there and partied in the car park with some kids and a mobile disco.

TDudette

Thanks for your nice words, vickiebypass.

One would never expect a bus to switch numbers with a new driver! Thanks for more practical information.

vickiebypass

Friday: Art and Amusement

Friday was my day to go to Louisiana Museum, the contemporary art museum outside Copenhagen. Took the train from Central Station for six stops (35 mins) and then about a 15 minute walk from the small train station to the museum. In addition to a sculpture garden, the museum consists of two buildings: the old Villa and a new modern addition. In support of ‘asking before you stand in a long line’, there was a very long line to buy tickets but then a few people were bypassing the line so, since I was using my Copenhagen card I thought maybe I can bypass too, so I showed my card and yes I was in the correct spot. Good thing I asked, otherwise I would’ve been in that line for probably 40 minutes.

This was interesting; I’m not a generally a fan of modern or contemporary art because it’s weird sometimes. However I gather this museum is world renowned and so I knew it was safe to say that their exhibitions are worthy of being exhibited. What I particularly wanted to see was the Diane Arbus exhibition of her photos and another person that I didn’t know anything about: Dorothy Iannone. Plus a Kusama installation which is part of their normal collection. The first thing I saw was the Dorothy Iannone; what an interesting artist and person. As the museum website says “she pays homage to free love, ecstasy and the both pleasurable and spiritual encounter between lovers.” I don’t feel like the museum did a very good job explaining any of her background, what her theories were and even her different styles of art (they looked similar to me, what I would call pen and ink graphics incorporating historical references, but I’m sure there were differences over the years.) She decorated her cookbooks with artistic and colorful drawings but also contained some of her words of wisdom. She did a many-paneled autobiographical graphic describing how she met and fell in love with an Icelandic artist Dieter Roth in Iceland (while there with her husband), dumped her husband and flew back to Iceland and spent seven years with Dieter. He featured in her artwork for many years. Then at some point she hooked up with a Danish pastor and they were together for another good chunk of time; then she had another lover who was featured in her art. Her art is colorful not cartoonish but very appealing to me so I need to research her. They had a lot of her work so I very much enjoyed that. Then I walked through the Diane Arbus exhibition which was at least two galleries of her photographs, many of which are famous and are often reproduced. Again, I would’ve liked a little more background on her: biography, career arc and more about the photos. But it was interesting to see them in real life.

Also was intrigued by two exhibits/installations by a South African artist name William Kentridge. I feel like I’ve heard his name and one of them was a video/ graphics/singing installation which I enjoyed very much. The other was a video/theatre installation about Nambia in early 20th c, colonialism and bereavement. Both of these were a bit abstract but the music, images and techniques appealed to me. (Will have to look him up too).

Then I walked through the café thinking I might get lunch when I remembered that none of their sandwiches were very appealing when I looked online and they weren’t in person either - too fishy, veggie and weird. The outdoor café porch was beautiful, up high overlooking the sea but since it was a sunny day, it was mobbed. There were sailboats, ferries and waves and clouds to watch so I sat on a wall for a while resting my tootsies and pondering my next move. The museum gardens have various paths which frustrated me since several were dead ends and involved a fair amount of up & down, although the huge slide was fun. I wandered through the sculpture park and found most of them - lots of big names: Arp, Moore, Miro, Calder and more. Plus an installation by a lady I’ve read about - huge round polished rocks. The museum, café and outdoors was mobbed with generations – lots of babies in carriages. I asked the gift shop if they had a catalog of the Dorothy Iannone exhibit and they didn’t - that’s a miss since I would’ve bought it. The shop was on two levels and the lower level was a lot of what I’m calling design articles; if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times, the Danish (and other Scandinavians) have a great sense of design and style. I saw a really super pair of leather clogs with a strap across the top - hot pink patent leather with a contrasting red leather strap. I loved them and took a photo to see if I can track them down because I wasn’t in the mood to try them on and the place just said way too crowded to have any patience for me trying things on. I decided it was time to go.

Walked back toward the train station at about 1:30 and I was hungry; there were a couple of cafés which were very crowded and hot; a bakery which was 1000° and nothing looked appealing (way too sweet); so I walked to a little shopping center behind the train station and the pizza place didn’t do slices; at the bagel place everything looked dried up and they ignored me so I left & went into a grocery store but other than sodas there was nothing to buy for lunch so I just got on the train.

I was really trying to figure out what I could do with the rest of my day and I remembered that Tivoli is included in my Copenhagen Card and because I liked Tivoli so much in 1994 that I decided to go see it again. It’s across from Central Station so I was about to cross the street to their admission booth and what do I see but a hotdog cart- woo hoo! So I got another bacon-wrapped hot dog with crispy onions in a roll where the hot dog sticks out at both ends. It was very tasty but this one was fatter than the hot dog I had in Roskilde yesterday so I felt stuffed which is also why I wanted to sit on the bench for a while in Tivoli and just veg.

I did enjoy Tivoli a lot which surprised me since there were about zillion kids there, but I liked the architecture of the buildings, the layout of the park, the decor (sort of Arabian nights) and the variety of food options (none of which appealed to me but were interesting to see and smell) and of course they had a tons of benches to sit plus a lot of green garden areas and some lakes. So I basically ended up sitting on benches in a couple of different locations, people watching and watching the kids and their parents on the various rides - carousel, twirling cups, all kinds of things that bring you up high and then drop you, a camel train, roller coaster, old vintage cars that you can sort of drive on the track. I liked that they were low-key rides; the kids seem to be having a blast & the parents too. It was a nice day to be outside and I wasn’t annoyed by these kids. I remembered from the other time I was there (1994) that they have a plan where when you buy a soda, you pay a deposit on a plastic cup that’s imprinted with that year’s Tivoli theme and you can return the cup and get your five cent deposit back so basically they’re saving on plastic. I saved my ‘94 cup and I did the same thing this time - another souvenir. There was a very nice garden area with really attractive fountains and plantings that I enjoyed wandering through and taking some photos of the color combinations. I probably spent a little over two hours there.

Back to hotel where I tried uploading the Covid test results into the cruise line’s app. It didn’t work and I started getting worried so I emailed my agent and asked him to confirm that having the antigen test three days prior to embarkation was OK. Shockaroo – it wasn’t! Three days in advance is for PCR tests but for antigen tests they had to be two days in advance. Ai yi yi - luckily the lab I had used was open until 10 o’clock tonight and since it was only 8:39 at this point, I got dressed again, took the S-tog two stops to Norreport, walked across the street, walked in, and they gave me another test right away. I had to wait 20 minutes for the test results so I went into a store grocery store a few doors away. Boy, it was busy with what appeared to be really young kids - mostly boys - buying beer or wine and snacks. But there was nothing I needed - no more chocolate! So I walked back to the lab to wait and was watching groups of girls, boys and girls etc. carrying their beer or wine spritzers walking along; I asked the staff and it turns out the drinking age in Denmark is 16, so yes these kids were young and they like to hang out in this area - they go with their group of friends so they can meet other people, see and be seen and the staff told me there are a lot of bars around here that they like. I also bet it’s popular because it’s a good transportation center and they can get to and from easily. The test results were negative (good) and they printed them out for me and then I took the S-tog two stops back to the hotel so I’d say it was 45 minutes round-trip which is pretty darn lucky and pretty darn fast and pretty cheap. Thank heavens I checked w my agent because it would’ve been a disaster if I showed up at the ship and my Covid results were denied. I would’ve had to take a taxi to the lab, bite my nails and take a taxi back to the ship; I guess it all would’ve worked but it would’ve been cutting it uncomfortably close!

travlsolo2

I very much enjoyed the detail of your Copenhagen days. Thank you for sharing your trip report! I've only spent an hour in the train station on my way to Gothenburg in 2001, and planned to return for a proper visit in 2014, but got sidetracked somehow. My loss. 😥

TDudette

The Louisiana Museum sounds super. Off to read more about Dorothy Iannone. Phfew that you were able to get your covid results in time.

balthy

What a pity that so much of the food was not appealing. Not in Louisiana nor in the Tivoli Gardens which has so many restaurants. Not in the bakeries either. A big part of Copenhagen for me is the food scene. There's a lot more to eat than mediocre pizza slices, hotdogs and burgers from Max. I'm not sure where off the beaten track places that were visited. Maybe that's coming next/

vickiebypass

Balthy - a note about my food choices! I've eaten very enjoyably in Copenhagen before but this trip was not like my normal ones where I do pre-trip research into local restaurants, cafes, etc., so my food mentions should not be taken as an indictment of Danish food. I was looking for quick meals hence the train station food (and I did enjoy many a treat from the Lagkagehuset bakery at their various locations).

vickiebypass

Travlsolo2 - Copenhagen is a great city so if you get another to visit, stay for several days! There are very interesting neighborhoods to explore and two museums that I particularly like are the SMK (the national museum which has a nice collection of Impressionists in addition to Danish artists that many folks aren't aware of) and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (I remember amazing archaeological items including mummies plus Danish & French art of the 18th c; beautiful historical building too). I also loved the Reception Rooms in Christiansborg Palace. And a boat cruise on the canals and the freetown of Christiana is interesting.... so much to see and do just in the city itself, let alone the day trips.

TDudette - I've been reading about Dorothy Iannone too. Did you run across this link? I saw these cookbooks at the museum and some of the recipes looked good! (Although I was distracted by her illustrations and comments

Bilboburgler - from your posts, I know you're a cyclist so your biking trip to Roskilde possibly traced this year's Tour de France route. One of the things I enjoyed about Roskilde was how every store incorporated some aspect of the TDF into their storefront - I saw lots of old bike wheels that had been repurposed into some kind of decor, with yellow accents.

TDudette

Thanks for the link, vickybypass; I hadn't seen it. The layouts are odd, eh?Cookbooks interest me and I was searching for those..most sold out. What an interesting woman! And still living.

Thanks again for your TR. Where to next for you?

vickiebypass

Saturday: Botanic Gardens & SMK

Today is cruise embarkation day ship but my assigned time isn’t until 2:20 PM so I’m going to the state art museum this morning, SMK. Checked out of the hotel and left my bags in their storage (realized I had a separate bag devoted solely to chocolate bars, I must be nuts!) From Central Station, took the S-tog to Norreport and instead of walking straight to SMK, I decided to go through the botanical gardens. Very nice paths through grape arbors with lawn vistas on either side. It started to rain pretty hard, the way it seems to do in Copenhagen – big gray dark clouds appear overhead, it rains hard and then the clouds move away – since I was in the grape arbor, I found a heavily leafed spot and stood there waiting for the rain to pass. I liked hearing the rain pattering off the leaves and watching the rain pelt into the lily pond while I stayed dry.

Walked past the lily pond and noticed a duck with eight ducklings streaming along behind her so I stopped to watch them. They were dark, dark brown, some with bright yellow patches and teeny tiny – maybe only a few days old. They were climbing onto and amongst the lily pads looking for food. You could see them by the way the lily pads were bobbing around and all of a sudden out would pop a furry little brown creature. Then, the mother hopped onto a section of cement boxes where there was lots of water and low growing plants for them to eat; seven of the ducklings hopped onto the cement retaining wall and then plopped into the water but the eighth duckling couldn’t muster the strength to hop onto the retaining wall. He pedalled madly, up & down the length of the wall and made a few attempts to jump up but he couldn’t quite make it. Meanwhile the mother hadn’t caught on that he wasn’t there until she finally did and was making little chirpy noises – I figured she could pick them up by the nape of his neck and drag him over but she didn’t. All the ducklings were having a fine time nibbling away at little bits of algae and tiny little leaves and then finally the stray duckling jumped onto retaining wall and plopped into the water with the rest of his gang. While I had stopped to watch, a couple walking toward me looked to see what I was looking at and they stopped to watch; then another lady did, then another lady etc. Quite entertaining I must say. Then I walked through an area of flowerbeds that were empty and I don’t know why because you’d think midsummer would be peak growing season. Turns out the exit at the end of the garden which is closest to the SMK Museum was closed since they’re building a new natural history museum so I retraced my steps to the beginning of the garden and then walked all the way along the street up to the museum.

Used my Copenhagen card for free entry and popped into the gift shop to look at Flinsted mobile‘s; they had a lot but they tended to be bigger that I wanted and none appealed to me. Rats. The museum had a special exhibit by a Korean artist that was a multitude of different media, ranging from bells, drying racks with lightbulbs, ropes of bells from ceiling to floor, and weird looking creatures made of twine and straw. She has an interesting backstory and, contrary to the Louisiana Museum, this museum provided a great booklet explaining her background, her theory in themes and pictures of the items.

I explored the galleries of Danish and Nordic art from 1900 onward. Some interesting contemporary pieces including sculptures by Ferlov Mancoba who “regarded her figures as living creatures who had to be able to stand on their own feet before being sent out into the world as messengers or warriors”. In general, the oil paintings seemed a dour and gloomy bunch! Dark colors, heavy brush strokes, no joy or lightness any of those paintings; I think I would be depressed living with the majority of them. (There were some artists – I forget their names – whose oils were lighter, but still strong.)

I remembered the French art galleries as having been very impressive from the last time I was here. Don’t know if they’ve sent a lot out on loan or if I was nuts then or I’m nuts now but it didn’t have the same effect on me. Enjoyed some pieces by Raul Dufy and Matisse; lots of Braque, Leger, some Picassos and others.

Overall, I like this museum and would recommend it. It’s not huge, and the exhibits are interesting plus their standard collection includes “stars” as well as some lesser known artists. Good job with signage too.

This was a nice morning/early afternoon and a happy way to spend my last day in Copenhagen. S-tog back to the hotel and a cab to the pier – it 225 DKK, about $30 and I was happy to spend that money and not lug my suitcase and chocolate into metros, buses etc.

vickiebypass

TDudette - Not sure about my "next" trip but I know I'm going to England in December. I'm booked on the Queen Mary 2 for their trans-atlantic "Literary Festival at Sea", which is co-sponsored by the Cheltenham Literary Festival. I loved the inaugural event in 2019 and since 20 and 21 were cancelled, I'm doing this from 12/3-10 and spending the week after arriving in Southampton somewhere in England; I could always do London but am thinking something lower key, but not too slow. Have to research and ponder.

However, before that I have to take another cruise to use up my remaining credit on Holland America; it's a significant amount which has to be used (sailed) by 12/31/22 and I refuse to leave any money on the table. It's an embarassing problem to have (certainly first world) but I'm deciding between Fall Foliage (Canada & US); Caribbean; trans-atlantic; and Med options. I don't really feel like doing my normal deep-dive planning or dealing with European flights, so am leaning toward Fall Foliage. I can always find interesting things to do anywhere and that would be easy!