COPENHAGEN : Culture Cool - Part 1

Adele and I passed through the air between New York and Copenhagen without event. We received our luggage expeditiously and found our way to the Metro. The Metro trip to City Center is all of 12 minutes and made easy to locate by continual directional signs. That left us at Kongens Nytorv station (City Center) at the bottom of a series of four flights of stairs. We each were dragging our suitcases that weighed in at 44 lbs. apiece. Not bad at all for toting one’s life for two and a half months and well under the 50 lb. limit. I was left with the choice of pulling up baggage in bumpity-bump, steppity-step fashion each of a dozen steps for four levels or hauling dead weight to the top. Not so kind on my knees. Still, I lifted the first suitcase just as a lovely couple turned the corner at street level, chatting away about to descend. The moment the young man saw me struggling with the luggage, he skipped to it, with a nod to his lovely lady friend, and with a big smile (and a quite sturdy anatomy) asked if he could assist. He easily lifted and hauled the first suitcase to the top while his partner, quickly alerted to what was occurring, ran to me as I tackled with the next piece of luggage. She offered to cargo the second piece, but I declined saying, “I got it”, in true, fake male dominance style. However, the young man by that time had completed his toting of the first and ran back down grabbing the second bag and hauled it topside. “Have a nice day”, they both said not waiting for thanks. “Enjoy your stay in Copenhagen.” We most certainly will.

Adele turned to me and observed, “There could be no greater welcome!”

INDEED.

We were early for our check-in, so we stopped for a cup of coffee on a busy main artery. Sitting outside in the middle of the day meant watching the locals cycle everywhere. There are more bicycles per capita in Copenhagen that any other city in the world. There are more bicycles than people. Pedestrians must yield to bicycles. About 60% of the Copenhagen population bike to work. You learn very quickly not to step off the curb without the light in your favor.

Our apartment is charming. Large for European inner cities, the buildings are part of a complex of buildings built in the 1950’s. Recently restored and declared (to the chagrin of the owners) a historical landmark development, the structures were designed by a famous Danish architect for whom the government felt it necessary to ‘update’ with similar materials and mandating absolutely no changes permitted to the interior design of the apartments. That being said, they are ample and bright. Their situation is particularly favorable since we are in the City Center but surrounded by this horseshoe of buildings which provides open space, light and quiet.

We planted ourselves in the apartment at 2pm, unpacked, rehydrated, slept a bit, refreshed and then at about 5pm, somewhat revitalized, took off to visit with the “LITTLE MERMAID”.

This was important for me to do first off because when I spent a summer at age 15 as a guest worker on a merchant marine training vessel, our first stop was Copenhagen. And, my first sight was the Little Mermaid, right near our docking pier. She was a gift from a Danish industrialist to the city and fashioned after a ballet of the same name based upon the Hans Christian Andersen fable which entranced him as a child. The Little Mermaid has sat in these waters since 1913 welcoming sailors and visitors who enter the harbor.

Truth be told, she is somewhat underwhelming, both sculpturally and poised as she is in a repository pool of water that offers too close access to youthful indiscretion. Poor lass has been decapitaed, maimed, paint splattered, and has even had a dildo cemented to her head. Nonetheless, to my hitherto romantically immature heart she was a siren of beauty. And, I have chosen to keep the affair going without jaundiced eyes preserving my memory of that first time.