Today
the whole day was dedicated to a walk around Copenhagen, and of course the
mandatory trip to the art museum. Our first target was the "Our Savior's
Church" with its
corkscrew style tower, which can be climbed for mere DKK 20 (US$3), but Essan
would not go alone and there was nobody to pay me nearly enough to do this to
myself. So we stayed at the inside, mainly in awe of the incredibly large organ.
No, not that organ, that was later.
Soon
we found ourselves at the art museum, which was very very big and presented
large amounts of fun to Essan. For me it wasn't quite so bad either, because the
new part of the museum presented quite nice modern architecture, something I
could study and enjoy for hours.
It
may be interesting to note that the embassies of Turkey and Cyprus are in the
same building in the old parts of town. The best spot for an embassy - right
next to the Royal Palace - seems to be taken by the Swedish, next door to the
Swiss, appropriately side by side so that the Americans who keep confusing them
needn't be sent across town in case they visit the wrong one. "You are from
Switzerland? Ah, Volvo!" -"No, chocolate."
Another
nice thing, and way too strange after 9 years in the USA, is the car-to-bike
ratio. It seems like this city was built for bikers. They have designated roads
(by no means just a narrow strip on the right side of the road, just to be
squashed by the next oversize gas guzzling SUV, which we fortunately don't have
here in the first place). Bikers are also very law obedient, meaning red lights
are respected, which makes traffic very smooth. Should you be a tourist without
a bike you can rent one at many places throughout town, and when you park the
bike at one of these locations again (one-way rentals allowed) you get your
money back. Such rental bikes aren't the best or prettiest, but hey, they are
bikes.
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For
dinner we went to a rather upscale restaurant right next to the Tivoli. Food was
good (this time I skipped the US$ 15 soup), even if the fries should have been
omitted, or the chef should take some classes at Burger King, just around the
corner. What did somewhat lower my excitement was the $2 surcharge for paying
with a credit card. I mean, you are in an upscale restaurant with $40 entrees,
$5 Coke and $15 soups, and then you charge extra for paying with a credit card?
After
dinner we headed straight to the Museum
Erotica, probably the only museum in
town open until 23:00. This museum shows erotic stuff ranging from ancient
paintings and pottery to rather modern exhibits of toys and playmates. Locally
relevant exhibits, such as about relationships with Nazis during WW2 could be
found next to articles about famous people's sex lives, including Charlie
Chaplin (who seems to have preferred really young girls) to Adolf Nazi. The
above promised picture of the longest ever measured organ was rather disturbing,
since the number in centimeters doesn't quite convey the message that it did go,
after all, to his knees.
The
only thing to be open after the Museum Erotica closes was the Tivoli, the world
famous amusement park in the center of Copenhagen. The park looks very nice at
night, and we spent the last Danish money on an ice cream; this was not too hard
as prices for pretty much anything are astronomical inside the park; we found
ourselves counting the last pennies, or Øre to get the minimum two balls. After
enjoying the shrieks of people on various rides, some of them tame and some such
that I would not go there in a million years, we got to see the closing light /
smoke / laser show just before midnight, which happens on the park's lake, very
much to the distress of the ducks who call it their home. Quack.
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