Norwegian Wood: From Us to You

And now for our trip to Copenhagen!

We stopped at the Opera House before getting on the ferry.

DFDS Seaways "Crown of Scandinavia"

View of the Opera House from the ferry

Rådhuspladsen (Town Hall Square)

Rådhus (Copenhagen Town Hall)

I spotted this poster near Rådhuspladsen that is supposed to draw attention to the plight of immigrants.

Statue of Hans Christian Andersen. He is a Danish author and poet best known for "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Emporer's New Clothes", and "The Ugly Duckling".

Tivoli Gardens is Copenhagen's amusement park located just across the street from the town hall. The park opened in 1843 and is the second oldest amusement park in the world. Unfortunately, it was closed for winter.

Gargoyle statue outside Rådhus.

Sara and I went on a self-guided tour of Carlsberg Brewery.

World's largest collection of unopened beer bottles. I believe the count was upwards of 19,000!

Brewing beer old school style.

Cooper's shop.

At one point, each worker was allowed to consume 4 of these pots each day!

Smaller version of the very famous Little Mermaid statue located in the harbor. The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of Carlsberg beer and was based on the famous Hans Christian Andersen tale.

The stables at Carlsberg.

Jutland horses are "ambassadors" for Carlsberg.

I'd drive that around!

The tour included two beers at the on site bar. My favorite was the Carl's Special.

After the brewery tour, we went back to the Town Hall Square where Sara and I met Bryn (a friend from middle/high school) who is currently living and working in Copenhagen. We joined her and her coworkers for Friday Bar, which is an after work social hour. After that, she and a friend took us to Christiania. Christiania is was founded in 1971 when a group of hippies took over abandoned military barracks and their surrounding along the Christianshavn canals, and developed it to an alternative society with own set of rules, independent of the government. This social experiment that included collective ownership has over the years developed and established its semi-legal status. The commune is today is partially self-governing, and its members pay taxes to the state, but it still applies own rules such as: no cars, no stealing, no guns, no bullet-proof vests, no hard drugs. Hash is sold on Pusher Street. To read more check out the Christiania website.

Bryn took us to Christiania because a ruling was made earlier that day regarding the land ownership. From what I understand, there is a lot of money to be made by the Danish government in developing housing on that land. She wanted to see if there were any reactions, and she said there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary going on. We went to a vegetarian cafe for dinner then went into a nearby bar afterwards. I can't believe I didn't take a single picture! You are not allowed to take pictures on Pusher Street, and it was so dark the pictures would have turned out poorly anyway!

The next morning, Sara and I took a canal tour that departed from Nyhavn.