A daily dose of Copenhagen

[FREKI]

On January 15th I started a thread with a daily pic from Copenhagen - and since I've really come to enjoy it I thought I'd share it here too..

I'll start by getting this thread up to speed with the pics posted so far and after that I'll post a pic daily with a short description


January 15th
We start out with a picture of my favorite hotel: D'angleterre

It is located on Kongen's Nytorv ( King's Square ) in the old town and are one of the most exquisite - and pricy - hotels in Europe..



In the winter the square are transformed into an outdoor artificially cooled ice rink and several times doing the summer the square are home to outdoor art exhibits


January 16th
Today we'll take a look at Amager Torv - the main square on Strøget pedestrian street

In the middle you'll see the Stork fountain from 1894 that among other things was a central point for the hippies back in the 60's and are today nationally known from a song from back then about some good old hippy bashing by the police

The Square is surrounded by great shops and cafes and is a popular place to take a rest from all the shopping.. both indoor and outdoor as the pic shows..



January 17th
Today we'll have a look at the Marble Church ( Marmorkirken ) located in the part of town known as Frederiksstaden - named after and mainly founded by King Frederik VI just north of the old town..

In this area you'll also find the Royal Palace and most of the larger embassies.. a very classy district to say the least..

I'm not a fan of churches myself, but I must admit I like this one - especially upclose where's it's abundent with details



January 18th
Another one of my favorite buildings in the city is the Magasin du Nord department store

This 138 year old store is currently the largest department store in Denmark and has more than 40.000 customers weekly and 1700 employees

Recently the nearby Kongen's Nytorv Metro Station was made with an underground pasage right into the lower floor of the store where you'll find a food court and a great high quality food market

Prior to the department store this was the site for the exclusive Hotel du Nord where among others storywriter Hans Christian Andersen used to live..



January 19th
Today we'll take a look at a more modern part of the city - Tuborg Havn ( Tuborg Habour ) located in northern part of town

If the name Tuborg is familiar to you it's probable because it's a succesful Danish beer brand created by the same Brygger Jacobsen who also founded Carlsberg..

The habour itself is from 1868 but as you can see have been newly renovated after the Tuborg breweries - and the south of it is currently one of largest construction sites in the country with a large number of high income apartments being build.. even a highrise that is a pretty rare thing around here sadly..
It is also one of most exclusive and expensive places to live in the Kingdom..


It's a very nice place for a stroll on a sunny day - and you get a great view to nearby Sweden from there...


January 20th
Going back to the old stuff I'll like to present Christiansborg Castle home of the Danish Parliament and some of the Royal chambers for ceremonial events..

The spot it's located on ( and island called Slotsholmen ) is the exact same spot as the founder of Copenhagen Bishop Absalon buildt his first castle on in 1170 to protect his city..
At that time the island were a lot more isloated than it is today, where it's now a key transportation area for the city with bridges going to the islands both Zealand and Amager..

The current castle are relatively new as for some reason the castles have a tendency of burning down to a point where it's not even funny anymore - latest in 1992 where an emergency flare made a large part of the roof burn down..

The low building infront with the turning spirer is the old stock exchange Børsen from 1620 now home to the camber of commerce


The Christianborg spire is 106m tall - exactly as high as the city hall and the two towers are the tallest structures in the Copenhagen municipal


January 21st
"Copenhagen" in Danish means "merchant's habour" and there's a good reason for that - see the city was founded at a key location between the islands of Zealand and Amager at a easily defendable spot with easy access to the Øresund straight where access to the Baltic sea could easily be controlled ( and at times taxed )

These days the "habour" part of the habour is almost gone and instead now we have a nice channel running trough the city with cozy waterfronts on each side..

Another relatively new things are the habour baths - these are enclosed parts of the habour where you can swim safely under the supervision of trained lifeguards.. needless to say these are loved by kids on warm summer days..

The largest one is located in theara known as Island's Brygge not far from the city center



January 22nd
Today will take a look at the older side of town Nyhavn ( "new habour" )

These days the habour is all but new with the youngest building being more than 300 years old, but it's more popular today than ever before..

The area was a redlight district for sailor trough several centuries but is now a faviored bar area with some really great seafood restaurants too..

I can tell that in all my 27 years of existing I have never found a better place for a ice droughtbeer on a spring day - an experiance I will HIGHLY recommend!

Nyhavn have been home to many famous people trough the years - the most known is probable Hans Christian Andersen who lived in sevral of the buildings and wrote many of his fairytales here..


In the summer this is also a great place to go if looking for some of the best Icecream in all of the Kingdom!


January 23nd
A few kilometers from the inner city you find the municipal of Frederiksberg with it's lovely Frederiksberg Park constructed by King Frederik IV

And the jewel on the crown is the Frederiksberg Castle from 1699 with it's great location on the top of a hill known as Valby Bakke

Much of the castle now fuctions as part of the Army's Officer School and are rarely used by the Royal Family

This is by far my favorite park in Copenhagen and a must see if visiting in the summer!


You also find Copenhagen Zoo as part of the park along with some wonderful small canals where you can rent small rowingboats if you feel like taking the misses on a romatic mini cruise


January 24th
Today we'll keep with the old and Royal and take a look at the main Royal Palace Amalienborg from 1750

The Palace is made up of 4 almost identically buildings ( one of them shown in the picture ) placed around a square with a stature of King Frederik V in the middle. ( some may know it from Sim City 4 )

HM The Queen stays in one of the buildings with her husband, the Crownprinces share another one ( although they currently both live elsewhere ) and the remaining 2 are used for guests and family visits..
You can always see if any Royalty is present in the daytime if a Royal flag is raised ( in this case it's the Queen's and she is at home )

A daily happening is the changing of the Royal Guards that takes place every day at noon.. you can also follow them to and from the Palace to their base located a few km's away ( it's a small parade in itself )


I had the honor of serving in the Royals Guards back in the day, so it's a place I hold very dear..


January 25th
Next stop on the trip will be the City Hall from 1892

Like it's London cousin this tower also have a signature ring that goes every hour with the extended version at noon - that for long was played live on the radio before the noon news ( these days it's taped )

The City Hall Square is one of the central points of the city - and usually used for public gatherings, be that New Years eve, or parades for winning sports team or whatever - in the winter it's even home to a small ski jump hill for a short time

I will revisit more of the square soon, so let's leave it at that for now..

About the tower I can say it's like the Parliament building's tower is 106m tall and unlike the Parliament have a nice viewing platform open to the public each day at noon with a great view of the city..

The golden plate above the main entrence is a statue of Bishop Absalon the man who founded Copenhagen in 1167 ( prior to that it was just a small fishing village )




January 26th
I've mentioned our founder Bishop Absalon a few times - I might as well tell a little bit more about him and how Copenhagen came to be..

Copenhagen was populated prior to Absolon, but was at the time just a small fishing village.. archaeological finds indicates it was Viking port back in the day and it may even predate the Danes arrival to Zealand.
Back then it vent under the name "Havn" simply meaning habour or port and that's also where it got it's latin name "Hafnia" from..

Anyway Absolon was a childhood friend of Prince Valdemar who would later become King of Denmark and Absolon - his dear friend - elected as Bishop and made chief counsellor of the King.

Back then ( in the 1100's ) not all of Europe was calm and under control and especially the Baltic Sea was chaotic and the people living along it's shores was plagued by the Wends who basicly were nothing more than pirates and slavetraders ( kidnapping people from the Danish isles and looting villages along the shores )
This was ofcause totally unacceptable so King Valdemar gave the task to Absalon to remove the threath from the Wends and secure the eastern parts of Zealand

He did this by creating a safe habour and build a castle in the old village of Havn hence founding the city "Købman's Havn" ( Merchants Port ) that ended up as "København" in modern Danish ( he started improving the city in 1160 but the official founding date is set to 1167 where the castle was completed )

He also gathered an army and started launching offensive experditions against the Wends who lived in Pomerania in parts that are now part of the Baltics - these proved very successful and in 1168 he launched a final assault against the Wendish forces succesfully defeating them on their own soil by capturing their capital

Absalon himself was a man of action and in the assault on Charenza he managed to break the Wendish lines ( reported to be 6000 man strong ) and storm their castle succesfully - with only 12 men left and his brother Sweyn who was also a bishop

After that succes Denmark became a major power in the region and he went on to wage war against all pirates in the area allowing for open and safe trade routes - making Copenhagen's position perfect for trading and port of the eastern fleet

He died in 1201 as an archbishop after a long and eventful life - respected by all from Royalty to farmers..

To pay respect the two newest ( and largest ) battleships in the Danish Navy have been named after him and his brother

Here you can see a statue of him on Højbro Square


This is btw not too far away from the Stork Fountain I showed earlier


January 27th
Had one beer too many tonight, so this will be short..

Copenhagen old town seen from the observation platform at the Vor Frelser Kirke ( Church of Our Savior ) located in the old habour district of Christianshavn on the island of Amager..

The building in the center is the Parliament building Christiansborg and the tower on the left is the City Hall..



January 28th
Since I showed you the Old Town's skyline yesterday I might as well show downtown's today..

Not much of a cluster - and with the ration of NIMBY's here that isn not likely to change anytime soon

On the postive thing we do have stuff going up elsewhere in the city ( that I will get back to ) but nothing major sadly..



January 29th
Getting down on the ground again I'll show you our Imax dome cinema - recently equiped with a brand new digital projector making it the largest 3D Imax cinema in the world - or so they say anyway.. It's the circular thing in the center..

Behind it you cen see a couple hotels and infront one of Søerne ( the lakes ) part of an old defensive system that runs trough the city seperating the inner city from the residential districts..

The lakes combined are 3km long with 4 bridges crossing, the picture is taken in the southern end.
The hole lake comples was started after the unsuccesful siege on Copenhagen in 1523 to create an aditional layer of defense - and back then this was the city limits. As the city grew a new defensive water line was created 8km further out

I't a very nice place to walk - or run if your one of those people.. but I will not recommend swimming as the water is from inland lakes..



January 30th
By request we'll take a look at The Little Mermaid today.. an iconic statue located on the Langeline waterfront close to the star shaped Kastellet fortification

The Little Mermaid is based on a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen the most succesful and probable most known Danish storywriter
( Among his work you'll find classics such as: The Emperor's New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina and many many others. )

And to honor him and his works Carl Jacobsen gave the statue as a gift to the city.. it was made by Edvard Eriksen and the human part modelled after his wife and was unveiled in 1913

Let me just put some facts on the table here - this is NOT the statue of Liberty or anything else impressive - it's a little statue of a "Little" Mermaid - keyword Little!
Many tourist comes and gets disapointed daily - now why they find a small statue exciting in the first place is beyond me ( how the heck do people even know of it? ) sp if you come here please do not expect anything special - it's small and honest to Odin NOTHING special! There are tons of greater ( and larger ) statues around the city!

What Danes likes about it is the history of both the Mermaid herself and the link to Hans Christian Andersen - it's a national icon for us - for tourists there are tons of other statues I'll recomend before seeing this one..

Now that we got that out of the way let's see the lady shall we:



Yeah that's it... not bad but nothing special either - but if you like the ocean I will strongly recommend going for a walk on Langelinie waterfront where she is located anyway - it's a nice waterfront/marina with plenty to do on a sunny day - it's also where the cruise ships are in the spring and summer( Copenhagen is the largest cruise ship port in Northern Europe ) and you can find anything from old forts, nice nature, outlet stores, iceream shops, marinas and so on..
So it's deffinetly a place worth a visit just don't have any expextation about the statue.. thanks!


January 31th
Okay today we'll take a brief look at Ørestaden an upcomming buisness district on the island of Amager

Upon completion it will be home to 20.000+ people and more than 60.000 jobs - and amazingly enough for the NIMBY ruled Copenhagen even have a few commercial highrises and "tall" hotels

So far most is still under construction or on the drawing board - so not that much to show.. it's home to one of Northern Europe's largest Malls - Fields - a station linking regional and metro together "Ørestaden Station" and one of the nicest highrises in the city - The Ferring Building - other than that there's not much to come after currently - but the future will certainly change that

Anyway here's the Ferring Building towering a massive 80m and the driverless Metro


I'll get back to the place later with a few of the other buildings..

It's not a place I will really recommend just yet as the mall pretty much is the only atraction so far - but if architecture interests you the short Metro ride from downtown might be worth it - if nothing else it's pretty fun to sit in front of the Metro as you get a big panorama view forward since it's driverless


That's it and from now on I'll do my best posting a new picture daily - if there's any requests by all means ask away - if I have a suited pic I'll post it in the following days

[FREKI]

Today we'll take a look at something imposible to miss in Copenhagen - the omnipresent Yellow Buses

You want to go somewhere these will take you - we even have habour buses here - buses are everywhere and taking a picture without a bus on it can be challanging at times..

The hole public bus service is run by the company Movia and the system have a total of 590 lines

In the metro city they are devided into 4 types:
The "red" ones are A buses that goes along the central routes with a frequency of 3 to 7min epending on the time of day
Then there's the normal yellow buses covering all the less frequented places going every 7 to 20 min depending on the time
Then there's the "blue" ones that are express buses running trough the city with very few stop making it almost as fast as driving yourself
And finally the "grey" ones that are night buses and usually goes every hour in the wee hours of the night
All the buses are ´primarily yellow with some parts in the colour mentioned ( as you can see on the single deck bus on the pic - that is an A bus )

A nice feature for the A buses are the GPS based countdown system giving you a minut count until the next bus

[FREKI]

Following the bus trend from last picture I thought I'd show a bus stop close up - here you can see the GPS based timers

The big S in the background is a signal for the S-Trains that connects the suburbs in all directions with the city
The station itself is Vesterbro Station and it's sub street level, so not much is showing here ( not a big station anyway )

[FREKI]

I've so far been very focussed on the inner city - but that is about to change so here's Frederiksberg one of the residential districts surrounding the center

The district is actually a municipal ( "Frederiksberg Municipal" ) that over time have been completely surrounded by Copenhagen municipal
It has a population of 92.200 and a desity of 10.600 per km2

It's imo one of the nicest districts ( and home to the greatest park the Frederiksberg Park I showed earlier ) and I love going for a walk there..

Here you have the intersection between Godthåbsvej and Falkoner Alle

[FREKI]

Today I'll show you all another residential district Østerbro - a classy part north of the center

The district is home to 83.000 people and among other things Parken the national football stadium

[FREKI]

I got a request for some snow pics - but snow is rare here in Denmark - heck even sub zero temps are - so I don't got many.. but I did dig up one from 2006 I thought I'd share, so it's not summer and sun all the time

This is Flintholm Station - a combined S-Train and Metro station with a bus hub at ground level the day after a whiteout


I didn't kid about the whiteout btw - people used to snow would laugh at how little it takes to bring Denmark to a halt..

Most people ( like me ) drive on summer tires all year long, so when the temp do drop or snow do fall we're fucked

[FREKI]

Today we'll take a brief look at what is probable the most renouned neighbourhood in the Kingdom Nørrebro

This district have a long history as a worker's hood and in the beginning of the last century suffered greatly from an overpopulation crammed into small worker apartments with lacking sanitary ficilities.. this became too much for the city in the 60s and a large scale renovation and sanitation program was started, understandable not all the residents were happy for being rehoused further out in the new suburbs far away from all they knew - and as the spirit of the time was very rebelious large riots broke out - the city was cleaned up, but the rebelious attitude stayed and it have since then been the home to numourous riots, some of the largests was the immigration riots in the 90's, the anti EU ones and lately the ones after the Youth House was demolished ( a house leftist activitsts had been illegally squatting in and many many years )

But despite all that, it's IS a very nice neighbourhood - it's like a melting pot of everything - from muslim teahouses, dirty worker pubs to high tech trendy bars with art way beyond my capabilities of appreciation

If you find yourself tired of cuteness and cozyness of the oldtown I will strongly recommend taking a stroll down the mainstreet of this district: Nørrebrogade

Here we see that street and the start of the district from the Queen Louise Bridge

[FREKI]

Today we will take a look at a "newer" part of the Inner city - The area between Nørreport - the northern gate and Queen Louise Bridge that crosses the Lake defenses - shown last time

In the old days Copenhagen was as mentioned before surounded by water on all sides - some areas manmade canals and other areas the ocean - and back then it had 3 gates connecting the city with Zealand, each called after it's kompas direction ( those directions would later also be name to the new districts on the other side of the gates )

In the last pic I showed you Nørrebro - wich means "Northern Bridge" - as you had to cross the northern bridge to get there - to get to the northern bridge you'd had to go trough the northern gate Nørreport - later the Lakes where made having you cross one gate and two bridges - and inbetween the first and second water defenses there was a raised embankment with guns and baracks and towers and all that stuff

These days the gates are located downtown and Nørreport is now known for the Train and Metro Station located on where the gate used to be ( "Nørreport Station" - the busiest in all the Kingdom btw ) - and this is also where you exit the old town and move into a "newer district" from 1860 - build on what used to be the old defenses that was torn down as the city had expanded greatly outwards so there was little point if keeping them

This new district now follows the Lakes ( also mentioned before ) on one side and the borders of the old town on the other - and much of the old defenses were kept and made in to several parks - the most known of them is Tivoli that is now an amusement park - the world's second oldest to be precise

It's is very classy area and offers some of the most beautiful buildings in the city and some of the best parks

This pic from Frederiksborggade gives a good idea about how the area looks and feel

[FREKI]

Okay, I've showed you 2 of the 3 mainroads leaving the old towns and going trough the Zealand districts named after the gates they were located infront - and that will mean there's one district left - Vesterbro

Vesterbro ( meaning Western Bridge ) is home to Downtown Copenhagen with the Central Station and the Metropol Zone - and it's home to Copenhagen's red light district centered around the Istedgade street west of the Central Station..
Believe it or not but this was where the modern day porn culture comes from - the populairty of it in the district made the goverment legalize porn as the first western nation in 1967 - and naughty people from around the world flocked there

You can still find sex shops and brothels ( prostitution is legal here as long as they pay their taxes ) but with the large scale renovation projects of the early 90's it's now just as much a family district with schools, great shopping and a waterfront area being turned into one of the most exitic new areas of the city - and as mentione it has the downtown area at the border with the old town


Another thing about today's pic is that it's actually a winter pic taken November 16th 2006 - usually our winters are pretty grey, but once in a while we get a perfect blue crispy sky - I love those days!


Anyway enough talk, here is Vesterbrogade - the districts main street - in time I'll get back to some of the other stuff mentioned

[FREKI]

Today we'll visit Christianshavn a small habour district located on an island between the inner city and the island of Amager

It's home to little over 10.000 people and offers some very cozy canals and charming old buildings to stroll along
It's also home to Christiania a "hippy freetown" mostly known for soft drugs - that was sold openly from small booths in the past

[FREKI]

Today a picture of Downtown seen from the City Hall Tower last winter..

It's also the first day with my new logo

[FREKI]

Today we'll visit one of the canals in the Old Town just across from the Paliament

[FREKI]

Today.. a visit to a inner city park - the H.C Ørsted's Park

The park was made out of the old inner defenses - like Tivoli and the Botanical garden - and was opened to the public in 1879

[FREKI]

Today just another picture of the inner city residential district between the lakes and Nørreport

[FREKI]

Today a revisit to the district of Frederiksberg

Here's Gammel Konge Vej ( Old Kings Road ) connecting the inner city with the center of Frederiksberg

[Union.SLO]

great pics, Copenhagen is wonderful

[FREKI]

^Glad you like it!

By request we'll visit the Botanical Garden today

The garden located on what used to be part of the old inner defenses and is home to 22.000 different plants and 27 greenhouses, with 10 of them open to the public..

In the picture you see the largests of the tropic greenhouses - this one has a great canope walk in the top and several fishfilled ponds in the bottom..

[FREKI]

Today a revisit to the district of Nørrebro

[FREKI]

Today's trip goes deep into the heart of the Old Town to a place where buildings younger than 300 years are ridiculed and cars seldom dare venture..

This is how Copenhagen primarily looked before the great fire of 1728 that burned down a 3rd of the city

These days the calm narrow streets makes perfect alternatives to the bustling pedestrian shopping streets that also goes trough the old town..

[FREKI]

Today Sankt Hans Square in the district of Nørrebro