Seven Hours in Copenhagen: My First Scandinavian Visit

A Canal in Copenhagen

Hello all!  I realize I have not written much since being in Europe, but I have simply not had time.  Since I arrived a week ago Friday morning in the beautiful Danish capital of Copenhagen, I have been doing one thing after another, with no time to pause even for jet lag.  I will speak more about my first days in the United Kingdom in a future post entitled British Sports: Lions and Murray and Henley, Oh My! but now I wanted to focus on the short layover I had in Copenhagen.

While I have traveled extensively in Europe in the past (you can see my travel information on the About Sam pages), I had never set foot in Scandinavia.  So when I realized that SAS Scandinavian Airlines had the cheapest flight into London, but through Copenhagen, I said yes right away.  The layover was either going to be about five hours, or a little over seven, and I figured that while I’d be tired from the trip (I can never sleep on the flights across the pond), it would be better to go out and see the city with seven hours than wait around the airport with five.  So when I landed on July 5, I headed straight for the metro to buy my ticket and do the 20 minute or so ride into the heart of the city.  I have a friend from school who lived in Copenhagen for a while, and he’d given me good tips on how to get into the city and so on.

Fountain in Copenhagen

The metro is very small, with only two lines of 16 and 15 stops, but nine of those stops run together, so it’s really not extensive.  The ride in was easy, although with my hair disheveled, my aviators, and my somewhat crushed Panama hat I had brought along (austensibly to use at Henley that next day, Saturday) some of the Danes were giving me looks.  But there’s not much you can do.  In any case, I got off at the Kongens Nytorv stop, in the north of the center of the city, and started to walk around.  I quickly realized that the loop of the city that I thought would take me three or four hours could be done at a slow pace in about 60 minutes, and so I slowed down even more and took my time.

Copenhagen City Hall

Earlier in the day I walked through the center of town, meandering the narrow streets and open plazas of the city.  One of the main attractions is the Copenhagen City Hall.  While relatively modern—it was opened in 1905—it is quite pretty, and has a number of interesting statues on it and around it on the grounds.  It also has a number of areas covered in gold.  It was fun to see because you had civil servants and politicians coming and going, but in a casual way you’d never see in the U.S.  As I walked along Hans Christian Andersen Boulevard afterwards, I passed the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a museum on ancient cultures, especially Egypt, Rome, and Greece.  Unfortunately it was still too early in the morning and it was still closed, so I had to miss it.  It was built around the collection of Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of Carlsberg Breweries.  Besides the collections on ancient cultures, it’s supposed to have paintings by an assortment of artists from throughout history.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

One of the things I really wanted to see was the Dansk Jødisk Museum (the Danish Jewish Museum).  The museum is located on a beautiful park right across from the Danish Folketing, and next to the Royal Library.  It’s small, but it has a short video at the beginning explaining this history of Denmark’s Jewish community, beginning with the immigration of Sephardim in the 16th and 17th centuries and ending with World War II, where most of Denmark’s Jews were evacuated to Sweden thanks to the Social Democrats and some rouge Germans (and of course the Swedes themselves).

Dansk Jodisk Museum

There are a number of impressive artifacts, including a very large menorah, diaries from the few Danish Jews who did end up at Theresienstadt (in today’s Czech Republic, in the region that the Germans then said was ethnically German called the Sudetenland), and so on.  At the end, an American Jewish couple from New York was speaking with the young Jewish Danish attendant, and I butted in.  We had a really nice chat about the apparent rise of the far right in places like Greece (Golden Dawn), Hungary (Jobbik), and elsewhere in Europe.  The right-wing white supremacist guy who murdered the dozens of people in Norway two years ago also made an appearance in our conversation.  We also talked about the main synagogue, which from photos is quite something.  It’s only open for services though, and although it was Friday I had to catch my flight to London.

Park By the Dansk Jodisk Museum

After that, I quickly made a hike up to the Little Mermaid statute, which has been an attraction since at least before World War I, and commemorates the story of the same name written by Hans Christian Andersen.  It’s small and unimpressive but it was worth seeing nonetheless.  I slowly made my way back to Christianshavn, walking through a few more churches and enjoying the day.  While it was very gray, it kind of worked with the image I have of Scandinavia (although on a clear day Copenhagen must be a sight to see).  I stopped and go a pastry at a Lagkagehuset, which was fabulous.

There were a few things I noticed right off the bat that struck me.  First, the number of bicycles.  They’re everywhere!  There are quite a few of them in the U.K. but nothing like in Denmark.  People were also very friendly, offering to point me in the right direction and guiding me where to do when I wandered.  And just the size of it—it’s so, so small.  In any case, it was a very nice little visit and I hope to be able to spend more time there, in the rest of Denmark, and in Scandinavia more generally.

Statute of Hans Christian Andersen, Author of “The Little Mermaid”

More soon from Europe.  But for now, I just wanted to get some stuff down on paper (so to speak).  I went to Blenheim Palace on the 13th (the home of the Dukes of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill).  But more on that, and this wonderful Oxford human rights law program, soon.