Rain stopped play in Copenhagen

We’re back home from the capital having bailed (almost literally) a few hours early owing to cloudbursts at noon yesterday – until which juncture the whole expedition had been a great success. As always it’s the basics that count! We stayed in a northern suburb in the Scandic Eremitage – a train ride back to the city centre. So parking was convenient and free, and the accommodation more than adequate, with a breakfast buffet thrown in. We’ve used the Scandic group for years around the region – in Uppsala, Stockholm, Bergen and Oslo – and they usually come up to scratch. They do a frequent guest scheme which offers the keenest prices.

But we’ll remember the trip for the canal tour. I’d never thought of Copenhagen as being a canal city, even though there’s water and bridges all around it. The old city was built on the edge of the Inner Harbour which welcomed the traders of the Hansa League (13th -17th C.) but because of the geography the only way to expand was by creating islands on each side of the harbour, housing the royal castle, the navy, the army and the merchants’ warehouses and homes. The skills the Danes acquired from the Dutch enabled them to drain and build so successfully that many 400-year-old buildings are still standing and fully serviceable today. They are now hotels, apartments, conference centres and offices. And the banks of the canals that still separate the islands are lined with house-boats of all descriptions.

Denmark is of course known for its modern architecture – like the Sydney Opera House and the Paris Cube – and Copenhagen showcases many more fine examples. Like them or not, they cannot be ignored! The National Bank is a veritable Fort Knox and the Opera House sports a breast-plate demanded by old Mærsk who paid for it all.

 This is the Opera House. The word is that now the old boy has gone, the original facade will be built. Let’s see.

Although the new Theatre Royal isn’t much better – reminiscent of Stratford’s own effort or the Oslo City Hall.

Any road oop, as they say oop narth,  the rain held off until we had disembarked from our open boat and Mrs J. had had her fill of memories from her life in the city at the architects’ academy and new impressions of the modern capital. We dined Indian – not bad but a shadow of its Brummy cousins – and we proudly mastered the ticketing systems bestowed on the train service by the age of Electronics and Unreason.

Btw, they’re building a new metro line in the centre. They don’t do tunnels – they dig big ‘oles and drop in the toobs – so many famous squares are in a state of disarray, not to say, ugly. But as the guide pointed out, it will be finished in 2018 (!), the delays due to the demands of the archaeologists who scratch about every time a digger digs, searching for signs of historical activity before the Hansa mob arrived.

Author: Janus

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