A Ginger (Jinja) day in Copenhagen

Needless to say, my timely arrival at our tour bus in Copenhagen (correctly pronounced “Keu-bn-houn” where the first vowel is close to the French ‘peu’ and in American English fall somewhere between the sounds in ‘look’ and ‘lick’) was not as dramatic as my rushed and late arrival at dinner Saturday night. We boarded the bus and set off for our first stop -Copenhagen’s largest monument – the Gefjun Fountain.

Gefjun, sometimes spelled Gefjon or Gefion, with the latter being closest to the pronunciation, is a character from Norse mythology and her history and origins are mysterious. She is usually seen as a plowing or fertility goddess and in the Prose Edda is said to have, with her four oxen sons, plowed out the land that is now Lake Malar in Sweden then used that land to form Zealand or Denmark.

A Swedish poetess, writing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries makes Gefjun the allegorical mother of the three Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The statue was erected in 1908.

Somewhat ironically, our next stop was at a very small statue but likely the most famous one in Copenhagen, the Little Mermaid. This statue was placed in the harbor 102 years ago. Of course, the initial inspiration is Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the same name. You shouldn’t confuse Andersen’s version with the recent Disney animated movie. The ending of Anderson’s story is rather tragic and not at all in keeping with the Disney approach. This is why the mermaid’s expression is melancholy. However, keep Walt Disney in the back of your mind because I will get back to him.

The statue was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of Carlsberg Brewery after he saw a ballet inspired by the story and became infatuated with not just the story but the prima ballerina as well. Jacobsen wanted the ballerina, Ellen Price, to pose for the statue but demurred when she learned from the sculptor that she would be depicted nude. The group reached a compromise of sorts. Price’s face is the model for the mermaid but the body is that of Eline Eriksen, the wife of sculptor Edvard Erikson. Here they are:

We proceeded from the Mermaid to Amalienborg Palace, the winter home of the Danish royal family. Denmark currently has a queen on the throne – Margrethe II but if a king were sitting he would be named, as are all Danish kings, either Frederik or Christian. I was surprised to find that Amalienborg Palace is nothing like the palaces of the British Royal family. Yes, there are Royal Guards but the palace compound itself is completely open and accessible from the street. In fact, it is probably no more than 150 or 200 meters from the front of our hotel to making a quick left turn into the palace grounds.

The tour also included stops at the Danish Parliament, the gardens outside the Royal Library, past the Botanical Gardens, the old stock market building, and a number of other possible afternoon destinations. But since we went into none of those and I didn’t return to them, I’ll move on to the true Jinja part of the day.

Regular readers with long and detailed memories might recall two days in Moscow from the Trans Mongolian Express series. The first came when my “adopted” Aussie daughter Erin and I had a day that I described as seeing dead people and the second was the day that Tolstoy met Fellini.

Take a few minutes and walk the 3.5 kilometers or so with me to the Assistens Cemetery in Norrebro and I’ll tell you some things I learned about Copenhagen. Our guide told us that the city aims to be carbon neutral by 2020 and is currently ahead of schedule. Walking the streets, it’s easy to see why.

First of all, only a bit over a third of the residents own cars and about 65 percent ride a bike somewhere daily. Additionally, Copenhagen must be one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world. Not only is it flat making it easy to walk or ride, but every major street I walked on had a large bike lane usually separated from other vehicular traffic by a small curb. There’s another curb up to the pedestrian walkways. The bike lanes are exclusively for bikers and vehicles pedestrians and the authorities take this quite seriously.

And I never saw a Dane jaywalk or cross against a light.

Now, some residents of Copenhagen might tell you that the city is comprised of four islands – Christianshavn, Slotsholmen, Amager, and Holman. Since two of these are actually man made, the more accurate description might be that Copenhagen is comprised of two islands – the last two on the list.

Viewed from the air, one might see a distinct resemblance between Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Nowhere is this more true than on the island of Christianshavn. King Christian IV summoned Johan Semp, a Friesian town planner, to Denmark in 1616. Semp then reclaimed land and laid out streets, squares and plots for merchant’s houses. Eventually, he created the quarter that came to be known as Christianshavn.

We have now crossed Dronnig Louise’s Bro into Norrebro on our way to the Assistens Cemetery. Norrebro is a multicultural neighborhood with a sizeable middle eastern presence. Having received an email from Erin Saturday night and heading for a cemetery could there be any doubt where I would stop for lunch when I passed this shop:

Among the notables I planned to visit were H.C. Andersen, Neils Bohr, and Soren Kierkegaard. I didn’t expect to see the graves of two great jazz musicians – vocalist Richard Boone and Ben Webster who is among my favorite saxophonists. I had forgotten that Webster lived his last years in Copenhagen where he died in September 1973.

Of course, without Erin’s unfailing internal GPS in locating graves in a cemetery, I wandered around Assistens longer than I otherwise would have had she been with me. Nevertheless, I eventually found them all.  On the other hand, although I knew my time was limited, I enjoyed the art and quiet in Assistens that I feel in cemeteries around the world.

Having eaten a kebab and visited a cemetery, all that remained to fully round out my Jinja day was to visit an amusement park. Kindly enough, the tour had included an entrance ticket to Tivoli.

Before I get to Tivoli, I want to add one last photo to this post. Crossing Queen Louise’s Bridge out of Norrebro, I noticed this stone laid into the sidewalk:

I thought it a good sentiment to keep in mind even if the cigarette but is a bit ironic.

Tivoli or Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843 and is among the world’s oldest amusement parks. The space itself is constantly changing and evolving. It adds new rides even when that means taking down older ones because of the park’s limited space.

Now, Tivoli is a more formal amusement park than Gorky Park. There are no space shuttles and I saw nothing like this:

And it was squeals of terror and delight that I heard rather than the dreaded “gnip-gnop.” But it is an amusement park, nevertheless.

A few paragraphs above I suggested you slot Walt Disney into your minds as you read this. Now it’s time to bring him back to the forefront. In 1951, Walt Disney and television personality Art Linkletter visited Tivoli. According to his memoir, Linkletter watched as Disney scribbled notes about the seats, gardens, rides, food, and every other detail he noticed. Impressed also with its cleanliness, he decided the park he was planning should try to emulate Tivoli’s happy and unbuttoned air of relaxed fun. Five years after that visit, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.

Kebabs, getting lost in a cemetery, and spending the late afternoon and early evening in an amusement park. The only thing missing from my Jinja day was wide-eyed Erin herself.

We depart Copenhagen on an overnight ferry to Oslo late tomorrow afternoon. But that still leaves some time for me to visit Helsingor. Challenge yourselves. Sleep on this. Think about the name Helsingor and see if, with a minor phonetic change, it rings a bell.