Even though Christmas is long-gone (at least it seems like a long time ago), I thought I’d post a brief-ish recap of my holiday season.
Spoiler alert: it was pretty awesome.
It started off with my escape from Algiers about 10 days before Christmas to meet up with Mom and Dad in Copenhagen! And to get there, I got to fly over the Alps on a super clear day:
Then I arrived in Copenhagen and, suddenly, it was Christmas! Hooray! Christmas is not really a thing in Algeria, as you might expect. Copenhagen is pretty much the opposite. This is the street right out side the fantastic apartment where we stayed in Nyhavn:
Turns out, Copenhagen has some pretty amazing food and beverage options, which we took advantage of immediately upon arrival. (And continued to take advantage of for the entirety of our time there…we were definitely never in danger of going hungry.)
We hit the ground running our first full day in Denmark. Turns out you can pretty much walk anywhere in Copenhagen if you’re committed enough – and we were committed. Our first order of business was to make our way to the train station (picking up some roasted almonds en route). From there we headed to Helsingor, where the Hamlet castle is! Helsingor is very very close to Sweden; it’s right across a very narrow portion of the sea. Little known fact, this was actually made clear in an early draft of the play, but Shakespeare cut that part out, because the play was already running long. At one point, Hamlet darkly and dramatically proclaimed: “I can see Sweden from my house!”
That joke would have been hilarious 5 years ago. Anyway, this is Sweden:
And here we are in and around the castle:
Then it was back to Copenhagen. Nighttime in Copenhagen is beautiful – and in December you get a lot of nighttime hours. It started getting dark before 4pm. But it meant we had lots of opportunities to see the Christmas lights!
Day 2 in Copenhagen involved lots more walking – fortunately the weather hovered around 40 degrees, so we didn’t freeze, which was nice. We saw Amalienborg, where the Danish royal family lives:
Then on to the little mermaid statue:
Then back to Nyhavn, where our apartment was (here’s our street in the daylight):
And a boat trip around the canals:
Finally, once it started getting dark, we walked over to Tivoli where, if we weren’t in the Christmas spirit when we arrived, we certainly were by the time we left!
The big event of Day 3 in Copenhagen was a trip to the Carlsberg brewery, which included some pretty enjoyable tastings. Here we are with the 2 guys who created the beer back in 1800-something.
We met the Carlsberg delivery horses – kind of the same idea as the Budweiser Clydesdales, but cooler because they’re Danish. The horses didn’t particularly like me, but Dad made a friend:
And here’s what the horses used to drag around to deliver beer:
Finally, we got to sample some more beer up at the really nice brewery bar:
On to Day 4 in Copenhagen – our last day! Sad. We did some more shopping, hitting up the Royal Copenhagen china store, where Mom and I stocked up on Christmas decorations. Then we decided to walk down to Christiania, a commune based around folks who enjoy indulging in the occasional joint (in reality, probably not that occasional), and, from what I understand, are trying to become an independent neighborhood that doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of Copenhagen authorities. There’s actually a sign as you leave the place saying “you are now entering the E.U.” It was kind of obnoxious, but I guess to each his/her own. The real downside was that you aren’t allowed to take pictures there, but if you want an idea of what it was like, just envision what you think a pot-centered commune that wants to be independent from the city would look like and you’ll probably be right on the money. It was interesting to see – not my cup of tea exactly, but I guess some people like it.
Anyway, that was wonderful wonderful Copenhagen. Stay tuned for Part 2: Flensburg!
Toto...We're Not In NYC Anymore 