World Denmark Kobenhavn Copenhagen

Travels of Doug and Beverly Denmark/Norway/Finland/Sweden

Copenhagen, Denmark Day 3 Jun 23, 2019

Another beautiful day!!!

We walked to an area of Copenhagen called Christiania. I am going to copy a description of this area from a description by Steve Ricks in his tour guide book of Copenhagen. It is very difficult to describe, but I may have some comments at the end:

In 1971, the original 700 Chritianians established squatters' rights in an abandoned military barracks just a 10-minute walk from the Danish Parliament building. Two generations later, this "free city" still stands--an ultra-human mishmash of idealists, hippies, potheads, non-materialists, and happy children (600 adults, 200 kids, 200 cats, 200 dogs, 2 parrots, and 17 horses). There are even a handful of Willie Nelson-type seniors among the 180 remaining here from the original takeover. And an amazing thing has happened: The place has become the second-most-visited sight among tourists in Copenhagen, behind Tivoli Gardens.

"Pusher Street" (named for the sale of soft drugs here (marijuana) is Christiana's main drag. Get beyond the touristy side of Christiania, and you'll find a fascinating, ramshackle world of moats and earthen ramparts, alternative housing, cozy tea houses, carpenter shops, hippie villas, children playgrounds, peaceful lanes, and people who believe that "to be normal is to be in a straitjacket". A local slogan claims "Only dead fish swim with the current".

Yes, I guess I do have some comments. Our travel company, Overseas Adventure Travel, likes to take us to a variety of life styles, etc, on every trip. Christiania is a hippie compound where they sell and smoke pot, although it is illegal in Denmark. It started out as a "free" community; everything was free. But then reality hit them. Who takes out the trash; how do they pay for essential utilities. So eventually, someone took charge, and democratically they now all vote on how they all live and demand payment for utilities, etc. They have become entrepreneurs in order to earn money - making and selling crafts, etc. They bought the land they had originally squatted on and pay for their utilities. But as Doug says "whoever, is now a slum landlord." They're "rule" is that you can only sell and smoke pot in the area defined by the paper lanterns. After we had walked through that area and gotten our contact high, the police did come and raid the area. Our guide says the police does that periodically.

On the next block is the church with the spiral top, Our Savior's Church.

We had lunch at a local cafe and had an actual Danish Smorrebord. Our plate was covered with a variety of delicacies that we were to put on bread to make an open face sandwich. In some cafe's, the delicacies and bread are laid out buffet style. Our plate contained chicken salad, thinly sliced salmon, herring in mustard sauce, thinly sliced beef with sliced horseradish and capers, shrimp in remoulade sauce. It was all very tasty.

We had the afternoon free, so we walked to The King's Park; a huge green park. Since this is Sunday, it was full of people sunning, playing, and picnicking. In this park is the Rosenborg Castle. It is a museum and also houses the Queen's crowns and jewels. The pictures will show you how magnificent they are.

At 5 pm we took the bus to Tivoli Gardens. It is a beautiful amusement park with lots of fantastic rides, restaurants, wine and beer bars. We ate dinner there. Doug and I enjoyed the herring so much at lunch that we ordered it again at dinner, only fixed in three different ways. Very good. We were actually saving ourselves for gelato later. We've been passing this ice cream stand every day and just drooling. So we finally decided to splurge. It was wonderful!!!

Now we get pack up tonight and get ready to go to Oslo, Norway tomorrow.