6 October 2015

from Saguenay to Øresund

6 October 2015

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Tuesday 6 October 2015--Today is our day to see Copenhagen. We have no real plan, except to wander down Strøget toward Nyhavn, and see what happens from there. We cut through the train station and circle around Tivoli, Copenhagen's venerable urban amusement park, reputed to be the second oldest in the world. (The oldest, Dyrehavsbakken, is just a few miles outide Copenhagen, and claims to have roots in the 16th century.) Traditionally open for the summer season, Tivoli is now open nearly year-round, with a few weeks off to gear up for themed periods--Halloween, Christmas, Winter, Easter, then summer again. Just now it's in the pre-Halloween hiatus.

We stop for breakfast at a café along Strøget. Strictly speaking, Strøget is not a single street, but a network of pedestrianized streets along a central spine. The process was begun in 1962, at a time when the car was king, and urban planners were reenvisioning what city life should be like. Strøget is neither the oldest nor the longest pedestrianized district in Europe, but it is perhaps the most influential. There are still plenty of cars around, but over the decades the locals have taken more and more to public transportation. As well, Copenhagen rivals Amsterdam as a bicycle-friendly city.

Pop into Helligåndskirken for a look around. The church's origins were in the 13th century; I gather that the oldest parts of the current edifice evolved from a 15th-century abbey, although I'm not really clear on what survives from that time.

Pass through Amagertorg and find our way to Nyhavn, or New Harbor--of course, it is the old harbor, a picturesque place that is as likely as not to be the cover shot for any tourist guide to Copenhagen. It reminds me, to one extent or another, of many other redeveloped urban waterfront properties--Bergen's Bryggen, Boston's Quincy Market, New York's South Street Seaport, Baltimore's Inner Harbor--although it seems to be more oriented toward restaurants and cafés than some of those. We aren't planning to eat or drink just now, so we hang around long enough to take a few photos and move on.

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