A weekend in Copenhagen
Trip Start
Jan 21, 2011
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4
5
Trip End
Mar 31, 2011
Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Copenhagen has repeatedly been recognized as one of the cities with the best quality of life. It is also considered one of the world's most environmentally friendly cities in the world, with a set of visible and predominant wind turbine just offshore. In fact, the water in the inner harbor is so clean that it is safe to swim in, and OVER A THIRD of all citizens commute to work by bicycle.
Since the turn of the millennium, Copenhagen has seen massive investments in cultural facilities, infrastructure and with that came a new wave of successful designers, chefs and architects. In fact, you can visibly see the value of high quality architecture in most of Denmark.
As of 2010, Copenhagen is ranked as the 10th most expensive city in the world according to Forbes – which is absolutely true (I mean we're talking $50 drinks as some venues).
The goal of this trip to Copenhagen (an easy – but expensive - 3 hours by train) was originally set out to be for musical experience. Friday I had the privilege to see a great Swedish band, Peter, Bjorn & John, at a venue called Vega (think Ogden Theater in Denver – only much nicer and with a coat check). On Saturday we went to see an Atlanta based group - Band of Horses – at a warehouse-turned-music venue on the Carlsberg Brewery Site. (I never thought I’d say how nice it was to the southern accent…) Both were fantastic shows.
During the day – was a non-methodical meandering of the Copenhagen sites:
Louisiana Museum of modern art, on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk. The name of the museum derives from the first owner of the property, Alexander Brun, who named the villa after his three wives, all named Louise. It has a wide range of modern painting, but specifically, an amazing exibit of Pablo Picasso.
Copenhagen Opera House - among the most modern opera houses in the world. It is also one of the most expensive opera houses ever built with construction costs well over 500 million U.S. dollars.
Amalienborg Palace is the modest winter home of the Danish royal family. It consists of four identical classicizing palace façades (the Queen was, in fact, IN…for the flags were up).
Vor Frelsers Kirke - with its twisted spire, the church is a national treasure, but also a living parish church for about 8000 people.
The Marble Church - aka Frederick’s church, the largest church dome in Scandinavia with a span of 31m.
Rosenborg Castle - a renaissance castle located in the centre of Copenhagen, used by Danish regents as a royal residence until around 1710.
Kastellet - a historical park in the northeastern part of the city
And finally – to see an amazing view of the city, we took a walk up Rundetarn’s spiral ramp to the 115 ft tall vantage point. Rundetårn (English: Round Tower) is a 17th-century tower and was originally built as an astronomical observatory. It is most noted for its 7.5-turn helical corridor leading to the top, and for the expansive views it affords over Copenhagen.
