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If today is Thursday, this must be Copenhagen! The streets are quiet after the party last night, and because today is a holiday in Denmark, most stores and restaurants are closed. Sure is quiet. We bought our morning coffee at the local 7-11, and then bought take-out Danish open-faced sandwiches from a little hole-in-the-wall place run by an Asian couple; the wife spoke only Danish.
Today we have a date with Anneluus, my friend who lives in Sweden, and who was the founder of my ladies’ salon orchestra, Wine and Roses. Our hotel, City Hotel Nebo, is basically across from the central train station. (Also basically in the red-light district… but that doesn’t seem to be a worry). So we agreed to meet her in the station. What a station.. Huge open building with vaulted high ceilings supported by curved and carved timbers. Very impressive.
Small ball of dried, rolled tea grew to a bouquet
On the opposite side of the train station are the world-famous Tivoli Gardens, and that’s where we and Anneluus headed for our visit. Tivoli Gardens does have gardens, but it is mainly an amusement park, with a huge midway, restaurants ranging from coffee stands to gourmet dining, stages for music and shows, most of which are open and free. We spent $40 for coffee and crescent cookies, and had a great catch-up with Anneluus. She’s looking great, has created a new Wine & Roses band in Sweden, and is very happy that her legacy of W&R in Victoria is continuing to thrive and play.
Fiolgade or Fiddle Street
Copenhagen has many pedestrian-only streets in it’s old area, where the streets are all cobbles and the buildings are brick and ornate. Normally filled with shoppers, they are quiet today, and great for window shopping and admiring the architecture. Thank you for lunch, Anneluus! We found an Italian side-walk café and listened to an old musician’s gentle accordion music as it wafted from the ancient courtyard nearby.
1st Tivoli Orchestra Conductor
Jet-lag caught up to us a bit, and so we happily took a couple of hours to catch up in the afternoon. Our friend Dave was picking us up later to join him for his gig in Christiania.
Christiania is a ‘free-town’ within Copenhagen. Imagine a Lasquiti Island community in the middle of a large city. Not ‘fenced in’ physically, but the border is clear. The community started as an abandoned military site, taken over bit by bit, starting as a communal playground for the local kids in the 1970s. Many of the large old military buildings, some three stories high, have been divided up into apartments, and the smaller ones taken over by families. The roads are unpaved and the gardens mostly simple, neglected, or overrun. Shacks are here and there, dogs are everywhere, smoke is definitely in the air, and photos are discouraged on Pusher Street and in the ‘market’ which sells, I imagine, pretty much anything you need to do a little or a lot, of pot.
The concert was in the re-purposed Grey Hall, which was originally the riding arena for the military. Dave’s group, Djursland Spillemaend, has 8 players, and he and the lead singer/guitar player, Helge (HELL-yeh) are the headliners. Check out Dave’s Youtube page: flaminfiddler1
He’s a great fiddler, and works with many of the local musicians. Tonight’s concert took me back to hippie days. It was a CD release concert for their album “Stay With Me Tonight”, and the locals loved it. The hall was filled with dancing women in flowing skirts, dogs and kids at their feet, smoke filling the air.
No catch-up on our jet-lag tonight. By our 3 a.m. lights-out time, the birds were singing and the dawn light was showing.
I see your luggage did catch up to you! Love the t-shirt faces! Summer has arrived here for a few days, along with the sunburn from gardening.............
ReplyDeleteSee you in 3 weeks! xxxx