Coming to Copenhagen

Before we start our sailing each summer, we like to fly into a part of Europe that we haven’t seen and somewhere we are unlikely to bring the boat. For 2016, we decided to fly into Copenhagen. What a beautiful city. It reminded me of Amsterdam. There are canals running throughout the city. First built as a defense for the city, they later became an important key in making Copenhagen a center of commerce. The name of the city comes from the Danish word , Køpmannæhafn. Hafn means harbor. Copenhagen literally means merchant’s harbor. One of the first things we did was jump on a canal boat to get an overall feel for the city. Low bridges, three story homes stacked together like colorful books on a crowded library shelf line both sides of the canals. The public buildings are fanciful and often crowned with spires that look like they came from some enchanted kingdom. It is as if someone strung interesting shapes and skewed them all together across building tops scattered throughout the city. This is the land of Hans Christian Andersen and the city has a feel of a child’s fairy tale. You gotta love a city where the main parliament building tower looks like it is made out of solid chocolate. Or a church that has a winding staircase wrapped around it’s steeple allowing worshipers to literally climb the stairs to heaven and view the city below. Or a government building that has three dragons tails weaving to gather to form the spire. And of course, this enchanted city needs a mythical amusement park right in the center of town. Tivoli Gardens built in 1843, a full century before Disneyland was even conceived. It is the perfect fun filled centerpiece for this city. While it has been updated and changed over the past century, the park still manages to retain an old world charm about it’s rides. The locals tell us that everyone has an annual pass and spend many a long summer night hanging out there. They call it the cities backyard. And every far far away land would not be complete without a population that was equally enchanting. The Danes are so kind and so helpful. It is completely understandable why Denmark is ranked as one of the most livable countries in the world. Now if they could just warm the place up a little. It was freezing there all week. The Danes say there are no cold cities, just bad choices in clothing.