<\/p>\nCopenhagen is relatively flat, and very bicycle-friendly – there are separate bike lanes right through the middle of the city, separated by its own cobblestone lane markers. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Indeed the orderliness of the place is remarkable – people wait a the traffic lights, and there are even footprint markers on the pavement to show whih side of the footpath to walk on!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Unlike Australia, the head of state actually lives in Denmark, and the suite of palaces known as Christian IV’s Palace demonstrates a kind of restrained grandeur that suggests confidence rather than ostentation. The royals are well respected in Copenhagen, and there is a strong sense that the Danish royals are part of the community, rather than being aloof from it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sounds of jazz were everywhere. I heard some great trad jazz bands, but the whole range from brass and banjo trad to bebop and crooning swing were in action – on boats, in bars – everywhere.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The streets reflected a medieval past with their organic layout and whereever you turned there were narrow alleyways that led to enchanting micro-scenes with a statue here or a vine-twined courtyard. But the city is by no means a museum. Copenhagen is a vibrant city, full of life and street performers and fascinating shops.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After a foray among the shops lining the cobbled pedestrian shopping precinct, you will encounter a round tower that is fittingly called “the Round Tower”. Do look up. On top of the tower is one of the oldest working observatories in Europe – that baroque lantern is actually a telescope dome!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second half of the day was spent in buying replacement shirts and a tee-shirt, as my bags had yet to arrive. Prices are not cheap, despite the Summer sales (salg) being in full swing. When I translated back, I found the sale price of my business shirts was around AUS$100 each. This is not a cheap city.<\/p>\n
My quest for a hardanger fiddle remained fruitless – I was told in no uncertain terms that that was a Norwegian instrument. So much for a Scandinavian identity! I was eventually told that there was a very fine violin maker’s shop next to the Natonal Museum. I resolved to go there before I had to depart. Two days of business meetings to follow, but the museums would beckon before too long!<\/p>\n
Cheers
\nJerry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copenhagen is relatively flat, and very bicycle-friendly – there are separate bike lanes right through the middle of the city, separated by its own cobblestone lane markers. Indeed the orderliness of the place is remarkable – people wait a the traffic lights, and there are even footprint markers on the pavement to show whih side […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lostbiro.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}