Got up this morning to find the skies a little overcast and threatening. Our disappointment was compounded this morning when we made our way to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, only to find that it was closed. This was a real disappointment as we intended to spent a vast chunk of the morning wondering around the exhibits. Consequently, we walked down the road a little to the Nationalmuseet. The museum itself is housed in a palace designed by Nicolai Eigtred between 1743-4. We managed to see the displays on the Renaissance and the Middle Ages in Denmark, as well as the toy museum, which had some fantastic detailed dolls houses. We also managed to see a special exhibition they have on at the moment called 'The History of the Danish People 1660-2000'. The displays that dealt with the twentieth century seemed to focus greatly on class divisions within Danish society. It was interesting/disturbing to read about the effects of collecting poor relief in the early part of the last century (collecting poor relief meant that you were unable to vote). It moves on to the split in Danish politics in the 1930s, with the right (particularly the Conservative Party) being sympathetic to the Nazi Party and the left with the Communists (the Social Democrats). It is also interesting that the period of occupation is barely covered, perhaps because of the Dane's embarrassment at the lack of a resistance force for some time.
Next stop was the station and the S-Bahn to Enghave in Valby. From here we took a very long walk (after receiving directions from an elderly Danish guy - who again had impeccable English) to the.........Carlsberg Visitor Centre!! While there we were forced to watch promotional material and repeat one thousand times 'I love Carlsberg'.......only kidding!! However, it was like being part of a massive marketing exercise all in the name of beer (so it can be forgiven). I was slightly disturbed, however, by the prevalence of the swastika (see photo). It was everwhere, on the bottles, on promotional material.....and then I discovered, it was their registered trademark from 1881 and was subsequently abandoned, for obvious reasons!! The bonus was that we got free Carlsberg and Jacobson beer...YAY (although not so good as we drank it at 4pm and we had only eaten a cake so far!!).
Then we caught the S-Bahn back up to Osterport and saw the symbol of Copenhagen.....the Little Mermaid. Of course, it was surrounded by tourists taking the obligatory photos, so we had to too of course. From here it was a very long walk back to the hotel - I didn't realise it was so far from the city. We stopped on the way back only to sample a sausage from one of the many stalls dotted around the city (not sure about the level of hygiene, but what's a holiday without food poisoning?!!).
Tonight we took a walk down to Nyhavn and down to one of the restaurants away from the tourist hordes. Biblioteket is a small restaurant that feels like it is someone's front room. Decorated with red walls with a white trim, books litter the walls, floor and alcoves. Unfortunately, they were due to close the kitchen when we arrived (around 9.15pm) so we were only able to order main courses. The last group left as we were half way through our meal. All that was left was ourselves, the waiter and the sound of the one working fan buzzing over the rear of the room. We ate chicken stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, and it was delicious, just a shame we couldn't stay and eat more!!
As we made our way back, through Inderhavnen and past the wonderful Black Diamond, our thoughts (particularly mine) turned to tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be 30. A landmark. An event. A tragedy. To temper the effects of this disaster, we were going to take a trip to Malmo, so I can cross another country off the list and sample the delights that Sweden has to offer. My head is buzzing with what lies ahead, the anticipation, the excitement, the dread. Only one thing appears certain, Malmo is going to be a lot cheaper than Copenhagen!!
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