A day at the museum

It was an uneventful flight from Bornholm into Copenhagen this morning, and since I had eight hours or so to kill before my bus left for Berlin (the cheap connections are not always the fastest), I thought I'd give myself a little walking tour of the city.

So once I'd made my way from the airport to the city center, I started out heading down Strøget, the long pedestrian shopping area that stems off of the central town square. By the time I got to the castle island downtown, I couldn't really feel my toes anymore, so I figured I'd better keep moving. I made it for one pass up Nyhavn, the picturesque harbor front street featured in many postcards from Copenhagen, and at this point my camera was freezing up, not to mention my fingers. I don't think it was too much below freezing outside, but with the wind blowing off of the water, well, it was uncomfortable.

Still, I saw plenty of people whizzing by on bicycles; the looks on their faces made me feel even colder. While I'd wanted to stop and look at the famous statue of The Little Mermaid (of Hans Christian Andersen fame, not Disney), I decided to leave that for another visit to Copenhagen, one with less wind, if not higher temperatures.

After a quick lunch I still had a couple of hours to kill, so I spent the rest of my spare time at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum devoted mostly to sculptures donated by the beer baron of the same name. Part of the exhibit dedicated to French Impressionism was unfortunately closed for renovation, but there was plenty there to see, including a huge exhibit of ancient Mediterranean art. And as I mentioned many, many sculptures, the vast majority of them being from the late Greek/early Roman era (i.e., lots of male nudes), or from late 19th century France (such as the works of August Rodin and disciples, i.e., lots of female nudes.) It's the kind of place that you can spend hours and hours visiting, but alas, there is never enough time to see it all.

Well, I need to run along to catch my bus back to Germany. So for now, I suppose that's it from Denmark!