[Leica] Nathan's PAD 14/6/2022: my first day in Copenhagen

[Nathan Wajsman]

After an obscenely early flight I landed in Copenhagen around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, went to my hotel to check in early and hang my clothes etc. I then ventured out to the city I know and I love so much, since my work was only starting Wednesday evening. I offer 8 pictures from my first day.

First, I went to the cemetery where my parents are buried to carry out my filial duties. The walk from the Carlsberg commuter train station (yes, on the site of the original brewery) to the cemetery takes me through a small park with lovely features like this:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-fWJ395L/A

I then made my way back to the heart of the centre, getting off at the Nørreport station, Denmark’s busiest in terms of the number of daily passengers. Several mainlines, commuter lines and Copenhagen metro converge here. The most common way to commute in Copenhagen is to ride your bike to the train station and then take the train to whereever you are going. Some people take their bikes on the train to complete the journey on the other end, while others park them at the station:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-9NKj3QN/A

I had lunch at a Turkish restaurant that I used to visit with my father until his death in 2004, and afterwards I walked around a bit. I passed by Paludan’s Bog & Café in our version of the Latin quarter (Copenhagen University was founded here in 1479), a wonderful old-style bookshop:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-JZmvtNF/A

I then made a special pilgrimage to Vangede, a somewhat non-descript part of northern Copenhagen, but also the birthplace of one of Copenhagen’s favourite writers, Dan Turèll, who died way too early at  age 47 in 1993 (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Tur%C3%A8ll). In 2011, this sculpture, called “Dan Turèll’s Letters”, was erected on a small square in Vangede, named after him: 
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-nW6BWGg/A

I then went back to the centre to meet up with my childhood friend Beata. She is a dentist and finishes work around 4 p.m., so we met at my hotel and walked through the pedestrian street Strøget to have some beers and dinner in Nyhavn. Along the way, we passed the magnificent square Kongens Nytorv with an equestrian statue of King Christian V (ruled in the second half of the 17th century, not particularly successfully), with the usual irreverent pigeon on top of the statue and some nice buildings in the background:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-RPcXD3G/A

Shortly after that, we arrived in Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s iconic canal lined with bars and restaurants (and later in the evening, drunken tourists):
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-stpRpDW/A

Somehow, we got talking to this couple. They are Colombians living in London, on a short city break in Copenhagen. They were very pleased to find a couple of locals (us) with whom they could speak Spanish (Beata’s husband is from Argentina, so she speaks Spanish too). We gave them some information about things to see and places to eat where the price/quality ratio would be better than in Nyhavn:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-9MMxdBG/A

Final photo from Nyhavn—a pair of local birds waiting behind the sausage cart for leftover hotdog buns. The lady running it told me that she always gives them a few of those, and so they come and wait around the time she closes up shop (7-8 p.m.):
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-DB7SHGH/A

And that was my first day of the trip.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman

Alicante, Spain
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YNWA

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