Busy, busy, busy!

We haven't blogged for a few days because we've been so busy, fitting lots of interesting things into our remaining few days here in Copenhagen.

We visited the Resistance Museum, which is a tribute to the role played by a group of Danish citizens who formed an underground movement to resist the Nazi occupation of their homeland. The museum has hundreds of fascinating exhibits, including printing presses, examples of newsletters, very emotional letters written home by prisoners, hand-made guns and other weapons, a torpedo, sketches and items smuggled out.

On Wednesday we walked to the Church of Our Savior and climbed the beautiful Baroque copper staircase which winds its way like a corkscrew around the outside of the spire. The 360 degree views of Copenhagen, including the wind turbines in the bay, were stunning.

Next on the schedule was a visit to Christiansborg Palace in the city, which houses the Parliament, Royal Reception Rooms where the Queen receives foreign ambassadors and important dignatories, the Prime Minister's Office and the Supreme Court. The palace's copper tower is the highest in Copenhagen, but the real eye-openers are the magnificently decorated rooms, particularly the Great Hall which is the largest room, and the dining room which is the setting for state dinners and royal events for as many as 400 guests. The walls are covered in woven tapestries the likes of which I've never seen before - 60 weavers took ten years to create these as a 60th birthday gift for the current Queen of Denmark. They are utterly breathtaking, bright and colouful, celebrating a thousand years of Danish history.

Yesterday, C and I went shopping at Field's shopping mall, the largest shopping centre in Scandinavia - I don't know how to account for the four hours we spent there, except to say that purchases were made and fun was had! When you're away from home, every item in every shop is more interesting and desirable than whatever's available at home - I know it often seems that way, but seriously everything in Copenhagen really is interesting and desirable and I constantly wish finances and luggage space were limitless. The hard part is knowing this is only the beginning of our trip and there are several weeks and three countries to go.

As I have no shopping mall photos (which is for the best) I'll now take this short break to insert some photos of deliciousness and a photo of a knitted bridge - the Danes love to "enhance" statues, monuments, bridges and public buildings - sometimes a top hat or a beret will mysteriously appear overnight on King Christian X's head, for example. Having said that, I'm told the knitting thing happens In other parts of the world and is called "yarn bombing". Oh, and there's a photo of the guards who passed us by in the street - every day they march down the street at midday on the way to the Changing of the Guard process at Amalienborg Palace. Most Copenhagen people don't even pay any attention, as it's just part of daily life.

We will return to normal programming after the break . . .

Danish pastries for elevenses

Spice stall at the local market

Bread selection at the bakery

Knitting on the bridge in Christianshavn

Nougat stall at the market

On TripAdvisor, the number one "must-see" in Copenhagen is listed as The David Collection. We thought that was a compelling enough reason for us to visit and the free admission wasn't to be sneezed at, after constantly having the wallet out for every exhibition, palace and tourist site over the past week. The founder, C L David, was a lawyer who had a private collection of artwork specifically Islamic art from the 8th to the 19th century, as well as collections of early Danish art and 18th century European art. The collection comprises thousands of items including beautifully presented silverware, paintings, sculptures, trinkets, jewellery, earthenware, pieces of ancient architecture and hundreds of old coins. These are housed in a rabbit-warren of rooms and tiny up-and-down staircases leading to dead ends. At the risk of sounding like a Philistine, I confess that after the first couple of rooms of "stuff" I felt claustrophobic and had had enough. It won't be number one on my own list of "must-see" attractions in Copenhagen.

Despite threatening weather we took a train out to the town of Roskilde today. It's about 25 minutes from the centre of Copenhagen and is famous for its stunning Cathedral built around 1170, when the art of brick making had only just been introduced to Denmark. Roskilde Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is stunningly beautiful. I won't describe every aspect of it, but here are some of D2's great photos from today's visit.

Copenhagen Delights

Last year one of our blogs was about some of the things we had observed and loved about Italy so on the same note, here are some of the things we love about Copenhagen (which may or may not be true of Denmark generally).

1. People ride bicycles. All people, from all walks of life and social classes ride bicycles. They will often be dressed in smart clothes, whether on their way to work or on their way to a cocktail party (the ladies may well be even wearing skyscraper heels). The handlebars are often set very high so that the rider sits very handsomely upright with wonderful posture, looking as elegant as though they are walking down a fashion runway. It appears to not be compulsory to wear a helmet, consequently gorgeous hairdos are not ruined by the time the destination is reached.

2. People transport their children (sometimes three, four or more) in a sort of large metal bucket contraption at the front of their bikes. It's very very cute. Children are likewise often transported in large numbers in prams by parents or child-minders.

3. It is far more common to see fathers in charge of their babies and small children for the day. They play with their children, read to them, laugh with them, feed them, cuddle them, console them and generally act publicly in a way which appears to me to be so much more openly affectionate than we are used to in Australia. Their role is much closer to what we might consider a maternal one. I'm sure some male readers will say, "What?? I do all those things with my kids!" but please don't be indignant - it's just my observation, and I'm sure there are lots of Australian fathers who fit that role.

4. In the supermarket you can buy 10 pieces of fruit for the equivalent of $AUD4. There are baskets laid out and you can choose any ten - bananas, pears, varieties of apples, etc. Good value!

5. The trains are very quiet inside, making travel quite peaceful. The windows are double-glazed, which helps. The seats are not ripped and there are no graffiti markings or scratchings adorning the walls, either. The seating upholstery is velvety and looks brand new. It's not, it's just looked-after.

6. If you take your dog or your bicycle on the train, you'll need a ticket for it. These are available from the ticket machine.

7. If you live in Copenhagen you are never more than about 45 minutes away from a walk in the countryside. It's very pretty here and the air is clear and clean, whether you are walking down the main shopping street or through a country paddock scattered with wandering sheep (I know, because we did that yesterday).

8. On the train there are two carriages just for bicycles, one at the front of the train and one at the end. You board with your bike, leave it in that specially-fitted carriage, then go and sit down.

9. Pretty much no matter where you're headed, the trains come every few minutes to take you there. The train system is very efficient.

10. We went to an antiques and bric-a-brac market on the weekend and guess what? The stalls were selling genuine antiques and really awesome bric-a-brac! Therefore I conclude that Danish junk is heaps better than Australian junk.

11. Babies drink water - a lot of water. They like it, too! Bottles are filled with water; I've yet to see one filled with juice or milk (presumably most babes are breastfed).

12. Shop assistants are genuinely attentive, helpful and knowledgeable.

13. There are dozens of varieties of bread in the bakeries and supermarkets and none of them appears to be made with white (bleached, overly refined) flour.

14. Organic milk, cheese, eggs, yoghurt and other dairy products are widely available alongside non-organic products at about the same price. Why wouldn't you choose to eat the stuff that's (allegedly) good for you?

15. Clothing and other goods are unlikely to be made in China - they are far more likely to be made closer to home. It seems to me that the quality is much better and the designs much more interesting.

What's not to like? I don't know. I haven't seen anything yet.

D1