Copenhagen - Stroll to Tivoli, Christiansborg, the Bull

STREET-WALKING

TO TIVOLI

Think Mussorgsky  Pictures at an Exhibition: 

Bum BUM ba-de bum
bum bum bum bum
[BUM BUM]
Bum Ba-de BUm ....

1.  Dog column base

Collared at a walkway.

Copenhagen dog column

2.  Food culture:  The Golden Bull - A butcher shop

These trade signs were not only to identify the products inside. The fancier ones also could indicate that the purveyor was a member of one of the guilds that enabled producers to band together and meet standards that would draw customers, and keep the cheaters out.  See http://scandinavian.wisc.edu/mellor/hca/glossary/guilds.html  Go to that site and see trade signs for a glover, a bootmaker.

Golden Bull, Butcher Shop, Copenhagen

Food:  Denmark's open-faced sandwiches, smorrebrod, are better seen than worded, so go to http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-eating.htm  Scroll to the end for the recipe for liver paste, or leverpostej.  Everywhere are the shrimp and hard-boiled egg sandwiches.  The rye bread is chewy, thin-sliced, seeds of different kinds. Texture.


3.  Navigate the bicycles

The city uses roundabouts for traffic calming, adding traffic lights and do-not-do-this signs where wheeled matters are particularly dicey.  When in doubt, ease in, and keep going around until you are sure where your exit street is.

Park and walk. Don't drive. Copenhagen.

4.  Watch for palaces - Christiansborg

Christiansborg Palace, now the Danish Parliament, Copenhagen

Bishop Absalon of Roskilde built "Absalon's Palace" on this site in the early 1100's (Christianity appeared showing all its muscle).  In 1417, King Erik VII took it; and Christiansborg passed through various renovations and additions as the royal residence for centuries after.  Then either there was a fire, or it began to crack and collapse with the new additions and towers, and was effectively demolished. By then, the royals were elsewhere.  

5.  Tivoli!  Tivoli Pleasure Gardens 1840's-50's and to date

Step right up for bazaars, pastry shops, theater, fireworks, playgrounds galore, adult and child, boats on lagoons, skittles, restaurants, billiards, coffee houses, see and be seen.

Tivoli Gardens, entrance, Copenhaven

Poster dummy outside Tivoli. The fun starts outside.  No chance to miss where it is.

Copenhaven Tivoli Poster Boy

In the gate!  Long open malls. These are landscaped and flow, not all in straight lines. Prepare to meander.

Tivoli mall

And restaurants, restaurants. Expect long waits.  The longer they make you wait, the more small dishes or little liquids you may order.

Dan Widing with ribs at Tivoli