Gym's Ramblings: August 2021

Sunday 29 August 2021

Danish Delight, Exploring Copenhagen

Copenhagen is a vibrant city. Generally its a walkable venue except for the fact that there are still many cobblestone sidewalks and squares but cobblestone is cool. There are numerous, beautiful big parks and green spaces. Each park runs along a canal, surrounds a small lake or borders the waterfront. There is a considerable amount of tasteful public art all over the place. It is also a safe city. The biggest danger is getting hit by a bike and bikes are plentiful. Bicyclists have dedicated lanes which are sometimes jammed with two-wheeled traffic and the pedestrian has to stay alert.

Married to a marathoner, Gym never hops a cab on a vacation, especially if the destination is less than 8 kilometers from the starting point. But Gym wouldn't have it any other way because you can really get a feel for a new place by walking it. You would miss so much by cabbing past it. You will also never travel down some of the narrow roads in the historic centers of old cities in a cab, cabs avoid them.

Our intrepid travelers put the the integrity of their shoes to the test and pounded out about 24 km in the 2 full days they had in the capital. They had places to go and people to observe. They catalogued the characteristics of hundreds of Danes on these hikes and visited the following landmarks:

Almost every inch of the Tivoli Gardens was explored by Gym and Mrs. Gym - they had free access to this theme park directly from their hotel;
Tivoli Main Entrance but the
Nimb Hotel guests enter from the hotel

Boss of Tivoli geese

Boss of Gym

A pirate ship in Tivoli Gardens

the lake reminded Gym of Disneyland

lots of cool fountains in the park's green areas
City Hall Square and the massive City Hall - an impressive structure and great landmark;

City Hall from the square
Ostedsparken Park with its beautiful water feature, footbridge and statue of Hans Christian Andersen (the second favorite ranked green space);Ostedsparken
looking towards the lake in Ostedsparken

An excellent monument to H.C. Andersen in the park
Christiansborg Palace - the seat of the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister's Office, Danish Supreme Court, as well as party rooms for the Danish monarch, the Royal Stables and Royal Chapel;

Christiansborg Palace

On the way to Christiansborg Palace, there was an open-water
swimming race in the canal
King's New Square - D'Angleterre Hotel faced the square. It was Gym's second choice of hotels;

Not far from King's New Square, the boss poses
at a very picturesque spot,

King's New Square
Amalienborg - 4 royal palaces facing each other across a square, guarded by Danish Royal Guards. One is currently the residence of the Queen and another is the residence of the Crown Prince and his family. He is married to an Australian commoner that he met in a pub in Sydney and they have 4 kids;
In this shot you can see 2 of the four palaces in
the square. The mounted Frederik V statue graces
the middle of the square
At the corner of one each palace are the Danish Guards
Gefion Fountain - dating from 1908, an impressive bronze of the Norse goddess Gefion who lifted Zealand out of the sea with her sons that she had transformed into four strong oxen;
The Boss took this one
Kastelett - a star-shaped 17th century fortress with ramparts. The area around the fort is a great green space today used by joggers and bikers;
It doesn't look like much but this shows one of the
5 points of this elaborate fortress. A moat surrounds the entire
structure.

In this pic you can see where a drawbridge crosses the moat
and you get a bonus shot of the boss
The Little Mermaid - a very small bronze installed on a seaside boulder which has become the most famous sculpture in Denmark. It is synonymous with Copenhagen and forever immortalizes the mermaid from Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale. It was very crowded when we were there in spite of the pandemic and the rain that day;
This is what everyone that comes to Copenhagen
goes to take a picture of
The King's Garden (Congens Have) - The favorite park with neatly trimmed trees framing a central pathway, in all a well manicured green-space.

Nicely trimmed and shaped trees in the King's Garden
Rosenborg Castle - This palace houses the crown jewels.

If you look close you can see a wedding party at the front door

So our heroes walked a lot and saw a lot. They didn't take any tours but they know what they saw and they saw enough to be impressed. They also got a whole bunch of steps in on the Garmin.

Gym and his companion checked out of the Nimb Hotel on August 29, 2021 and were very sad. It is such a cool hotel. As the author finishes this post they are temporarily leaving Denmark to nip into Germany and visit Berlin. They will return to Denmark to wrap up their observations on the Danes in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

We will be back in Denmark on the 31st of August at which time Gym will summarize his finding on the Danish people.

Thursday 26 August 2021

On The Road Again - August 2021

The author did not want to jinx things by publishing something about this trip before he left home because the last time he did that, the first covid lockdown was instituted and the trip was scrubbed. This time, he decided only to publish something, if our hero and his lovely sidekick were ever able to successfully get out of the country. And finally, Shazam! Gym and his lovely wife arrived in Copenhagen a few hours ago and here is the first blogpost in over 2.5 years.

The whole world has had a difficult couple of years. Our hero and his bride were sidelined like everyone else and couldn't go anywhere. They did get away on some nice Alberta staycations in Banff and Jasper but that was the extent of it, since April 2019. Trips to the southeastern US, northern Europe and the Orient were all planned from early 2019 to mid-2020 but all had be cancelled. Sadly, all anyone could do was hope that the world would get back to normal as soon as possible.

The world is still not out of the woods. We still have a pandemic. It had to open up a little though or tourism was in trouble. The current situation is that the Delta variant is running amok and safe travel must be to vaccinated parts of the world and only by fully vaccinated travelers. Fortunately, Gym and his dear companion have gotten both of their shots and are ready to roll. But where to go? They are afraid to go to the US right now because individualism is reigning supreme. South of the 49th, conspiracy theories are clouding the mindset of the Trumpian bikers and making it difficult for us Canucks to experience the fantastic roadside diners in the Republican states. So why not northern Europe, where people tend to tow the line? You see, in Scandinavian and the Germanic countries, the citizens have a tendency to take science in school, so they have gotten vaccinated.

The plan is to spend some time in Germany, where it is rumored that a significant number of German men have large, round heads. If true, it will lift the spirits of Gym. Next, our hero will be undertaking an in-depth study of the happiness of the Scandinavian people. Apparently, the happiest countries in the world are in Scandinavia. GNH (Gross National Happiness) has been rigorously measured by the UN for many years. Finally, the Baltic States will then be visited which are all former states of the U.S.S.R. All these nations have a preponderance of blond-haired and blue-eyed citizens. Can the recessive genes for blond hair and blue eyes be correlated to GNH? If these things are related, it might explain some things and make it all the more important to try and conserve our blond and blue-eyed people.

Our travelers enjoyed a direct flight from Calgary to Frankfurt last night and have also made a connection on to Copenhagen. They will spend four nights at the Nimb Hotel, next to the Tivoli Gardens. The Nimb is a very impressive boutique hotel that Gym and Mrs. Gym will be very comfortable in for their stay in Denmark. While in Copenhagen, they will search for the Little Mermaid and catalogue the GNH of Denmark.