Category: Copenhagen

Denmark is lovely! And maybe Copenhagen is extra lovely for strict Norwegians? Nevermind, after a day or two in the city center, a bathing excursion is just right. We strike a blow for Amager Strand (Beach)! It’s a good idea to go bicycling there. Rental bikes (without electricity) are only an app download away. Idun even found a ‘Comrade’, which ‘The Julekalender’ sang about in ‘Spikk a Bitte Little’.

Before you start cycling in the Copenhagen traffic, there are a few things to think about. First: The cycle roads have two lanes that are used as if you were a car. This means that you keep to the right until you pass someone, only then do you go to the the left part of the bicycle lane. NB – Keep right, there is ALWAYS someone cycling faster than you! Secondly, it is expected that you warn with your hands whether you intend to turn left or right – in addition to one hand up, which means that you are going to stop. If you ride together in a group, everyone (especially the last one!) must show stop signs.

The bike ride to Amager Strand is a flat and nice ride that takes about half an hour from Copenhagen city center. Amager is a flat island in the sound of just under 100 km2, with approximately 200,000 inhabitants. The island is known in written sources from the year 1100. The first part of the name can possibly be explained as an old name on the strait between Sjælland and Amager. The second part might come from Old Danish ‘haki’ = garden. From 1898 until 1970, Copenhageners dumped their latrines here, and the island got the nickname ‘Lorteøen’ = ‘Shit Island’. The population is jokingly called Amagerkanere.

The shit is thankfully gone now! Amager Strand is a 2 km long sandbank connected to Amager island with 4 bridges. This is an eldorado for all kinds of water activities, and it is well invested.

At the northern end (Helgoland Søbadeanstalt) there is a disabled-friendly access to the sea. However, we were not overwhelmingly impressed by this solution:

What is the idea? Should the wheelchair user be thrown into the water? Knut was so excited by this sight that he wanted to make a film that shows what happens if you try to go by wheelchair out into the sea from here. But that surely was not easy without a wheelchair. However, our grins had to be thoroughly wiped off when we found the wheelchair lift inside the facility. It’s super!

If the timing is right, maybe you can join for winter swimming here? We saw a sign: ‘Det Kolde Gys, Helgoland’ with reference to ‘The cold horror’. Inside the Amager beach there is a 400 m wide and sheltered lagoon, great for SUP, OWS, kayaking and swimming for those who want to avoid waves. There are beaches and sand on all sides of Amager Strand. Along the small island, there is a beautiful promenade, popular for joggers, wheelchair users, roller skaters and walkers – basically everyone.

South of Amager Strand, Kastrup Søbad has set up a facility they call ‘Sneglen’ = the Snail. This is a beautiful, spiral-shaped wooden construction with benches, fresh water showers, diving tower and many stairs down to the sea.

And here we finally found it – a working wheelchair ramp. It was not crowded by bicycles, either.

We swam around the Snail, and discovered to our excitement that the underside is a densely populated Martin bird area. Great!

There are a lot of different activities around Amager beach. This guy had dropped surf kiting in favor of skateboard kiting, he thought it was more social.

On the way back to the city center, a waffle fits well. And waffels can be bought in the Norwegian Seamen’s Church. It was a positive surprise for us to find it, since Knut was baptized here.

Here they are just very happy to get visitors – you are not many seconds indoors before someone has made contact. Lovely atmosphere here too!

If delicious water sports – and Norwegian waffles – have refreshed you sufficiently – maybe it’s also just right to do a bike ride on dressin? The Amager Train’s Friends rent out bicycle dressins. The track is 1.2 km long, and this gave Knut an idea: Maybe this is the solution to the ‘Train problem’ in Knut’s project ‘To go to work in different ways by his own engine’? The future will show…

We were in Copenhagen at the end of june. Where we could witness the celebration of ‘Studenten’. While in Norway we have “russefeiring” which lasts a long time, this is supposedly a one day celebration (although we saw students partying all the weekend). The class hires one car where they can stand on the truck bed and party and drive around to all parents. All these cars stop on Højbro Plads. Accidents happen – some got the party cut short.

Strangely enough, we heard no one singing ‘Tri smi kinisiri pi Hibri plids’, but there was enough noise without that. The stork fountain was foaming, so someone had had fun with dish washing detergent.

At Højbro (High Bridge) there has been a bridge over to Slotsholmen since the middle ages. Todays bridge is from 1878 and drawn by Vilhelm Dahlerup. But we can’t really say it is very high. At Højbro you can meet The Merman in a sculpture of Suste Bonnén. Under water, of course.

This work of art was given to Copenhagen City in 1992, promising the city would maintain it. And they have – the sculpture was newly renovated.

For this bathing adventure we needed a photographer, our daughter Une volunteered (under pressure). An easy job when the models are as photogenic as this!

We first planned to jump from the quay for the sightseeing boats, right next to the statues. But there was a sign forbidding anyone not going on a cruise to be there (nothing against bathing). While we were contemplating this, a boat actually came and we realized this was a bad idea. The solution was to use one of the ladders on the other side of Højbro bridge. Idun was a little scared we would be “saved”. But there was nothing to worry about. Hardly anyone took notice of us undressing, climbing down the ladder and going into the water. Only smiling faces and waving hands from the passing boats. And the sculpture? Great!

The fairytale about Agnete and the Merman is rooted in middle age ballads, but is a 1800’s folk song. The song tells about Agnete, who falls in love with a merman and follows him to the bottom of the ocean. She lives with him for eight years and bears him seven sons.

One day, when she hears the church bells ring, she asks for permission to go back to the humans world. And she is allowed, but the Merman reminds her that her children will miss her deeply if she doesn’t return. When Agnete meets her mother, she renounces her children and never returns to the ocean (in the most common version, there are many versions of the story and in some of them she does go back).

Her not returning brings great grief under water, and this we think Bonnén really has shown in these bronce statues.

Hans Christian Andersen actually wrote a theater play about Agnete, which became a flop. His later story about “The Little Mermaid”, however, was a hit. It is a plot twist of Agnete’s story. While the human girl Agnete was lured into the ocean by a merman, The Little Mermaid went onto land drawn towards a human man. Andersen dropped the kid part, but also has a really tragic ending (very different from Disney’s version). Outside of Denmark, Agnete isn’t much known and The Little Mermaid is by most people thought to be completely H.C.Andersen’s own idea.

A similar motive we can find in old stories about getting “taken into the mountains”. You could e.g. listen to Gåte’s song about Margit Hjukse. Who takes a quite different choice from Agnete.

So it was time to swim back to the human world again. It was definitely a good time to take a bath with The Merman. The water was clean and clear. Until a boat passed, which had a diesel leak, so we could see stripes floating from it. Not that they seemed to bother much when we told them.

What to do in Copenhagen after a nice bath? We found Tivoli to be a good choice!

Copenhagen, or ‘Merchants’ Harbor’, has been inhabited since the ninth century, and was probably only called ‘Harbor’ in the beginning. The city is strategically located nearby the boat traffic in and out of the Baltic Sea. As we were planning the Copenhagen trip, the proposal to swim by The Little Mermaid came up almost immediately.

Knut was a bit busy, so Idun and Une made a survey the first day. On the map, there seemed to be bathing opportunities at the Citadel, which is located between the city center and the Mermaid. Idun had a good feeling, and wanted to surprise Knut with a bathing place he had not thought of. And yes, there is water at the Citadel. But was it really tempting?

It was not forbidden to swim, strangely enough (a ban on fishing is one of the rules, though). On closer inspection, this was completely understandable. The water was not tempting at all, probably like the vast, vast, vast majority of moat waters out there in the world.

But The Little Mermaid, what about her? Would a bath be right by her? Well, it actually is just right to have a bath with The Little Mermaid. BUT – at low tide there is not much water around her, so a bit of planning with regard to the tide is necessary.

The statue of The Little Mermaid was erected in 1913, and is made by Edvard Eriksen. It was the brewer Carl Jacobsen who donated the sculpture to the city, because he wanted to honor the fairy tale writer H. C. Andersen. The fairy tale about The Little Mermaid was published in 1837 together with ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. The mermaid’s infatuation with a human prince was impossible love. Both the fairy tale and the statue describes a great sorrow, which reflects H. C. Andersen’s own unhappy love life. The statue has been heavily exposed to vandalism, and its head has disappeared several times. The statue was painted red in 2017, in protest against the Faroe Islands’ hunt for humpback whales (!). Fortunately, Eriksen’s family owns a couple of plaster versions, which are very helpful in reconstructions. When we visited the lady, her lips were painted very red.

We were in Copenhagen to watch the end of Ulvhild’s one year study at AFUK. It was a very nice experience! Great circus shows with a broad variety. Idun remembered to take pictures during the first piece, but afterwards it was just glancing, so the small taste for Tobatheornottobathe will only be the picture shown below (Ulvhild in the pink bucket, with violin). Between the shows, it was possible to dine in the courtyard.

After the performance, Tobatheornottobathe went on a bathing trip to The Little Mermaid while the youths were left for the final party. The timing was perfect, as we cycled to the Mermaid at high tide, straight from the circus show. There are considerably fewer people gathered in the port of Copenhagen in the evening. And there is absolutely no one who raises an eyelid neither over ongoing bathing nor being asked to take a picture. So then it was just to swim to the Mermaid and say hello, and this was both beautiful and nice, as the Danes say (deijligt and skønt).

Luckily enough, nobody ran away with Knut’s cell phone, either. Isn’t that great? Just finishing dressing after the bath, this suddenly happened! What a luck!

It was midsummer and fireworks at 23:00 in Copenhagen. Awesome! A little less hectic than fireworks often are, but with many really grandiose solutions. Absolutely superb! A midsummer bath in Copenhagen is just right! And to swim with the Mermaid, it’s just right, too.