Viking Homelands: Copenhagen III (8/30/2018)

Thursday, August 30, 2018 (continued)

Sankt Petri Kirke/St Peter's Church (15C)
is the oldest building in central Copenhagen, and
was the church of the German-speaking community

Palace Hotel (1910, by Anton Rosen
in Art Nouveau style) with a tower to match
the tower of City Hall

Lurblæserne/Lur Blowers (1911-1914, by Siegfried Wagner)

Rådhuset/City Hall (1892-1905, by Martin Nyrop in
National Romantic style)

City Hall with the Copenhagen escutcheon/
shield with the three towers, and below it a statue
of Bishop Absalon (12C founder of Copenhagen)

City Hall contains Jens Olsen's World Clock (1943-1955), an
astronomical clock that displays time and date, solar and lunar eclipses,
positions of the constellations, and the Gregorian and Julian calendars
for the next 570,000 years; however it is now stopped

The back of the World Clock, which has several keys
to wind it up once a week

Great Hall in City Hall

Another bust of Neils Bohr

Stairwell off the Great Hall

Gilded stair rail (KSS)

Part mosaic and part fresco (KSS)

City Hall utility tub (KSS)

Back outside, even the pigeons are seeking shelter from the rain (KSS)

Dragespringvandet/Dragon Fountain (1889-1923,
by Joakim Skovgaard and Thorvald Bindesbøll)
depicts a bull fighting a dragon

Some extra dragon fountains at City Hall (KSS)

A thermometer in red at the corner of the
building, and a barometer that should have the girl
with an umbrella emerging from the tower
on the right, not the girl on a bicycle

Tamiko & Kent with another statue (1965, by
Henry Luckow-Nielsen) of Hans Christian Andersen
who is looking across the street at the
amusement park of Tivoli

Time to head back!

Catapult? (KSS)

A view of a few Tivoli amusement rides (KSS)

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek/New Carlsberg Art Museum (1897,
by as Vilhelm Dahlerup in Venetian Renaissance style)
was purpose-built to house the collection
of Carlsberg Brewery magnate Carl Jacobsen

We were passed by hundreds of bicyclers,
going about their business despite the rain

Christiansborg Slot/Palace (1907-1928 in Neo-Baroque style)
on Slotsholmen/Palace Island is the government palace, the
only building in the world to house three of the branches of
government: the executive - Danish Prime Minister's Office;
legislative - Folketinget/Danish Parliament; and judicial -
the Supreme Court of Denmark

Copenhagen is known for three steeples; first the Church of Our Savior
(1682-1695, by Lambert van Haven) with the exterior spiral staircase

There is a legend that Lambert van Haven committed suicide when he realized that the stairway ran counterclockwise, but the spire was added 50 years later by Lauritz de Thurah, and why does it matter?

Børsen/Stock Exchange (1619-1640, by brothers
Lorentz van Steenwinckel and Hans van Steenwinckel
the Younger in Dutch Renaissance style) with
a steeple of four intertwining dragon tails

View of the Stock Exchange through construction

View of the Stock Exchange (7/4/1980)

And the steeple on Christiansborg with three crowns,
with the statue (1873, by Herman Wilhelm Bissen)
of Frederik VII, the last Danish king to rule as
an absolute monarch, since he signed a
constitution that established the Danish parliament

Another steeple, this one of the former Nikolajkirke/
St Nicholas Church (1912, by Hans Christian Amberg)
which is a contemporary art museum that must
explain the pink ring through the windows

Statue (1902, by Vilhelm Bissen) of Bishop Absalon
as a military commander facing the site of his
bishop's palace (now Christiansborg),
yet with his head turned toward City Hall

Bishop Absalon had wealth and land, and was advisor to the kings of Denmark. In establishing a fortress and palace here in 1167, it was the beginning of what would become Copenhagen.

A "Victorian" public restroom in
the middle of Amagertorv square

Storkespringvandet/Stork Fountain (1894,
by Edvard Petersen and Vilhelm Bissen)

Guide books will declare that the three birds are actually herons, but the Danish Ornithological Society vouches that they are indeed storks.

Art Nouveau Café Norden

Even the mannequins don raincoats
when they are outside

At Kongens Nytorv/King's New Square, Kent and Josefina went to catch the Viking shuttle bus back to the ship. They caught a shuttle that was already late and left right away. Fernando and I continued onward to see a little more.

Hotel d'Angleterre (1872-1875, by Vilhelm Dahlerup
and Georg E W Møller) was one of the first deluxe hotels
in the world and is the most prestigious in Copenhagen

Mindeankeret/Memorial Anchor (1951) to commemorate
danish officers and sailors who gave their lives in World War II

Nyhavn/New Harbor (1670-1673) was a canal (dug by Swedish prisoners
of war) to bring cargo and fishing ships closer to the city center

Once a disreputable area of sailors looking for a way to spend their pay, it is now a trendy area of cafés and restaurants.

The elephant sign of a former brothel

Nyhavn now has historical and pleasure boats
instead of cargo and fishing boats

Sømandskirke & Hjem/Sailors' Church and Home
(1906, Jens Christian Kofoed), now a hotel

Nyhavn #20 was once a residence of
Hans Christian Andersen

Nyhavn's northern side

Statue (1688, by Abraham-César Lamoureux) of
Christian V was originally made of lead, but began
sinking into the ground; it was recast in bronze in 1939

Kongelige Teater/Royal Danish Theater (1872-1874, by Vilhelm Dahlerup)

Magasin du Nord (1893-1894, by Henri Glæsel and Albert Jensen
in French Renaissance Revival style), the flagship store
of a department store chain

Fernando and I returned to the shuttle stop just at 17:00, thinking we would catch the same shuttle as Kent and Josefina. But they had already gone. Because of traffic, the shuttle buses were running late. Instead of leaving every half hour on the half hour, we waited over an hour in the rain for the next bus! We were glad when we finally reached the ship, where Kent and Josefina had been able to rest up, as they were coming down with colds. Josefina gave Kent some immune-strengthening supplements, so hopefully we will all be able to carry on.
Tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Next: Berlin.