Today was our first official day in Copenhagen, Denmark. We started with a breakfast, and it did not disappoint. We were served buffet style with choices of eggs, bacon, breads, pastries, yogurt bar, and more. It was AMAZING! We may have went and got seconds. We then headed to our class that was taught by Cam and Jake. We learned a lot of interesting facts about the Modern Olympics. Did you know that from 1912-1948 competitions of the arts were held in the summer olympics?! This included architecture, music, literature, painting and sculpture all portraying sport in some sort of way. With this, we all got into groups and made our own haiku poems about Olympic sports.
Here’s one example:
Run like the winter
Brisk winds carry legs forward
Feet pat the cold Earth
What a great start to our morning.
We then headed into the bus for a tour of the city. Annika, our personal tour guide, was stuffed full off knowledge on every building, artifact, and historical figure in Copenhagen. Some would say she’s an expert. As we traveled through the city, we were able to stop and emerge ourselves within the culture. Our first stop, was at the Christiansborg Palace. From across the street, you could see the old stock exchange building, and at the top, were three dragon statues with intertwining tails and three crowns. This represents the unity of Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, because the countries have a long history of being at war. For example, we learned about King Frederick III, the danish king in the mid 1600s that fought against the Swedish King Charles X Gustav. Frederick is famous for the quote, “jeg vil do I min rede”, which means “I will die in my nest”. This was saying he was willing to die for his country, in his country, instead of giving it over to Sweden. We also saw some royal horses here. Interesting enough, a road near the the caste was called Folke Bernadotte street, which if you didn’t know, is the name of our library at Gustavus!
Another interesting place we went, was where the statue of the little mermaid sits. You may think you know the story of the little mermaid, but it isn’t the true story. As told by Christian P. Anderson, The little mermaid fell in love with a human and wanted to trade her fish tail for human legs so she could be with him. In order to do so, she had to make a deal with the evil queen. They agreed that for the little mermaid to acquire her human legs, she made her give the evil queen her beautiful voice by cutting off her tongue. Walking with her new legs felt like knives cutting into her feet every step she took but she believed it was worth it for love. Their love ended up not working out because of her inability to communicate with the human so the little mermaid committed suicide due to grief. The Disney version may be little different.
Our last destination was Rosenberg Castle. Here, we got to tour all the floors and saw many incredible artifacts from past kings and queens. On of our favorites rooms was called the Marble Chamber. This was on the ground floor and was decorated with Italian scagliola in 1668, the room hails the absolute monarchy. We also went down into the basement to see the treasury. Within the treasury, there was a display containing Christian IV’s crown from 1596. The crown is loaded with jewels and with symbols of the good King’s virtues. On the top level, we were able to go into the great hall. Here, there lie 3 silver lions from 1670 that guard the king and queens thrones, which are made of narwhal tusk and silver. In the middle of the stucco ceiling, is the national coat of arms. On the wall hangs 12 tapestries depicting Christian V’s victories in the war against Sweden (1675-79). It was very cool to see how intricate their thrones are. Other places we were able to see include Amalienborg Palace (where the queen lives), the newly built Opera House, and the Royal Library. Our overall touring experience was great!
We were then given 5 hours of free time in which some spent time walking around the city, eating lunch at various restaurants, exploring the harbor, and climbing to the top of the round tower to get a better view! We then ended our night with a 20 minute walk to a restaurant in Copenhagen to enjoy a group dinner. Restaurant Flammen is a Danish family-owned restaurant chain. We ate a lot of different meats like kangaroo, ostrich, pulled pork, rib roast, turkey, and more. There were 15 kinds of meat we could try! Activities for the rest of the night are to be determined.
Hannah Sturtz and Emily Hilk