Memorials and History in Copenhagen

The Lutheran Cathedral - Copenhagen

I woke this morning just before 5am, as usual and upload and named all of yesterday's photos for Flickr.

I then did my weekly Saturday task of checking my SIPP and our ISAs on Hargraves Landsdown's site, down by 1.1% since last week! I then uploaded the newsletter to the Parish Website. I made coffee for Drew and I when he awoke at 7am.

After coffee and ablutions, we left the hotel at 9am.

Walking into the City Centre

We decided, having walked around the back of the Central Station (Tietgensgade) the first three times, that today we would venture around the front (Vesterbrogade).

The road led us to the Liberty Memorial (Frihedsstøtten) standing in the middle of the road. This monument marks the Ordinance on the Release of the Stavnsbaandet from the Estates for the Peasant Mandkiøn on 20th June 1788. This being 100 years before the 'Release of the Serfs' a similar action in Russia under Tsar Alexander II. It sees Denmark moving from a feudal to a capitalist economy. 

A slight detour up a paved street called Axeltorv, led us to the Danish Film Institute (Palads), which is situated in the old Railway Station building which closed in 1911 when the new station was built. 

Axeltorv is interesting in its own right as it has the plants of the Solar System marked out by statues at roughly equivalent scale distances from each other. I particularly like Pluto (which was still a plant when these were created)

In line with the scale the four near plants, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are much closer together than the distant ones.

You can see them all, including a close up of the very grim looking Mars on Flickr - starting with Pluto here.

Crossing the Main Road (Hans Christian Andersens Boulavard), we came to City Hall Square and a few blocks from there to Buzz Kaffebar at the corner of Larsbjørnsstræde and Sankt Peders Stræde. 

We stopped here for breakfast.

Breakfast

Buzz Kaffebar has an amazing range of Brunch options which they offer from opening (9am on a weekends, 8am on weekdays until 12 noon).

We opted for the one called Egg and Sausages which, as a brunch comes with Coffee and Juice.

As usual I had an Americano and Drew a Latte. Drew had a straight orange juice whereas I was tempted by their mixes and chose the one called Strong. This was orange, carrot and ginger - mainly tasting of orange it had a carrot earthiness and little zings of ginger. I'd recommend it if you happened to be passing (as we may in the next few days!)

The Breakfast when it came belied its simple name. We each had a board with scrambled eggs and sausages, halloumi cheese on rucola in a spicy vinaigrette, blueberry porridge, avocado with pomegranate, fresh fruits (orange, watermelon, grapes and pomegranate), hummus sprinkled with paprika with olives, pancake with strawberry and a breadbasket of sourdough and rye to share. Drew and I swapped our porridge (which was more a yogurt) and fruit with each other. It was delicious and filling.

Sankt Petri Kirke

We walked along Sankt Peders Stræde to Sankt Petri Kirke/Saint Peter's Church an amazing building the spire of which can be seen from almost everywhere across the city. We had walked past it earlier in the week, but with a hearse pulling up at the time, we decided to miss visiting until later in the week. So, we are here on this Saturday morning.

Saint Peter's Church is the oldest existing church in Copenhagen. The nave dates back to Catholic times (1450) but it was enlarged in the 17th century by addition of a North and South aisle. In 1575 King Frederick the Second established it as a German church as the Danish royal family, notably his Queen. had a German heritage. The church still serves the German speaking community in Copenhagen. It has a bright open feel to it.

Beside the church - attached by the west door - is a large and ornate set of burial or sepulchral chapels. Those buried here range from the foundation period of the church to the present day, including a large area for memorial plaques and another for urns with cremated ashes.

There are 57 photos of the church and burial areas on Flickr - start here and swipe/click left

Copenhagen University

Opposite St. Peter's, and beside the Cathedral, is the Consistory House, the main ceremonial building of Copenhagen University.

The building has a range fo statues of scholars of the past, mainly long dead men (photos on Flickr), but one is of Inge Lehmann, the famous seismologist who did her research into seismological waves at the university.

The Reformation Memorial

In the spirit of memorials and history which have seemed to characterise our day today the next thing we saw, opposite the front of the Cathedral, was the Reformation Memorial. 

The monument isn't as old as it looks, being created to mark the 400 years' anniversary of Denmark's change from Catholicism to the Evangelical-Lutheran faith in 1536. All pictures here. 

Copenhagen Cathedral - The Church of Our Lady

The Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke) as it is now, was built in 1829, after the English Navy bombarded it, on the site of the 1187 church of Bishop Absalon. Absalon was Bishop of Roskilde, the then capital of Denmark, and established a port on the Baltic for the nation called Havn, which has become Copenhagen (Kobenhavn) as it developed and outgrew its neighbouring towns. The front of the Cathedral is picture at the top of today's post. The inside, sparsly decorated, but well lit, is below. 

Our Lady's Church is the mother church of the Danish National Church and the Bishop is the religious leader of the Church, the Monarch being the Head of the Church. It is famed for its statues of Christ and the Apostles, copies of which we saw in the Bertel Thorvaldsen Museum on Wednesday. All 59 photos including the church, its statutory and images of past Rectors and Bishops can be seen starting here. 

Round Tower

The round tower is a fascinating site in the very heart of the city. It was built in by King Christian IV as an observatory. It was built in the early 1600s, prompted by the research of the astronomer Tycho Brahe, who died in 1601. Though he was not much liked by the King, Christian believed that the work was so important it should be taken up by others. Brache's leaving of his notes to Kepler, the German astronomer, didn't go down well with his fellow countrymen. 

Trinity Church

Next to the round tower, indeed connected to it, is Trinity Church. While the queue to climb the Round Tower was long, a visit to the Church was easy with hardly anyone inside. So, we spent more time here than in the tower. 

Like the Round Tower, the Church was built at the request of King Christian IV who wanted a Church for the professors and students of the University. 

Christian's Trinity wasn't the normal one - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - but the church, the tower and the royal book collection. Or as he put it (at least in translation):

• A church for the Holy Trinity
• A stronghold of books 
• A star castle of wonderful execution

Unlike most of the other churches of this era, Trinity is no in the Dutch Renaissance style, but in a mix of reformation styles influenced by the earlier Gothic traditions, as can be seen from the windows (see below along with the clock, pointed opposite the pulpit, as a reminder to the preachers. The windows will will look familiar to people who know Catholic Churches and Cathedrals of the centuries before, something Christian IV might not have liked being reminded of, as he was at the Diet of Worms hearing Martin Luther make his impassioned plea for a new Church and, as King, he brought reformation to his home country, deposing his Catholic forbear - Christian III (a distant relation). 

As ever, more photos of the inside can be seen here. 

Freedom Museum

The final item of our day's visits was the Museum of Danish Resistance also known as the Freedom Museum. This is an account of the German occupation of Denmark from 1940 to 1945. A theme very much in my mind after the visit to the Danish Jewish Museum but presented here in an effective way.  

The Museum makes fantastic use of Audio-Visual for a warts and all account of Denmark, its royalty, its politicians and its people during the 1940-1945.

It uses five characters who wrote about their experience before they died. An engineering student, a communist activist who had fought in Spain's civil war, a housewife who formed part of the resistance, a young man who was studying medicine and a member of the Danish Nazi party all of whom, especially the latter, offered very different perspectives on their experience with their own words being voiced in English or Danish depending on your preference. A little about each of these characters can be read here:

• Musse Hartig
• Jørgen Kieler
• Thorkild Lund-Jensen
• Karl Christensen
• Henning Brøndum

There words were supported by artefacts, stories about the wider events for each of the five years and physical artefacts of them and others from the period. Including a jumper of a man killed while he was trying to signal to British Planes to deliver weapons.

Another, of one of the characters above, whose shirt that he was wearing as he died, worn and torn though it is, is here in the Museum.  

The impact of this place is immense - the photos, tell some of the story. You can view all 128 of them starting here with a view of the undemonstrative exterior and clicking/swiping left. 

Preparing for Tomorrow

One of Drew's objectives for today was to not exhaust himself before his half-marathon tomorrow. He set conditions on how far he was willing to walk, so we stayed well below the milage we have walked on most days of this break so far.

However, after the two and a half hours we spent in the Museum of Danish Resistance, he did want to check out the location from which he is to begin his run. We caught the Metro to the nearest station - Vibenshus Runddel Station - and walked the short distance to the loos (an important part of any race, I'm told!)

and the statue near to the start point for his age and speed category. So, he has some landmarks [Co-Pilot's note: I have, dear readers, a tendency to get lost, very, very easily.] when he is here on his own (well on his own with 25,000 others) tomorrow.

That done we got back on the metro and arrived at our nearby station - Copenhagen Central Station - at 3.45pm having walked just under six miles, 14,000 steps.

Dinner 

From 3.45pm until 6.15pm we had a cup of tea or two (drinking coffee each morning means we have some spare tea bags that it is good to use up) while editing and loading photos on Flickr and completing one of yesterday's blog posts. 

We left the hotel at 6.15 for the short walk, two blocks, to the restaurant for tonight - Ristorante Bueno. Drew had suggested an Italian would be a good meal for him the day before the race as the pasta would help him load up with carbs. When we found there was a restaurant with a good reputation so close we booked it last Wednesday, by then the 6.30pm slot was the only one free.  

The Meal started with bread and olive oil to dip it in, with some black and green olives. Drew enjoyed the dipping but left all the olives for me. He likes the taste but not the texture, so far be it from me to complain!

For starters I opted for Carpaccio di Salmone Con Limone. The smoked salmon was slicied thinly and was delicious, the lemon was sharp and the dill drew out the taste of the fish. The little additions, the tomatoes, chives, lemon and orange all got eaten and provided a freshness to the whole dish -  delizioso as the Italian's say.

Drew also had carpaccio, this time the Carpaccio di Manzo. with finly cut beef and generous heloing of Parmesan cheese. Drew again did his joke about it being a bit undercooked!! But he eat it and the rocket and tomatoes, leaving an empty plate, which is praise indeed.

My mains was Papperdelle Filleto e Tartufo, the pappardelle was as el dente as it is supposed to be, it provided a wonderful vehicle to get the tasty pieces of well cooked beef into my mouth along with the rich earthiness of the delightful truffle. Again, a word of Italian springs to mind - Bellissimo.

Drew, looking for uncomplicated flavours with plenty of body opted for the Ravioli Al Pomodoro e Basilico with parmesan on top. The three large ravioli were filled with strong cheese and the tomato and basil made the whole dish complete. A perfect pre-run meal.

I think I, being greedy, would probably have had a third course in the Italian, antipasto, pasta, main, dessert tradition. But it was not to be. I'm sure I'll survive one night with a dinner that suits Drew's running needs, not my delight in getting up from the table feeling full. There have been plenty of times on this holiday when we have managed the latter!

We finished the meal and got back to the hotel by 8pm. Drew sat and contemplated his run [Co-pilot's note: he means, dear readers, that I spent half an hour trying to get the bib on my t-shirt] and I relaxed until we went to bed at 10pm. Hopefully, in Drew's case, ready for the morrow.