Christmas in Copenhagen

Our son and his family have moved to Vilnius, Lithuania, and, in December 2022, we flew to spend the holidays with them.  We planned the trip with a stopover in Copenhagen, Denmark -- partly to rest between connections and minimize jet lag, and partly to take the opportunity to visit another country with interesting holiday traditions.

We landed in Copenhagen on December 13, and caught a taxi to our hotel, CitizenM, which is conveniently located on City Hall Plaza in the middle of Old Town Copenhagen, where everything we wanted to see was within walking distance.  City Hall Plaza, with its modest Christmas tree had a cozy look about it, dressed in a light snow:

Copenhagen was home to the writer Hans Christian Andersen, and our hotel was situated on Hans Christian Andersens Boulevard, which conveniently memorialized the beloved author with a statue by City Hall:

The Danes like to be warm and cozy in the cold winters, and "hygge" is their special word for coziness.  We learned this before our trip, and we were eager to sample some special Danish hygge on our visit.  It was entirely appropriate, therefore, that, when we opened the door to our hotel room, we found this cozy little pig perched on our bed.  We immediately named him "Hygge Pygge."

 

Copenhagen is a city of bicycles.  Everyone rides bikes here, and the city has accommodated them with their own, well-demarcated bike lanes throughout the city.  However, pedestrians are well advised to keep an eye out.  When we arrived at our hotel, the cab driver warned us that he would get out first and help us cross the bike lane, or -- he assured us -- we would be run over by hordes of cyclists.  He wasn't kidding.  We've never seen so many bicycles, in motion and parked, as here in Copenhagen:

Copenhagen is famous for its Christmas markets, so, as soon as we dropped our bags and took a short nap, we were out walking the city in search of the half dozen Christmas markets sprinkled around town.  We're proud to say we found them all!

On our short list of places to visit in Copenhagen was the famous Nyhavn, the site of an early port for the city.  Its colorful houses, arrayed along a canal full of wooden boats, have become the trademark for the city.

Old Town is filled with interesting architecture and seasonal decoration in surprising corners, such as the gate to this churchyard:

One of our taxi drivers explained to us that, due to power conservation affecting all of Europe to deal with shortages of gas from the Russian pipelines during the Russia-Ukraine war, the lighting this year took on a more muted tone.  We thought the city was festively decorated, so we wondered how marvelous it would have been in its typical holiday dress. Maybe we'll come back another year to see. 

One tourist site not on our list was a visit to an amber shop.  As it happens, the countries around the Baltic Sea boast some of the most plentiful and high quality amber in the world.  As soon as she discovered this, rock-loving Kathy immediately sought out the most interesting amber shop to sample its pleasures.  We also made sure to stop at the amber exhibit in each of the two museums we visited while in Copenhagen.

Perhaps the one event we were most interested in seeing was the annual Lucia Kayak Parade, which we learned would be held the night of December 13, the day we arrived.  We made sure to high ourselves over to the famous Kayak Bar on one of the canals to watch the preparations for the parade, which starts there.

We found a good spot across the canal from the Kayak Bar and waited, staying as warm as we could in the cold evening air, for the parade to start.

We weren't disappointed!  Around the corner they came, returning to the Kayak Bar where they had started, decked out in multicolored Christmas lights.  At each of the four corners of the square made by a 3-sided canal and the river, the boaters would stop and sing Christmas carols to the crowd, many of whom joined in the singing themselves.  It was a warm and wonder experience, not commercialized at all.  Each boat and its lights were the work of an individual paddler.  There were a few larger party boats, but each boat was decorated simply and tastefully in colored light.  When the boaters were not singing, it was surprisingly silent, so that you could even hear their paddles catch the water as they moved along.

Staying up for the Lucia Kayak Parade the day of our arrival made for a tiring, long day, so we had a little sleep-in on our second day, then headed out to explore more of Old Town.  One of our stops was the Copenhagen Museum, which focuses on the history of the city.  Much of its history was the result of its central location -- so its port figures large, and, due to its vulnerability to other warring armies, so did its historic city walls, now converted to a partial ring of parks around Old Town.

The building housing the Copenhagen Museum had been built to house an agency to aid children and homeless mothers, and its found commissioned this stained glass window for its facade.  The beauty and detail of the workmanship still shines.

On our return to Copenhagen in January as we flew back to Miami from Vilnius, we had a day to continue our tours, and took that opportunity to visit the National Museum of Denmark, also a short walk from our hotel.  This national museum focuses on the history and prehistory of Denmark as a nation and culture.  One of the more unique exhibits was of lurs, or lur horns.  As explained by the Museum, a lur is a wind instrument cast in bronze dating to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1000 BC).  Most lurs have come from Denmark, where a total of 39 have been found. Sweden, Norway and northern Germany too have produced examples. The curving shape of the tubes recalls ox horns, on which the lurs may have been modeled. In Denmark the lurs are usually found in pairs and always in bog deposits.  The Museum boasts these (as we counted) 15 beautiful horns.  We were sorry that we couldn't hear their sound.

On our last day of the first visit to Copenhagen, having rested from our flight and finished seeing sights close to our hotel, we set out on a more extended 7-mile trek around the city, seeing the more far-flung sights.

Of course we had to visit the Little Mermaid...

...then walk along the harbor...

...past the dramatic Opera House across the river...

...and into Christiana, where we strolled past snow-covered boats and apartment houses and found a cozy little restaurant for lunch.

One of the more famous buildings in Copenhagen is the Church of Our Savior with its spiral staircase.  When it is open, the public can climb the stairs for a view across the city.  Its carillon is the largest in Northern Europe and plays melodies every hour from 8:00 am to midnight.  Built in 1695 (the spire was built in 1752), the church acquired the carillon in 1928 and the carillon was rebuilt in 1980.

The main attraction for us in Christiana was the small community of Free Christiana and a wonderful Christmas Market there that sells true handmade arts and crafts (as opposed to the mainly touristy fare offered in the other Christmas Markets).  This is the view into Free Christiana from one of its entrances:

Freetown Christiania is an intentional community and commune of about 850 to 1,000 residents, covering 19 acres in the borough of Christianshavn within Copenhagen.  The area of Freetown Christiania consists of the former military barracks and parts of the city ramparts. The western ramparts of Copenhagen were demolished during the 19th century, but those of Christianshavn were allowed to remain. They are today considered among the finest surviving 17th century defence works in the world.  

After the military presence in the area faded, only a few watchmen remained to guard the area which was mainly trespassed by homeless people who wanted to use the empty buildings. In September of 1971, the inhabitants of a nearby residential area broke down the fences to take over the unused facilities as a playground for their children. Some contended that this was done as a form of protest against the government, which at the time struggled to provide suitable housing for its residents. Jacob Ludvigsen, a journalist, announce that the area would henceforth be the "forbidden city of the military," a free town and a place meant for settlers who wanted the chance to build a society from scratch. He would become instrumental in writing the free community's mission statement which talked of creating a self-run society where each individual had to contribute to the wellbeing of the community with the ultimate goal of being economically self-sustaining.

Since its opening, Christiania has been famous for its open cannabis trade, taking place in the centrally located Pusher Street. Although the hash trade is illegal, authorities were for many years reluctant to forcibly stop it. Proponents thought that concentrating the hash trade at one place would limit its dispersion in society, and that it could prevent users from switching to 'harder drugs'.

To this day, photography is prohibited along Pusher Street, where the bulk of the drug business is openly carried on.  Those who support this activity tend to be anti-government, as suggested by some of the signage:

There still is, however, an idealistic side to the community, as witnessed by this folk sculpture titled, "The World Is In Our Hands":

Eventually, with the help of directions from some local (free) citizens, we found the old building, Gra Hall, which houses the Christmas Market, and in we went to admire some beautiful hand-made creations from Freetown Christiana and around the world:

 

 

By this time, our feet were seven miles sore, and we hoofed it back toward Old Town, where we found a cozy restaurant to have our last traditional Danish dinner before our flight on to Vilnius, Lithuania the next day.