This
morning we visited ‘The Little Mermaid’ on the harbour, which Sea Princess
tells me is the internationally recognized symbol of Copenhagen. It is a statue
of Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘Little Mermaid’ heroine.
We
are docked a little further along the harbour, so when we set out to ‘walk’ (me
on scooter) along the waterfront we met the floods of tourists from their
coaches streaming along towards her. She is tiny and you’d think hardly
remarkable enough to draw such crowds, but here they were. Some were scrambling
out onto the wet rocks to perch beside her to have their photo taken with her.
No one slipped into the harbour while we were there but I’m sure some must do.
It
was a very pleasant walk when we were in the sun. The ship said expect 20°C and
cloudy. It probably was 20° except the sharp wind along the waterfront made it
feel less. Especially when it clouded over. Everything along the waterfront was
neat and trim. Grass mown and huge flower pots – at least a metre high – in
full bloom with summer flowers. Further along there was a small park with
flowers in profusion. Lots of lavender and other tallish flowering bushes blooming in the neat beds. Along the
way were plenty of seats facing the water for strolling people to rest.
We
also met several Kings – Frederick or Christian – in bronze, and a beautiful
water fountain with mythical ladies. This fountain was very scenic against the several
steeples of a grey stone church which chimed every quarter hour. Tourists with
cameras and phones lined up to take its photo.
We
wandered into the closest end of the city and found a neat street with modern
stone buildings right to the footpath. A word about those footpaths: tarred
sections covered the old cobblestones except for the driveways into the courtyards
behind these restaurants and apartment blocks. There seemed to be car parking
in the courtyards behind. These buildings had roofs I have long associated with
Scandinavia. The Mansard has the almost
vertical edge with windows in it. The other has the usual sloping roof with
dormer windows from the attics.
I
said thank goodness for the tarred sections of
footpath as the cobblestone sections are rough and jerky to ride my
scooter over. Soon we decided to cut through to the waterfront again and there we
met large squares and waterfront pavements all of cobblestones. I rattled along
on them for quite a while as we watched the long and low boats crowded with
tourists glide around the harbour – all making for the Little Mermaid and away
again. The tourists stood up and leaned over in their anxiety to take photos of
her as they went by. Just as none of the tourists climbing out on the slippery
rocks near her had fallen in, neither did we see any of those leaning out of
the boats fall overboard.
The
wind whistled along the waterfront as we made our way back to the ship, so we
were glad to get inside. There was a problem getting the scooter over the lip
of the gangway as it entered the ship. In an effort to make it move over easily
for the assisting crew in the blue vests, Bruce kicked a lever at the back to
put it into ‘neutral’, and after that it wouldn’t go into gear again so we were
stranded. Bruce pushed it over and into a ‘up’ lift to our floor where it sat
unhappily outside the lifts until later when he took it apart and got it going
again. Thank goodness, as it makes the long distances in the ship easy to
travel. He’s a clever chap sometimes! He’s always quoting that he ‘used to be
an engineer’ – but sometimes his specialty is that he can ‘bodgey up’ something
to make it work.
It
was sad for us that our Copenhagen friends were away sailing somewhere North on
their summer sailing holiday. We had seen much of Copenhagen when we stayed
with them in their city, so we restricted ourselves to the waterfront along
from the ship where we could venture on foot and scooter. So we did not see
again the magnificent Palaces, changing of the guard, or the home of our
Australian Crown Princess Mary and her Danish family.
What
we did see along the waterfront were the old disused warehouses – tarted up a
bit and sometimes with statues in the windows of unused floors. There were huge
modern buildings along the waterfront with large picture windows facing the
harbour, but as they had no names (on our side of them at least) we have no
idea what they are. The windows were opaque glass, but we could see lights
inside so people were working there. Must be a pleasant place to work with such
views.
Last
– the windmills. Their tops tower in the distance in all directions above the
buildings. They are huge. Not the old Dutch windmills type, but the modern
slim, tall metal energy generators with their three blades turning and turning
in the wind. As Sea Princess slid away from the Harbour we saw the famous
Bridge from Denmark to Sweden – six miles long. We saw a TV series from
Sweden/Denmark called ‘The Bridge’ which made us familiar with it’s strategic
character.
We saw windmills
out in the ocean. A line of them. We counted eighteen all turning relentlessly
in the onshore winds to provide much of the electricity for Danish consumption
without polluting the atmosphere with carbon from fossil fuels.
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