The Little Mermaid (Den Lille Havfrue) Copenhagen
From the story that you might only THINK you know…
The Little Mermaid
Like yesterday, the weather today was absolutely perfect. We don’t know how we managed it, but we got two back-to-back days in Copenhagen with clear, sunny skies and temperatures above 70* F. Also like yesterday, everyone was out and about enjoying the day. I’m beginning to think that the Danes are lying about their famous cloudy/rainy weather just to keep the place from being over-touristed! It is fun to see the city transforming back to what we imagine must be “normal” life after the Pride and Ironman events blocked off major parts of it. We were able to get clear pictures of the City Hall and visit Christiansborg Palace (more below) for the first time since arriving.
We woke up late (again! We know! We’re slackers for not leaving the hotel before 9 a.m. two days in a row!). We hadn’t yet explored Copenhagen by bike and since that’s such an huge part of who we are and why we travel, we decided today was the day! We each bought a multi-hour bike pass for Lime e-bikes, which allowed us to travel around all day for one set fee. For our first adventure, we decided that we would be biking down to see the little mermaid statue on Copenhagen’s waterfront. We were supposed to check this out on day 1, but we were way too tired! It’s kind of one of those “you’re here and you gotta do it” things. It’s easily the MOST touristy thing in town, and people by the bus load (actual busses) go down the the large pedestrian waterfront street (Langelinie) and see this tiny statue of a little mermaid on a rock. It’s nearly impossible to get a decent picture, people are trying to crawl out to the damned statue…it’s basically a nightmare. But if you’re in Copenhagen, you are basically obligated to do it. The statue depicts Hans Christian-Anderson’s famous fairy tale character of the little mermaid. The statue has had a pretty crazy history. Its head has been cut off twice by vandals. One beheading was as recent as 1998. Her left arm was also taken by vandals and then later returned. She is a statue that welcomes you into the harbor, and she is world famous. She was removed in 2010 to be a part of Denmark’s Expo 2010 in Shanghai China. During that time, a live image of the statue in China was projected onto a screen in her original location.
Ok…now…
I would like to tell you a little story. Wherever you are, get comfortable. Pull up a warm blanket. Turn the lights down. Have a nice glass of something warm and cozy.
Ready?
Ok now imagine me sitting there with you and brushing my scraggly head of hair and smiling Disney-style, because it’s about to get a little creepy. You may think that you know the tale of the little mermaid from your happy little Disney movies, but I am sorry to tell you that the world is dark and scary…and everything you know about the little mermaid is wrong…AND THE TRUTH IS TERRIFYING!
So yeah, basically there’s a little mermaid girl. She is the youngest of a number of sisters. When they turn 15, mermaids get to go check out what’s happening above the water. But they are still mermaids…so they have to stay IN the water. They can swim up streams and rivers, etc. All the other sisters are enamored at first, but then they realize that they have it much better “under the sea.” So the little mermaid (unnamed in the story by the way) goes up and saves a prince, whose ship sinks after his birthday party. She hauls his dumbass to the beach and leaves him there. She watches secretly as a woman comes and calls for help, but the prince was not conscious when she saved him. He doesn’t know what really happened. The little mermaid falls into an unrequited love with the prince and then into a deep depression. The pride of her life was her underwater garden, and that garden falls to ruin in her depression. Events transpired that take her to a sea witch, who makes her a potion to drink so that she can go up on land and be with the prince. Like with all fairy-tale witches, conditions apply. She will, yes, lose her voice. That’s one for you, Walt. BUT ALSO she will gain the ability to dance like no other human can dance. So, performance modifier +10! BUT every step she takes will feel like she is walking on sharp knives, and the pain of losing her tail will NEVER leave her. Sounds fun right? It gets better! She is a mermaid, and mermaids do not have souls like humans do. Mermaids may live 300 years, but they dissolve into sea foam when they die and are nothing. The little mermaid wants a soul. So the witch says she must marry the prince to do this. This way, some of the prince’s soul will transfer into her. If she fails, then on the next day after the wedding, she will DIE and dissolve into foamy nothing. The kids love that part! So anyway she swims up, takes the potion, feels like she was run through with a sword, passes out, and wakes up in the prince’s arms. YAY!!! And they lived happily ever…just kidding! Because she is mute, the prince keeps her around as his confessor pet. He tells her his secrets and desires. He does not fall in love with her. Eventually he is betrothed in an arranged marriage to a princess in a foreign land…the one who “saved” him on the beach no less! They get married! And they lived…hang on a second. What happens to the little mermaid? Her heart is broken and she knows that she is going to die. She is visited by her sisters, who sold their beautiful hair to the sea witch in exchange for a dagger. They bring the dagger to the little mermaid, so that she can use it to kill the prince and spill his blood on her feet. Only in this way can she return to being a mermaid. Still having fun? How’s that warm drink? Ok so anyway, she sneaks up on him at night, while he is in bed with his new wife after the wedding, but she cannot do it. So she throws herself and the dagger off a ship and dissolves into foam at dawn. There’s a bit about her being resurrected in some spiritual way that allows her to live and do good deeds as a spirit for 300 years before she RECEIVES a soul and can go to heaven but…the End. Wasn’t that nice?
Gefionspringvandet (Gefion Fountain)
Nearby along the Langelinie is the Gefion Fountain. Gefion (Gefjon) is the goddess of ploughing. The Swedish King offered her land. The condition was that he would give her as much as she could plow in one day. So, she turned her 4 sons into super-oxen (boss move) and ploughed a TON of land off of Sweden and threw it into the sea, forming Zealand (the island that makes up Eastern Denmark). If you look at a map of Denmark and Sweden, it ACTUALLY looks like this took place. It really looks like land that was formerly locked into Sweden was cut away from it. The puzzle pieces REALLY seem to fit! While we were visiting, there were multiple tour busses arriving and departing to show off this magnificent fountain. It sort of reminded both us of the Trevi fountain of Rome with the tourist interest.
The Kastellet (Citadel)
In the same area, near the harbor, is an operating military citadel. They allow folks to come through their parade/assembly areas and walk the ramparts. They ask that you please not be a jerk and keep off the grass. We happily obliged. Armed guards are stationed at the gates of the citadel as you enter, keeping watch over entrance to the place by car mostly.
We walked the beautiful grassy ramparts and enjoyed the wonderful wildlife and flowers in the moat. Did I say this thing has a moat? Yeah, it’s a citadel. It has a moat! Jessi got to do a little bird watching and added two new life birds! She’s LOVING getting to see some “new to her” species of birds that don’t make regular appearances in North America. We also found a lovely coffee shop for a mid-morning latte, and while it was delicious, it wasn’t quite the same as our new favorite “Espresso House” chain.
Royal Opera House
We jumped on the bikes and headed along the harbor to cross into Christianshavn over a pedestrian and bike only bridge. We loved it. Biking here is easy and the best way to get around. Actually better than the metro! So we biked over to the absolutely gorgeous Royal Opera House on the other side of the harbor. We parked and walked the grounds a bit before heading inside. The architecture of the building is fascinating. All the smooth curves in the building give you the sense that everything flows. A very nice Danish woman approached me and Jessi to point out the chandeliers on the second floor. They were made by a famous Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. They are glass globes, composed from multiple glass pieces of different colors. We’ve ACTUALLY seen his work before in Tivoli Gardens. There is a small aerial art project of his in the same sort of style, but not with globes.
Christiania (AKA Hippy-town)
After we got a good look at the Opera House, we again found our bikes and took a short ride to the free city of Christiania. We wanted to see it since it is so hyped up in our tourist book and in the online materials we reviewed. It was…. Fine? It was very touristy and not really the “independent” landscape we were expecting. There were merchants selling wares, but they all seemed to be mass-produced “Chinesium” that you could get at any outdoor market in the world. Glad that we took the time to stop, but also don’t feel any need to visit again.
After that, we stopped off in Christianshavn near the Inderhavnsbroen (pedestrian/bikes only bridge). I gobbled down a Danish sausage with an amazing potato salad, and Jessi had the best, freshest fish and chips of her life. She has not stopped talking about it yet. It’s starting to get annoying!
Once lunch was over, we jumped back across the bridge and took some pretty pictures of the houses in Nyhavn, a 17th century waterfront section of Copenhagen. The colorful houses and canal setting are a neat feature that is worth a few minutes for a pic or two. Then, we walked over to the nearby Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square), where there is a beautiful garden set into a square in the middle of Copenhagen. We got a quick peep at YET ANOTHER Palace…well… this one is a former palace actually. Charlottenborgslot is now an exhibition hall. Unfortunately we didn’t have any time to go in today. We had bigger fish to fry…great…now Jessi’s lunch is coming back to haunt me again…
Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace is the seat of all branches of the Danish government housed in one complex. We had planned tour this palace yesterday, but we had run out of time. To be honest, we were not actually sure what this palace had to offer. Oh man did we underestimate what was there. It was absolutely awesome. Our ticket afforded us tours of 4 parts of the palace: Royal Reception Rooms, Palace Ruins, Royal Kitchen, and the Royal Stable. Unfortunately all of the other parts were so AWESOME that we didn’t get to the stable in time. It was super unfortunate, because the stable is the oldest part of the palace. Why is the stable the oldest part? Easy, it’s the only part of the palace that didn’t burn down! The palace has burnt down at least two times in its history, and new palaces were built on top of it. Previous to all of those fires, the palace was sacked and disassembled brick-by-brick!
We know all of this because we took a tour of the palace ruins. Deep in a basement of the palace, the ruins of the previous palaces and fortresses have been found. These ruins dat back to the 12th century and the founding of Copenhagen by Bishop Absalon! It was incredible to look upon the stone walls of the original fortress that built the city we see today! You could see how the footprint of each successor palace got bigger and bigger. They built directly on top of the previous buildings, sometimes using passages from the older ones for things like drain pipe runs. We heard a really neat story about the daughter of a King who was kept in the palace prison for 21 years and released. This was over a succession quarrel. She wrote a 16th century memoir about it when she was finally let free, and we will be looking for the English translation of that. That will be quite a read!
The Royal Reception rooms were also a treat. We had the opportunity to walk through the same rooms where foreign dignitaries and heads of state come to dine and meet the Danish royal family. We stood in a library directly beneath the office of the Prime minister of Denmark. We came in off the street. We paid for a tour, and then we were standing in the room where the Prime Minister met with Fmr. Pres. Barack Obama and Fmr. UK PM Theresa May. We gawked at the stunning opulence and the history of the room. We kept asking each other, “why would they let just anyone in here?” We were walking through serious reception halls and dining rooms and antechambers where statesmen and diplomats go about the business of world politics and democracy. We had this overwhelming feeling of, “We don’t belong here, stepping on the rug that was given to the Queen as a gift from her parliament.” It felt too real! You could never do this in the USA without pre-registration, being searched in NCIC, and going through a magnetometer! And then, you would need to be escorted by someone who would watch you like a hawk! Here, we were left to our own recognizance in the hallowed halls where the Danes display sacred artifacts from their history. We even walked into the throne room! I’m still blown away. I have no words to say except that unfortunately, we don’t have a culture in the USA where this would be possible. Many people are thoughtless, and I think a minority of them (just enough) would wreck everything. This is an evolved society here in Denmark.
We were ridiculously tired after our Charlottenborgslot tour, so we stopped of at the hotel for a quick rest. We decided to go to War Pigs BBQ again tonight! Guys, it’s seriously THAT good. I really would not be surprised if we do it again on our way back through!
I think I could write about Charlottenborgslot for another 2 hours at least, but we have an early morning tomorrow. We are planning to eat out of town early and head for our next city destination, Roskilde! We’ll see you all there!
