HCA 2005
Copenhagen
June 22, 2005
Clearly, not everyone was thrilled with the hoopla surrounding the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen's birth, but we are tourists and therefore allowed to be impressed. We bought in completely, even taking a tour given by Richard Karpen (recommended highly by Rick Steves), who led Em and me and 30 others on a walk through the old town and the Christiansborg Palace grounds. I had to talk Emily into the venture, but within 5 minutes, she was front and center with her hand raised for one question after another. The most interesting of these may have had to do with Hans' descriptions of the public punishments near the old debtors' prison: Why did they whip them on the back instead of the front? And so on.
Thumbnails (click to enlarge): Christiansborg Palace, built by Denmark's Renaissance King, Christian IV, now Parliament's home; Spiral staircase on steeple of Our Savior Church in Christianhavn district; Statue of Neptune in front of old stock exchange building (Copenhagen, or Kobenhavn, means merchants' harbor); tower of watchful dragon guardians atop stock exchange; canal dividing Christianhavn from rest of old Copenhagen.
