Kobenhavn, Denmark: Day Seven

On my own for the day, I rode the train in to Kobenhavn. I had made contact with a folkschool in the city and so my first activity was to visit them. I hadn't heard back from them yet, but I decided to ask at the office if they could give me a tour. When I got there the electricity in that part of Kobenhavn was out, but they were very nice and agreed to show me around as well as take pictures! It was just like I had read about and thought that it would be like to be at the school. The students were engaged, happy, and curious and it was a great environment for learning.


Many of the students were out in the courtyard working on projects, others were out doing some reporting for their journalism focus. Students were all over, but they were all self-directed and perfectly on their own. It was a great visit.

After my school visit, I walked back over to my favorite hidden garden and ate lunch while I watched a little boy and his grandfather play. They were really fun to watch and so cute.

Once I ate lunch, I went in search of a church I wanted to see. Vor Frue Kirken (church) is Lutheran so it is pretty spartan, and in the style of Northern Europe it is very white inside. However, the real point of interest in this church is the sculpture of Jesus Christ that is larger than life. The sculptor is Thorvaldsen, a famous Dane who spent most of his career not in Denmark, but donated most of his life’s work to his country of origin.

The sculpture of Jesus Christ became the “mold” by which other artists rendered depictions of him. It seems very plausible after looking at it. While I was in the church the organist began to practice, and I sat down to have a listen. At first I was the only one there, but eventually another woman walked in and sat behind me. After a few minutes, in the middle of the organ serenade, I turned around to find her totally blissed out: eyes closed, head swaying. I thought “wow, that is really great that she is so moved by the music”. Three minutes later, I got up and went in to the bathroom and discovered the smell that had augmented her bliss… Maybe she has just gone on a tour of Christiania before her visit to the church?

I found the Fiorstraede that Athena had recommended with a couple of great stores on it and wandered around for a while looking at the clothes and design shops. When I came upon a coffee shop, I sat down for an overly-expensive-but-totally-worth-it Café Latte, while I wrote out a couple of postcards. The sun was out and the pedestrian street provided great people watching, including some very cute kids with their moms--- I am telling you Danish kids are the happiest, easiest babies in the world it seems. I never once heard one crying. Their moms would just walk around with them in their very posh prams (with huge wheels) where the baby is laying down covered (with mini down comforters) and all was peaceful.

Once I got up to do a little more wandering, I found a grocery store where I bought food for lunch and dinner making for the next couple of days. Sunday and Monday are a Christian holiday (that I am unaware of) and so many things would not be open. It was a fairly uneventful visit, I had since mastered the tricky fruit buying (except I did get in trouble for not printing out a sticker for my bananas- for the record I tried, but couldn’t figure out the machine) and I also knew more about how to purchase dairy products with different fat and stinky contents. After heading to the post office, I caught a metro train to the main train station, and then caught an S-tog train to the suburbs.

Friday night Arne and Athena took us out to a restaurant on top of a water tower in Roskilde. This restaurant is all windows and you can look out over the whole town including the fjord. We were there for sunset around 10 pm and it was gorgeous. We also had a wonderful dinner with them. After traveling with them and having them as a host family of sorts this last week, we have grown quite attached. It also works well that we have a lot in common in terms of interests. When they brought us back to the guesthouse in Riso, it was goodbye for a quick weekend of Kobenhavn and then flying out to Prague. It was sort of a bittersweet goodbye, hoping to see them again soon when they move back to our home state.

More pictures of this day to come later...