Copenhagen Episode Four

 Yes, I got safely home on Friday. Busy and knackered yesterday, but now I have a wee bit of time to finish it all off. So, welcome to the 4^th and final episode of An English Fool Abroad with his sketchbook, summer 2023 edition. Well, I say episode 4 but really and truly this is more of a postscript when you get right down to it.

Now my flight wasn’t until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Judging from my experience on Monday, this could have meant anytime between then and 6 in the evening. Still, planning to be at the airport by noon, this meant that I could have the morning in the centre of Copenhagen and not worry – seriously, on the Metro it isn’t more than 20 mins or so from the centre. What’s that? Did I go and see Lille Hayfrue again? No, we said our goodbyes on Thursday evening. We had some fun, but at the end of the day we wanted different things. I wanted to go home to my wife and family and she wanted to sit on a rock staring out to sea. It would never have worked.

I did, though, head off to Gammel Strand where I sat and made the sketch of the fishwife statue. When I first saw it I did think that it had a definite early-mid 20^th century look about it, and a little bit of googling showed me that it was put there in 1940. Which is interesting considering that Denmark had a lot of other things to be dealing with at the time. The statue is officially there to mark the place where the olf fish market used to stand. It was a lovely morning in Copenhagen – quite bright and sunny, although not quite as glorious as Thursday evening. I took another walk along Stroget to Kongen’s Nytorv, which is the only station on all 4 Metro lines, stopping for a cappuchino. I’ll say this, I haven’t had a bad cup of coffee in Copenhagen. Mind you, I haven’t had a cheap one either, so I guess it all evens up. I did sketch an accordionist who was playing with his organ.

Coming back to food and drink, did I mention that I had a chicken curry? What with all of the excitement I must have forgotten to mention it. Right, now my first experience of curry in mainland Europe was when I tried currywurst in Berlin six years ago. Basically I found that it didn’t have a lot of bite, and was somewhere between UK chipshop curry sauce and tomato sauce. Well, the chicken curry I had yesterday was the same sort of thing, except that it was also sweet. If anything it tasted a little like Thai sweet chilli, in a curried chicken sort of way, that is.

In Kongens Nytorv, which I believe translates as the King’s New Square – there was a flea market going on. Granted, I didn’t actually see any fleas being marketed, but then they are very tiny. Right, I wasn’t going to tell you this. I felt that I owed it to my brethren and sistren of the international cheapskates to get the most out of my transport pass. So I went on a ride all the way around the M3 circle line. Which brought home to me like nothing else just how small and jewel-like the Copenhagen Metro is, since it didn’t take much more than about 20 minutes all told. It filled in a bit of time, and by the time I’d completed the loop it was time to head out to the airport.

So that was Copenhagen. Before I pass summary judgement I would like to share a little anecdote from Thursday. It was from when I was sitting on the bench in Nyhavn sketching the boat. A young couple sat next to me, English, and they were natterng away. They got onto the subject of Hans Christian Andersen – possibly because ewe were sitting on a bench opposite one of the houses where he used to live. The girl started talking about the 1950s musical based on his life, which starred Danny Kaye, and she started telling her partner all about the songs in it. Until she said, “Oh, there’s one he sings when he first goes to Copenhagen. It’s all about how great the place is. Oh, what’s it called?” When her partner didn’t reply I couldn’t help saying,

“That wouldn’t be ‘Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen’ by any chance, would it?’ She didn’t actually slap her forehead and say d’oh!, but it was one of those moments. Which kind of brings me to what I want to say about Copenhagen. Because when you get right down to it, it is a little bit wonderful. Weather notwithstanding I’ve had a great time, especially yesterday. I did originally think it was going to be a little bit like Stockholm, and in some ways, superficial ways I suppose it is a little bit. But then you could say it’s as much like Amsterdam as it’s like Stockholm. I don’t think I’ve mentioned the bikes yet. It gives Amsterdam a run for its money when it comes to being a cycle friendly city. Better, though, to just say what it’s most like is Copenhagen, and that’s a little bit wonderful all by itself.