Today’s theme seemed to parallel life with the good, the bad, and the ugly!
Having trouble posting last night, Theresa actually got on to connect with Verizon “Help”. Short version, they were not. We finally got to bed about 2:30, so this morning was slow. And after so much walking anyway, we slept in this morning, skipping a couple of museums on the plan.
Our Savior Church with spiral stairs outside
We went to Parliament to pick up tickets for a 1PM tour, then headed over to Our Savior’s Church. They had a beautiful tower, with a spiral stairs on the outside of it. There was a line of people trying to get up there, so we checked out the church first. It is a beautiful church, but its most noteworthy part is the organ—it boasts the most photographed musical instrument in the world. The organ is suspended over the door, with pipes extending three stories. It seems to almost float!
Organ in Our Savior Church
Theresa had zero interest in climbing around the outside of the tower. I tried to encourage her, but to no avail. So, I headed up by myself. In short order, I was fairly sure she had made the right choice. For her. The first sets of stairs were a little small, but reasonable for people to pass going up or down. Then they narrowed. And got steeper.
About halfway up, one could still squeeze passed the other person, but not without a lot of close contact.
Not really that bad!
Then it got tight! They became sort of a spiral in a square. Every third step went to the corner, where a person could stand and be passed with some challenge.
Then it was a tight spiral where it was not possible to pass, and suddenly, I emerged into the open. From stuffy to breezy, it first felt refreshing, then scary. The floor sloped down to the railing, which although it was probably secure, from being boxed in, it was like being set loose!
The spiral up from there was copper everywhere. Copper steps, walls, everything.
I got almost all the way to the top, but there was a guy there in the corner, and he stayed awhile, so I took a picture and came down. I was doubtful there was even enough room for me on that top step anyway!
Two steps from the top!
On the way back to the Parliament building for our tour, we wanted to get a quick lunch. Reviewing all of the options, almost all were big bready sandwiches with meager wimpy shavings of meat and piles of limp lettuce—for about $20. Hmmm. So, there was a McDonald’s, and as reticent as we were, that just made sense. They had a burger called “Arizona Dream”, which looked like a Big Mac minus the middle bun, but was supposed to be spicy sauce. It was a lettuce explosion. Anyway, at the end of lunch, I noticed a time line on the wall. Seemingly, in 1852 (I think), the famous philosopher Soren Kierkegaard had written a book which was edited and published at that very address where we just ate! So, we contemplated the philosophic finer points of McDs.
The tour of Parliament was mostly interesting. I am constantly amazed and impressed how many people speak English fluently, as did our tour guide, who claimed to not have studied it since school in 1965. Parts of the building were beautiful, and parts…well…ugly!! The artwork had all been replaced with some modern stuff that looked unstately. But, he showed us the seats where the Queen sits when they open the session each year, and the room designated for her to smoke, since smoking is not allowed in the building now…unless you are the Queen.
Seems like Parliament's steps are much nicer!
Denmark Parliament Chamber
The Queen's smoking room
We left Parliament for something more fun…a tour of Carlsberg Brewery! Complete with two free drinks for each of us! They had a collection of beer bottles from different eras and all over the world. The total collection was almost 17,000 bottles, and written on a chalk board which was updated as necessary!
16,879 Bottles of beer on the wall, 16,879 bottles of beer...
Part of the tour was through the stables. They have Jutland Horses, which frankly look like a shorter version of the Clydesdales. We stopped to interact with them, and Theresa even wanted a picture of me with one. He put his head up there, and Theresa got the shot, then he promptly turned around, shoved his rump right up next to me, and I got out of there. Not sure what he was doing, but there was NO CHANCE I was going to be photographed next to a …well… Anyway, as I enjoyed my first beer, I noted that it was 9AM, Tuesday morning at home (although it was 4PM here), so I thought of what others might be doing. It seemed to make the beer taste even better!!
The brewery had a shuttle bus to Tivoli, an amusement park. Supposedly, it is fantastic at night with the lights and such, plus lots of places to eat. Well, Disney World has a lot of places to eat too, and I think they compared prices! But Theresa found a shwarma place, and wanted that, and I opted for fish and chips…with a beer.
One of the scenes in Tivoli
Finally, we hurried to the Assistens cemetery, hoping it would not rain. The cemetery is more like a park, with walk paths, joggers, bicyclist, and people just sitting on benches. And, many of the graves were so overgrown, you could not see the markers.
Assistens Cemetery
But, there were very good signs for the famous people interred there. But, we had only heard of three, so we only bothered to go there. Hans Christian Andersen was the most popular one there, and our reason to be there. Then we saw Kierkegaard’s grave, and finally Niels Bohr, a famous scientist.
Hans Christian Andersen's grave
On the way home, we took a bus to the Metro station, and then hopped on to head home. But, it was a mess!! There was some problem, and they had shut down one of the lines or stations or something; but where two lines ran parallel. Sparing the details, it took us about 90 minutes to get home, when it should have been 20. So, we were not happy about that, but at least we were not running for flights like some of the people.
Tomorrow, we fly to Greenland. We are not sure how well our access to internet will be, so we may or may not be able to make postings consistently. In fact, we have been trying a new way to post, which is faster, but does not allow formatting, so if it looked different, that’s why. But, that is the only way we will be able to post later (if that works, and we hope so).
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