What Makes Denmark so Danish

 We still had a few days left in Denmark but, before detailing what we saw, I'd like to talk a little about the Danish lifestyle and approach to life.  Our tour manager, Michael, was Canadian by birth but married a Danish woman and has a Danish child which affords him an interesting cultural prism through which he attempted to show us what the Danes were about.  

First, he said,  The Danes have the second highest divorce rate in the world. (Actually it has the 12th highest divorce rate behind the USA and Canada.) And they always score among the happiest nations in the world.  Is there a correlation?  They are spectacularly failing to reproduce themselves at an adequate rate but will try anything to avoid immigration.  Here's an example.  They ran a national ad campaign to try to up the replacement rate from a meager 1.8 to the 2+ range.  It was called:  "Do it for Grandma-- and Denmark".

It encouraged the populace to take vacations, relax and "do it". Hmmm.  They followed this up with a second campaign that offered a 10 percent discount on their next vacation if they could prove they conceived on their first vacation.  Everyone loved the idea -- except grandmas who felt they were being exploited.  So the third campaign offered a discount to any grandma who could show that their grandchild was conceived.... well, you get the idea.  While quirky, funny and generally charming the campaign failed to move the reproductive rate.  Maybe JD Vance and the pro-natalists could make it work in America.

And Michael offered two examples of how your best friends in Denmark will mark your significant birthdays.  If you reach the age of 25 and are unmarried you'll be tracked down on your birthday and your friends will throw cinnamon all over you to sweeten you up.  Then, if you hit 30 and have STILL failed to tie the knot, same friends will position a giant pepper mill in front of your house signifying that you are a "Pepper Maiden".  I don't know where you'd get that volume of cinnamon or giant pepper mills.  The whole thing seems pretty sexist to me... but perhaps I'm just being woke again.

OK.  Back to business.  We drove across a 5 mile long bridge that joins Copenhagen to Malmö Sweden. Not only was it impressive but it also now enables people to work in one country and commute to the other is they are do inclinclined.  We took a tour of Malmö and visited Malmöhus (Malmö Castle), St. Peter's Cathedral and Lundt Cathedral -- both of which were charming.

This very modern looking building stood out in Malmö.

The exterior of Malmöhus (Malmö Castle) built between 1526-1539, when Malmö was part of Denmark. It is now a museum.

An old chest in one of the castle's rooms,...

a throne and ...

a bed were some of the very few items from the past.

This tells the story of the White Buses used to rescue people from the Nazi concentrations camps and ...

how the museum was turned into a refugee center to take in some of those rescued.

The simple brick Gothic exterior of St. Peter's Church, built in the 14th century belies what is inside.

The retable is 15 meters high and the tallest in Northern Europe. It was created from 1608 to 1611 under the direction of German born sculptor Hendrich Könnicke.

The Merchant's Chapel was built for the Guild of cloth dealers. During the Reformation the ceiling murals were painted over in white. These were restored in the 20th century and are among the best preserved ceiling murals of the late Middle Ages.

The baptismal font in the Merchant's Chapel.

The great pulpit was inaugurated in 1599 after two years of working on it by the sculptor Daniel Stenhugger. The characteristically black stones came from the quarry in Fogelsång, north-east of Lund.

The Lund Cathedral with its 55 meter towers known as Lunna pagar dates from 1145 and is built in the Romanesque style. Originally Catholic, it is now a Lutheran Cathedral.

The Lund Cathedral altar, ...

the detail of the mosaic above the altar and ...

the main altarpiece.

The the most well-known and striking of the columns in the crypt is the sculpture of a figure traditionally called "The Giant Finn" in the crypt. According to a local legend, the giant helped build the cathedral, and when he was not paid for his services he tried to destroy it by shaking the pillars, but was petrified.

This Icon of Mary & Child was also in the crypt.

One of the tombs in the crypt of Lund Cathedral.

The Lund Astronomical Clock and perpetual calendar was the most impressive item in the cathedral. This shows the years from 1954 to 1970 and...

this portion shows the years from 2069 to 2085. When the clock was restored the perpetual calendar was updated to cover the period from 1923 to 2123.

Since the 16th century referred to as Horologium mirabile Lundense ( "the wonderful clock in Lund"), is a 15th-century astronomical clock. Mentioned in written sources for the first time in 1442, it was probably made and installed sometime around 1423–1425, possibly by Nikolaus Lilienfeld.

The detail of the perpetual calendar with the signs of the zodiac and ...

detail of the clock. The clock displays a medieval concept of time, based on a geocentric idea of the universe, and is decorated with religious symbols. It is possible to determine the current time of the day, the current lunar phase, the current position of the sun in the zodiac as well as the current date of the year and related information, from the clock.

Finally detail of the middle section between the clock and the perpetual calendar.

Michael and I had one more day on our own in Copenhagen after the tour group left and we made the most of it.  We headed out in the morning for Tivoli Gardens- a gorgeous old amusement park situated right in the center of the city.  The founder of the park had received the land for free since it was effectively a swamp.  He fixed it up, the city grew around it and it is a fixture of life for everyone in the city.  Michael's photos will give you a feel for what it is like.  It reminded me, on a grander scale of the amusement park in Rye, N.Y. that my family went to every summer in the 50s and 60s.  We had a wonderful lunch in the park (no hot dogs here) and then we were off to Freetown Christiania.

The Chinese pavilion at Tivoli Gardens, which opened on August 15, 1843 and is the second oldest operating amusement park in the world. For you trivia buffs, Dyrehavsbakken is the oldest amusement park, which opened in 1583. It is also in Denmark.

This column was erected in memory of Danish mimic Niels Henrik Volkersen (1820 - 1893) and the top of the column recognizes his Pierrot character, a clown character who has been around for 500 years.

The Indian pavilion.

This very high rotating swing is not for the faint of heart.

The image of a "turban boy with a tree with golden apples" likely refers to a scene or artwork inspired by the lush gardens of Tivoli, Italy, known for their beautiful landscapes and historical significance. Tivoli's gardens often feature various artistic representations, including mythical and whimsical elements, which may include figures like a boy and symbolic trees.

The flowers in Tivoli Gardens were magnificent.

For the faint of heart this rotating swing ride was closer to the ground.

In this ride the "capsules" both rotated and turned upside down.

The rocket train was also a very popular ride.

Devotees of amusement parks will recognize this "horse race".

Of course the home of Hans Christian Andersen would include all of these classics...

and this is a reference to "The Flying Trunk" by Andersen published in 1839.

The title on this fanciful structure refers to "The Flying Trunk".

One of the tamer rides are the floating boats in the pond at Tivoli.

No amusement park is complete without a carrousel, and this has always been one of Deirdre's favorite, as she looks at the child on the camel.

This was the tamer drop from the tower...

while this one was much higher. The tower is visible from many vantage points in Copenhagen.

This ride is called Monsunen and as the platform rotates water shoots up from below, but never quite reaches the riders.

There is even a full size ship with this great bowsprit and figurehead and ...

this ornately painted stern.

Every amusement park also must have a confectionery.

Freetown Christiania was founded in the 1971 as an independent commune within, but not beholden to, Copenhagen, when squatters took over a military base.  I'm not quite sure how they managed that but they did.  It was all about personal freedom, drugs and peace.  It has existed now for more than 50 years and while it has tamed down over the years, and become something of a tourist trap, it is still an interesting place to visit.  Multiple generations of some families have now made Christiania their home.  At first people just moved into abandoned military barracks as squatters.  Over time, people built houses and other structures and an actual town took shape.  

The entrance to Freetown Christiania.

As soon as one enters the eye is caught by all of the murals and ...

graffiti which covers so many of the structures.

This fanciful mural covers the entire front of this structure.

This wall asks for support for Freetown Christiania in multiple languages.

The following photos show the diversity of graffiti and street art throughout Chrisitiania.

Even the walls were decorative and unconventional.

These two signs epitomize the philosophy of Christiania.

This is one of the barracks that the squatters first inhabited in 1971, and still inhabit today.

This giant carved figure declares: "The World Is In Our Hands".

The external spiral winding staircase of the Church of Our Savior is visible throughout most of Copenhagen. Needless to say, we did not ascend the staircase.

The altar of Church of Our Savior and ...

the pulpit.

We were rather mystified by the significance of this elephant by the exit to the church.

We were about to leave Copenhagen and felt we'd miss it a little bit.  There is something about Copenhagen that seems to set it apart from the other Scandinavian cities we visited.  But ever onward to Sweden.