Author: bbpeck

Yesterday, Bob and I traveled into Copenhagen to do some gift shopping and finally try some traditional Danish food at a restaurant recommended by friends from Scotland. The restaurant is a popular spot, so we had booked the first available table a couple weeks ago. We have had a nice spell of sun, but yesterday was pretty rainy for most of the day. We lucked out on our walk to the train station, but the skies let loose again once we got to Copenhagen.

In reading about Denmark prior to our visit all of the travel books noted the famous open-faced sandwiches on rye or hearty bread (Smørrebrød), so we thought we would be stumbling over them while here. We have seen some but not many, and we’ve decided that it’s due to the fact that, as you’ll see below, they do not lend themselves to a take away meal. Not that we eat take away meals very often, but that is usually what is seen on display when out and about. The other item that we had read about was aquavit or schnapps. We had not tried that yet either.

We learned a bit about aquavit versus schnapps from our waiter. Aquavit is made from either caraway seeds or dill. Schnapps is made from anything else. We had a sample of a caraway based aquavit, and I also tried a small pour of the dill based, as I love dill. I liked both but preferred the dill one.

Bob and I took our longest outing of the stay so far by taking a 1.5 hour walk, S-train, then regional train to the town of Humlebaek to visit the Louisiana Art Museum. We walked 20 minutes to the Jersie station to catch the Køge bound S-train for one stop to Koge Nord and change to a Helsingor bound regional train for an 1 hour ride to Humlebaek.

The Louisiana opened in 1958 and is the most visited museum for modern and contemporary art in Scandinavia. We had read about it as one of the things to do in Copenhagen, and it seemed like the building and setting would be just as cool as the art. After our visit, we definitely found that to be true. It also came highly recommended from our homeowners.

Bob and I used our transport cards today to take a 30 minute bus ride to the nearby city of Roskilde. With a population of almost 53,000, it is the 10th largest city in Denmark.

We went mainly to visit the Roskilde Cathedral but also to see the harbor and a bit of the town as well. We had an easy bus ride on a clean, efficient bus and a great visit.

The Roskilde Cathedral was built about 1200 and was the first Gothic building in Scandinavia. The church was originally Catholic, but since the Reformation in 1536, it has been Lutheran. 37 kings and queens are buried here, and there are more than 1,000 graves in the church.

Fun fact about the royals noted here (besides the fact that they have impressive tombs). Throughout the years, they ruled some combination of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Faroe Islands, and Scandinavians seem to require their kings to be named Christian or Frederik. There have been 10 Christians and 10 Frederiks (including the current king).

The sun is shining off and on once again in Solrød after a few days of raininess. We were under a severe rain alert from 8 pm Friday, and yesterday it rained steady with some heavy spells from early morning until after 5 pm. It made for a lazy day though we did get some upcoming travel planning done and got both dog walks in.

This morning I had a slug and snail avoidant run, as I often do here, as I don’t want to accidentally hit any of them. Speaking of snails, we saw one with a fairly large shell on our walkabout today.

Solrød has a number of walking/biking paths, as we’ve mentioned. Some of them are designated by colored symbols (green, gray, black, blue, and red), and we snapped a photo of a small map the other day, which has three of the routes. The map would also be more helpful, if it indicated where you were on the map or had some street markings or other landmarks, but we thought we’d head out today to find a way-marked post and then see if we could follow the route.

We weren’t entirely successful, but we had a good walkabout anyway following some of the green route and much of the blue. We continue to be impressed with the cleanliness of the area, the number of paths for pedestrians and cyclists, the variety and ease of using public transportation, and access to an airport. These are many of the factors we are wanting in the next place we settle. I still haven’t decided about the climate, and we would definitely need to work on our Danish language skills.

Scenes from today’s walk.

Bob and I did a return trip into Copenhagen today to catch the changing of the guard, glimpse the Rosenberg Castle, and check out a popular food hall. The trip in was unexpectedly shortened by about 3 stops (luckily within the city center) when the train conductor announced (in Danish) that the route was ending (or something to that effect). We got the message when the route stops that appear on the overhead monitor suddenly ended with the current stop, and everyone appeared to be leaving. Luckily, Bob was able to find us a route to the plaza in front of Amalienborg Palace to see the changing of the guard at noon.

Built in the 1750s, the octagonal Royal plaza contains four Rococo palaces that were once home to four noble families. Currently, the retired queen lives in one and the current king and his family live in a second. Not sure how the other two are currently used. The Danish Royal Guards stand outside the palace guarding the monarch in 2 hour shifts (when monarch is in residence). At noon, guards from Rosenberg Slot march through the city streets to take over these responsibilities.

The guards struck us as being very young, and there seemed to be less movement/action than in other guard changing ceremonies that we’ve seen. The most drama came from the weather, as we had a bit of thunder and a quick downpour before the ceremony began. Below is my lay interpretation of what happened.

From the changing of the guard, we walked to the food hall (TorvehallerneKBH) via the beautiful King’s Garden with Rosenborg Castle. Rosenborg Castle was originally built as a summer home between 1606 and 1632 by Christian IV. Denmark’s crown jewels are kept in the basement.

It was then a short walk to the food hall (actually two buildings), which was conveniently located near the Nørreport Metro Station, where we could catch an S train back to Solrød. The food halls were impressive but very busy and very warm.

To further explore the Solrød area where we find ourselves, Bob and I headed out for a 45 minute walk on some of the many paved trails to explore Karlstrup Kalkgrav, a lake formed in an old limestone quarry that our homeowner had mentioned to us. It rained off and on during the walk there, while we were there, and part of the way back into town. However, it’s sunny and lovely now.

As we left the neighborhood, I captured (photographically) one of the many slugs that also populate this area. Probably shouldn’t be surprised as they like moist habitats.

Also on the edge of our neighborhood are some obstacle courses on a hillside. There isn’t a school right next to them, so we assume that these are for any children to use.

Then we we continued on the divided path out of the ‘hood.

On our way, we walked by some pretty wildflowers as well as a small outdoor sculpture between a business called OJD (automotive headquarters) and what appears to be an associated (or just named after them) art gallery. We need to see if this is something that we can visit.

The Karlstrup Kalkgrav is now a recreational nature area that allows for swimming, fishing (with a license), and camping. For many years, limestone was quarried on site, and you can see the limestone cliffs that surround the lake. There is a path that we walked around the very clear lake.

Our homeowner said that it is a popular swimming hole for local teens. No swimmers today, but we did see others on the path either walking their dogs or out with family/friends.

Bob and I took the train from the Jersie station in Solrød for a short, 3 stop ride to Køge (pronounced coo). Køge is an old medieval town south of Solrød on the Køge Bay. It is the principal town and seat of Køge municipality, and the urban area has a population of about 39,000.

Bob and I went to do a walking tour of the old town that we had picked up in the tourist office in Copenhagen. It was a great walkabout through a lovely town on one of the nicest days we’ve had here.

Bob and I have begun our housesit for the imposing but sweet Kobe after having had a great walk through with our young family homeowners, who are off to the US for a family visit with the husband’s family, a short cruise from California to Mexico and back, and a trip to Las Vegas. A great way to celebrate the wife’s 40th birthday!

Kobe is a 3 year old German Shepherd (female) named after Kobe Bryant. She is a mostly calm girl except when meeting new people and/or dogs she’s not fond of. She likes to be near her people either playing ball in the yard or lying on one of her beds.

In terms of our new location, we are loving the super clean Solrød Strand (known as Solrød) with all of its neighborhood paths (usually a separate walkway and bikeway side-by-side but divided. Our current house is in a small subdivision near the daughter’s school and about a 20 minute walk into the town center with multiple grocery and retail options as well as hair salons, one of the two local train stations, and municipal buildings.

In addition to all of that, Solrød lies on the Koge Bay, so has a beach as well as a marshy inlet. We went to check out those areas today as well as do a small shop at the Netto grocery in Solrød Center.

Bob and I spent the US Independence Day and the UK Election Day exploring the Black Diamond Royal Public Library before taking an S train (as opposed to a regional train) about 30 minutes out to the town of Solrød for a walk through with our homeowners for our housesit that begins tomorrow.

The Royal Danish Library is located on Søren Kierkegaard Plaza and is located in 3 very different buildings. Facing the water is the Black Diamond, designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in 1999, in the center of which is Preben Hanson’s narrow extension built in 1968. At the back is H. J. Holm’s historical library building from 1906.

From the library we walk to the Nørreport station to catch our train to Solrød, where we had a great walk through with our homeowners and their 6 year old daughter and German Shepherd. The husband will pick us up at 7 tomorrow at the hotel to bring us to the house.

When we got back to the hotel, we went up to the walkway between the two towers on the 23rd floor to see the views.

See prior blog for today. The following photos are from Bob and my short excursion to Malmo, Sweden, today. Malmo is the 3rd largest city in Sweden with a municipal population of approximately 360,000. It struck us as one of the cleanest cities we have ever visited.