Copenhagen – NY Carlsberg Glyptotek

On the last day of our Scandi trip we visited the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek where we viewed scultpures by Rodin and Degas and did a quick walk through of the world-famous Etruscan wing.  After sunning in the winter garden, we met up with my uncle and tasted some of the delicacies Cafe Glyptoteket has to offer before brunching at outdoor cafe Aristo where we feasted on the food Scandinavia does best (salmon) while admiring the city’s quiet harbor.

Copenhagen – Latin Quarter

With Hans Christian A. as our guide, we did a walking tour of Copenhagen. Originally from NJ, Richard spends six months of the year in Copenhagen and six months in India. An acquaintance of my uncle’s (all the Americans in Copenhagen know each other), Richard described himself as a “prisoner of love” when he explained why he settled abroad. We made our way from City Hall whose steps were blanketed in rice from all the wedding ceremonies that had taken place that morning. From Christianshavn, we made our way to Copenhagen’s Latin Quarter, a small square lined with restaurants. Later, with my uncle, we visited the statue of the Little Mermaid, a heroine from one of Hans Christian A.’s fairytales. The statue was mobbed with tourists, and seeing the mermaid was, as we had been warned, a bit anti-climactic.

At Restaurant Zeleste we enjoyed the warm hearth of an indoor fire before walking through the outdoor photo exhibit “Spirits of the Wild” at Kongens Nytorv. Steve B., the photographer, is currently showcasing his photographs of animals on the brink of extinction– the bald eage, orangutan, ostrich and giant panda are a few animals he has photographed over the years and whose populations are dangerously small. I was struck by how Steve B. was able to capture the mammalian quality in many of the animals’ facial expressions and body language. I enjoyed the sympathetic depictions of these exotic animals I so rarely considered while living in and visiting big cities.

http://www.stevebloom.com/

Copenhagen, Denmark

After settling into our last hotel room on our Scandi trip, we walked up Stroget, Copenhagen’s longest shopping street. On our way, we made quick stops at Nytorv (a public square), and Helligaandskirken, the oldest church in the city. At the end of Stroget we arrived at Kongens Nytorv, a circular plaza from which one can see the Royal Theater and Nyhaven, a port in the 17th-century, in the distance.  We walked along Nyhaven’s docks which is now a popular nightspot for outdoor dining in Copenhagen.

On our first night in Copenhagen we dined at Oregano, a Greek restaurant in Fredericksberg, where we met my uncle and two cousins (my cousins were born and raised in Copenhagen; my uncle moved there in the late seventies).  I had cous-cous baked bell pepper and lamb wrapped in philo bread topped with red sauce; the food was divine, but nothing about it struck me as particularly Greek.  Used to visiting family in the States, my cousins and uncle were eager to entertain on their home turf, and we were happy to oblige.