Monday, August 17, 2009

Yesterday's Canal Tour

Okay, finally - the canal tour pictures...This is a picture of part of the canal from dry land. But after today, I have officially taken every form of transportation: plane, boat, taxi/NASCAR, bus, train, feet; except a dog sled. And with the way the weather is acting right now (and my lapse of judgement on packing anything remotely resembling a jacket) I may have to call the dogs in, and mush my way over to the Town Hall Dinner tonight...




This is very interesting. These narrow houses are very common along the canal, and the reason for their odd shape, is due to property tax calculation. Before building them, the individuals involved first calculated the property taxes, and decided to go tall and thin, to reduce surface area!



Just FYI, in Denmark they say, "Mind your head," which sounds very strange to me, but in the US we "Watch our heads," which as it turns out, also makes absolutely no sense. Think about it...Nonetheless, we literally had to duck under several of the bridges, this was not the lowest one, because the tour guide (front right, with HAIRY armpits) is not leaning down under this one. Dr. Savell asked me if the low bridges made me feel tall >:( Not funny.



This was one of my favorite parts of the canal/harbor tour, getting to see all of the Queen's stuff. This is her ship, docked right out in the harbor. You can see one of the little crowns on the back...I have a better picture, but this one will do for now.


Directly across the harbor from the Queen's current castle is the Opera House, donated to the people of Denmark by a huge ship firm, Marek or something close to that. Anyways, very pretty, and easily accessible by the queen.



This is the Queen's former castle (I guess that's what they call it, it is a stone fortress - works for me), it burned down on three different occasions before she finally decided to move. This is the entrance and the very edge of an intricately detailed bridge. This also has the little golden crowns on top. Speaking of which, his Royal Highness the Prince, spoke at the start of today's meeting. No crown, no entourage. Turns out, he is the runner-up prince, not the crowned prince who is on all of the postcards, oh well.

This is the former home of Hans Christian Andersen (Danish pronunciation = hanˀs ˈkʰʁæʂd̥jan ˈɑnɐsn̩]) LOL. Right. He was born and passed in Denmark, died at age 70 in 1985. If you notice the indention above the center window on the first floor, his name is actually carved there. I'm sure most of you know who he is, but for those who don't, he is known for "The Little Mermaid," "The Ugly Duckling," and "Thumbelina."


This is the famous Little Mermaid statue, created to commemorate H.C. Andersen. The statue is very popular, and is a landmark for Denmark tourists, as you can see by the crowd. Several people actually attempt to wade out in the water to take pictures at alternative angles. At first I thought they had dropped something in the water, then I realized they just wanted a picture, CRAZY!


When we passed the bank of a strange looking community, we were told "people of an alternative lifestyle live there." Most of that area was hidden in the trees, I managed this, and one other picture. Really creepy looking, Dr. Savell informed the Harris' and I that it was a hippie community. Copenhagen is trying to take the neighborhood back, and modernize it, with the rest of the harbor and town - no luck so far.


And finally, this is a statue of the founder of Denmark (maybe just Copenhagen....whatever) any way, we took this picture on land, but you can see him from the water too.

I have a several other pictures of old brewery's and marinas used to hide old naval ships that have now been converted to office buildings and apartments. Most of them are very pretty.
I will save those for later - I have to mush to Town Hall now.

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