Kobenhavn

Firstly, I have no idea why we spell it Copenhagen....surely Cobenhaven would be closer if anything! Anyway, we had a sudden rush of excitement when we realised that the Danish (from the bakery!) actually came from...you guessed it...Denmark! Although there were pastries everywhere, we didn't manage to find the exact variety we're used to in Australia. Oh well, we had to settle for those pictured below:

There is also a Carlsberg brewery here, however the less than confidence instilling slogan pursueded us not to bother visiting...

We also managed to go on a canal tour in a boat with a glass roof. We saw the sights of Kobenhavn and a bit of an explanation of things we saw. We saw the little mermaid (think Hans Christian Anderson), who has had her head stolen twice...actually the first time the police treated the act as murder! We also saw the Opera house on the water, which has 1000 seats below water level! And saw the brewery which was once used for water storage. When Denmark was invaded (by the Swedes) the university students sucessfully defended the building. It was later turned into a brewery and owing to the fact that clean water was in very short supply, army personnel were permitted 10 litres of beer each, per day!!! We also managed to say g'day to princess Mary...or at least see her pad (she wasn't home....the one on the right in the bottom photo).

We also managed to have a brief look around Christiana although it didn't feel like a particularly safe place to be so we didn't stay long. Anyone who hasn't heard of this place should look it up on the net. Basically in the 70's a heap of hippies, artists and activists broke into abandoned barracks with the idea of creating a 'free' society run for the community, with no rent, taxes etc, and stayed despite police raids. It became famous for 'pusher street', where people could freely go and buy hash, and other bits and pieces...however it later degenerated into harder drugs. After violent police confrontations in 2004, the government agreed to leave this self-declared 'independent state' stand as a social experiement...minus the drugs. Although, you can still get drugs there apparently....only its not so open in there, and no photos are permitted down pusher street. Judging by the artwork in there, you can definitely see the hippie influence!

We managed to bump into Kim and went to a beautiful all-you-can-eat Greek buffet (the second night in a row for Anita and I!). Was great to see a familiar face for the first time in months and hear the news from home.

We've now moved on to an Icelandic Horse Farm in Gronnerup, in northern Jutland....there are about 100 horses here, so Anita is going crazy! I'll leave you with a great idea that I saw in Kobenhavn, hopefully we'll have these in Australia soon...