Two more days in Copenhagen! September 20 & 21

 September 20

    Today was lovely and warm again; the sun came out mid-morning.

Just a sampling of a lot of Danish chairs!

Fabric design, Pablo Picasso

    We took the Metro to visit the Danish Design Museum. (Mark had to run back to the house from the Osterport station as he'd forgotten his transport pass. 

    The Design Museum was thought-provoking. The first half of the museum was devoted to AI and futuristic things. Things like "How would you design your own death?" and things like that. Some of it was rather disturbing to think about.

Opera House on canal

This bridge didn't meet up, so it had to be altered!

     The second half of the museum was devoted more to design and specifically to Danish design. It was noted that, after WWII, the Danes were not involved in war and had post-war posterity which lead to an economy and attitude that encouraged design. The Danish are very green and looking to the future, as were the Norwegians and the Swedes. It is impressive.

     Also impressive were all the young people at the museum keenly studying the designs. More than Danes were represented. There were fabric designs from many places and from famous people such as Pablo Picasso and William Morris.

      We had a lovely meal at the museum cafe. Mark and Maura had paninis and Barbara had a smorrebrod sandwich.

Nyhavn, old mercantile district

       Then we caught a commuter ferry bus and went down a canal to the end of the ferry's route. It passed through the heart of the city and into the suburbs. With the sun, people were out on and in the river - on paddleboards and many swimming. There are ladders and swimming areas designated all along both sides. People were out enjoying the sun and life.

      We docked at Nyhavn where the colorful mercantile buildings line both sides of a small canal. It was crowded with people enjoying the sun and a Friday afternoon. We walked up the street. Mark had a hot dog and we sat for a bit before walking home. 

       A lovely day.

At "Social Brew" - more smorresbrod

September 21 Strolling around Copenhagen on a beautiful Equinox day

We strolled for almost 6 miles!

We started off exploring the manmade lakes behind our neighborhood. They are very shallow and had quite a few moorhens on them.

Flowers blooming in Botanical Garden

 Then, we strolled through the beautiful Botanic Gardens and across the road to the gardens of the Rosenborg Palace where Maura bought 2 carrier bags. We had coffee in the Palace gardens and watched people enjoying the sun and their friends and family. Everyone seemed so happy and relaxed. It's nice to be in a culture where families are put first and there is a safety net of child care, health care, education etc. You can feel it in the air.

It's hard to capture just how many bikes there are.

From there, we just wandered and let our feet go where they wanted to. We walked through the pedestrianized shopping area to the Stroget street (also shopping) but called Walking Street. We passed by a church where a red Mustang, year 1964, was waiting for a bride and groom. We walked by the Synagogue which was guarded due to Gaza. It was interesting to see "stumble stones" there like the ones we saw in Berlin. Slightly raised pavement stones with the names of people who died at the hands of the Nazis.

Moor hens in one of the "lakes" in our neighborhood

Sobering stumble stones of names of Jews who died in concentration camps

We ate at at a randomly chosen restaurant with the unfortunate name of "Social Brew" where we had a delicious meal and two lovely waiters who tried to help us to pronounce smorresbord. Maura and Barbara had rice bowls (chicken teriyaki for Maura)