Segways

Yesterday I showed you tourists in golf carts, today it's tourists on Segways. For 66 Euros you get a two hour sightseeing tour around the inner city and see the sights that all the rest of the tourists see as well, except you will be on a Segway.

Getting around in Copenhagen

 

The tourists in Copenhagen gets more and more options to get around. I haven't seen these golf carts before, and they might look a bit flimsy in the heavy traffic of the inner city, but they seems to work fine here.

 

Yet another project

It seems like there's no end to the number of construction projects in Copenhagen these years. This one on Kvæsthusmolen, Danish for Naval Hospital Quay, is going be a combined underground car parking house and a square with buzzwords like "an attractive framework for urban life interacting with surrounding local area". It's scheduled to be finished by 2015.

an attractive framework for urban life interacting with the surrounding local area, including the Royal Danish Playhouse and the Opera

• to expand urban life to include activities on the water - in particular in the Kv - See more at: http://www.kvaesthusprojektet.dk/english.aspx#sthash.dIrzp8ov.dpuf

an attractive framework for urban life interacting with the surrounding local area, including the Royal Danish Playhouse and the Opera

• to expand urban life to include activities on the water - in particular in the Kv - See more at: http://www.kvaesthusprojektet.dk/english.aspx#sthash.dIrzp8ov.dpuf

More litter - more raving

Yesterday I raved again about the litter in the streets on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Today's photo shows you how one of the central parks, Kongens Have, looks like after a sunny day and evening. Even though there's lots of extra garbage cans, it seems like many really can't be bothered to put their trash in them. Tons of leftovers are removed here each weekend in the summer months and if you like to visit parks, wait until after noon as they're not done cleaning up before that. It's no wonder that many tourists find that Copenhagen is really dirty.

More litter

I know I've been raving about this before, but it strikes me each time I'm in Copenhagen early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The amount of litter left over from the night's partying is just too gross, and even though the municipality try the best they can to keep up, it never seems to help. Why aren't the youths (and adults, btw) that litter not fined on the spot? Why are many of the fast-food joints, 7-Eleven kiosks and bars not fined when they don't even try to maintain their own part of the street? It's not about the law, as the fines for littering are actually very high when given, but it seems like neither youths, adults, shop-owners and the police just doesn't care about it.

Time lapse again

 

My latest time lapse from Copenhagen is this one. Taken on Constitution Day, which in Denmark is the 5th of June, it starts very symbolic at the Danish Parliament Folketinget at Christiansborg Palace with the statue of King Frederik VII in the foreground. He was the king that decided to give Denmark a Constitution based on democracy in 1849. The rest of the time lapse will take you through many of the squares in the old park of the city.

 

Dogs and bicycles

 

Copenhagen is renowned for its bicycle culture, and with more bicycles in the city than people, traffic jams are not only evident in the streets with cars, lorries and buses. It's also a problem on the bicycle lanes during rush hour. People here seems to be transporting anything possible on their bikes; groceries and kids are high on the list, but even man's best friend seems to enjoy a ride.

Plug n play

 

One thing often criticized about the newly developed area of Ørestaden on Amager is that it lacks facilities for the residents. Now at the southern end a play area for the young and the young at heart has opened. Called Plug n Play it has a speed skating rink, a parkour area, a street soccer field, a dirt jump area and numerous other activities. And it's free for all to use.

 

Deer me

 

No, it's not Dyrehaven but Ørestaden, even if these deer seem a bit misplaced. This is part of a new trend in Copenhagen. Instead of having a long and boring fence that begs the local youth to be creative with a spray can, artists are asked to use the fences as a big canvas. I haven't been able to figure out who is behind the deer on this fence, but it is nice. The deer progress from an open white field to a dark forest as you pass the Bella Center.

 

Behind the ferns

 

Hidden behind these ferns in the Open Air Museum in Brede north of Copenhagen is a house from the former Danish areas in what is now Sweden. A simple wooden structure that would fit perfectly in those large forests our neighbour has.

 

Big farms

 

Some of the farms at the Open Air Museum in Brede are huge, and it must have been quite an undertaking to get them to the museum and rebuilding them. And then they've had to get the right surroundings too.

 

Open Air Museum

 

A great place to spend a summer day is the Open Air Museum in Brede just north of Copenhagen. Here a host of buildings and farms from all over Denmark and southern Sweden has been moved and rebuilt. Walking around there will take you on a time travel to the 19th century, and it will show you now the people lived, how the land was farmed and lots of other stuff. With animals and poultry, fields and orchards, guides in costumes and lots of informations, the day is well spend here. And it is all free.

 

Looking at Tivoli

 

The statue of Hans Christian Andersen is looking at Tivoli. The statue is one of the most popular in Copenhagen as tourists flock to pose next to it, or on it.

 

When they do it right...

 

Yesterday I showed you one of the instances where the city planners of Copenhagen haven't really used their head. Today's photo shows you the opposite situation. After a couple of years of construction, the street Vester Voldgade has changed from a traffic heavy street to a quiet street with a broad sidewalk lined with trees and with room for outdoor-serving. Really nice that the city planners get it right from time to time. More of this, please, and less of the idiocy from yesterday.

 

Confused?

I must confess, I'm mightily confused. In the end of February the redoing of the pavement in the pedestrian street of Frederiksborgvej was finally finished after two years of work. And all applauded the new pavement and the new street. A month later it was ripped up again to make way for a new entrance to the metro in the middle of the street on the narrowest point where thousands pass each day, cutting the width to a third. A lot of protests followed, not least from the neighbours that only got one month of warning, and from the shops that would have their access almost blocked. But the people behind the decision didn't seem to be budging and most people seemed to accept the fact that the construction would go on. Yesterday I passed again and woe and behold, they're apparently re-doing the pavement again. First I thought that they had finally come to their senses again, but alas no. They're just moving the construction site so it will be to the right instead of in the middle. So they will only redo the pavement to the left. The result is that for the next two years it will still not be easy to pass here during rush hour. And even when they're finished, this will be a major bottleneck. I (and many others, I'm sure) can only wonder at the way construction in this city is run.