Scandinavia beckons..

First stop was "wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen" that turned out to be like most capital cities - full of museums, royal palaces, ex-royal palaces, old buildings, overpriced cafes and the usual traffic and public transport crowds.

We had a delightful start with a trip through Copenhagen's narrow city streets at rush hour searching (via the Satnav) for not one but two non-existent campsites that were supposedly in central Copenhagen. We gave up after the second Satnav attempt landed us outside a fish merchant's premises and headed for a suburban campground in Brondby about 6 metro stops out of town. It turned out to be an OK place, so we decided to stay 2 nights to have a look round the city.

On the second day we bought 1 day Copenhagen passes that turned out to be fairly expensive unless you have the stamina to visit about 75 museums, art galleries and associated landmarks on the same day. However, it includes use of buses, metro and something called "Tag" which is a form of travel that remains a mystery to us.

Iris beside a statue of a bull devouring what looked like a cross between a fish and a crocodile!

 

 

We visited the town hall that turned out to have some curious exhibitions. The first was a "World Clock" that shows the time at every time zone conceivable, the phases of the moons and planets and their positions relative to the earth and each other and a lot of other stuff besides. It was built by a genius/nutter called Jens Olsen and one rotation of the entire clock mechanism takes 25,753 years and hence, since the clock started in 1955, parts of the mechanism have hardly moved. (Very similar so I am told to some of the inhabitants of Britain's House of Lords).

 

The clock was meant to be the most accurate timepiece ever built but in a touch of supreme irony, the same year that the world clock started was when the world's first super-duper accurate atomic clock was commissioned. Eat your heart out Jens!

 

 

The World Clock

 

 

And just to bore you all senseless, a rear view of the clock and its wondrous mechanism!

 

 

In another part of the Town Hall was an exhibition of photos put together by a Danish sociologist, (for those of you of a non-academic nature you may fall asleep now), showing how a diverse range of people and opinions exists in Danish society. There was a real range alright, from a drag queen who felt that s/he had part of her personality that was black and therefore spent part of her time "blacked up", through to people who felt at home lying in very strange postions on chairs, tables and assorted furniture. Each person told their own little tale to go with the photo.

 

 

This man feels that other people think that he is stupid! Where on earth could he have got that idea?

 

 

This lad reminded us both of a Canadian family member who shall remain anonymous! If the said anonymous person wishes to pay me a large sum of money not to reveal more details, I will send an account number for the above purpose.

 

One of the attractions in the city was a climb up a spiral staircase on the "Round Tower" attached to a medieval church. From the top it was surprising that Copenhagen has virtually no modern building taller than 4-5 storeys except in the distant suburbs. On the horizon you can glimpse the bridge carrying the road across to Sweden that is a really amazing structure. We got to drive over it the next day.

 

 



 The ex-royal palace of Rosenberg was also in the freebies included on the day pass and contained the Danish crown jewels and a host of other royal paraphernalia that us mortals can only dream about owning or even just touching.

The palace included a contingent of army guards who were "changing" just as I walked by but it wasn't particularly impressive as there were only two of them involved.

 

 

 Rosenberg Palace

 

 

 and throne room.

 

 

Finally, we left Copenhagen and had a leisurely drive up through Sweden to our stay for the night. The place names in Sweden are not quite as confusing as being in Wales but there are some real tongue twisters to be found.

For example, tonight we are staying at a site at Alphyddevagen, Skovde and I'm just glad that for once the Satnav took us to the door 'cos I would have hated to ask directions as to how to get here.

 

 

 Iris having an outdoor cup of wine in near zero temperatures in Alphyddevagen.