Wonderful Copenhagen!

Copenhagen was the start of the Baltic Sea voyage my friend Marjo and I took July 20 – August 4 to celebrate 75 years of friendship. We met in 1950 in the first grade of school in Phillips, Texas, have kept up with each other continuously, and have traveled together to many wonderful places. 1950 was the same year the movie, Hans Christian Andersen came out and I can still hear in my mind Danny Kaye singing “Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen!” We spent three days discovering that city’s wonders before joining the Baltic cruise.Our hotel, the Admiral, was close to the center of town. Across a narrow canal we could see a theater, the Opera House, and a deck for swimmers. Overseas Adventure Travel’s Tour Leader, the delightful Natashja Dworkin, introduced our group of 18 to Copenhagen by walking through this active neighborhood. Later on, we went back and discovered more wonders inside and outside, as you can see in this album, which includes a statue of Karen Blixen, the Danish author of Out of Africa, whose home in Nairobi, Kenya, we visited in June.

Nastashja guided us to Christiansborg Castle, where the Danish Parliament meets, and to Tivoli Gardens, the inspiration for Disneyland. This album introduces you to these wonders and more. The Castle is home to regalia showing the leadership Denmark has provided for centuries. Thousands of years of history are recorded in the Gobelin Tapestries I recorded in this album.

Somewhat overwhelmed by all this history, we were glad on July 22 to take a bus 10 km to Dragor and see a historic port that played a heroic role in WW II by helping Danish Jews to escape to Sweden. This album shows that story, this water pump, a pilot boat, and hundreds of hollyhocks!
Vikings! Who were they? When were they active? Where did they fight? These were questions friends asked when I told them I was going on a Baltic cruise. Fortunately, Denmark’s National Museum was hosting a great exhibit, People of the Viking Age. Study this album and join me in learning more about them.

Denmark’s National Gallery of Art, SMK, was hosting another blockbuster exhibit we took time to see–Michelangelo Imperfect. Yes, an Italian artist in a northern museum. SMK possesses  one of the finest collections of plaster casts  of Michelangelo’s sculptures. They are exhibited alongside newly produced facsimiles, as well as drawings and models from the artist’s own hand. It is an almost complete presentation of his sculptural production. The original sculptures are never moved. The exhibition explores the significance of reproduction for our experience of art in a time where images are everywhere. My album shows the joy of finding virtually all of Michelangelo’s sculptures in one place, in contrast to the hurried tourists we were long ago in Rome and Florence.

Copenhagen had generously shared its lovely buildings, parks, art, history, and delicious food with us. Now it was time to board our boat and start our cruise. What a perfectly wonderful tour leader Natashja Dworkin was for us–knowledgeable, inspiring, and sensitive to our need to pace ourselves. Here she is with group member Kurt on one of Copenhagen’s many canal bridges. I count her as another of the city’s contemporary treasures.

Along with several new people who joined our group for the cruise, we took our last tour of greater Copenhagen with Monika Auksutyte, a native of Lithuania, who would be our leader aboard  our cruise ship. In this album, you’ll see the famous Little Mermaid, first installed over 100 years ago, and Rosenborg Castle. I’m still singing “wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen, friendly old girl of the sea!” It’s a city full of treasures!