Taking the rents around

So, we’re now up to – what is it, Wednesday? Man I’m behind.  I’ll try to make some progress tonight. Anyway, on Wednesday morning, Christian and I went to go pick up my parents from the airport.  They’re here for a little less than a week, so they had some serious work to do. 

We first walked down to the cemetery, and visited Hans Christian Andersen’s grave.

Hans Christian Andersen's grave. Curious fact - in Danish the letter H is pronounced "ho" and the letter C is pronounced "say." Most Danes refer to the writer as H. C. Andersen, or to American ears, "Jose Andersen."

After that we took the walk down into Copenhagen.  We once again visited Vor Frue Kirke, my favorite church, and got a good look of the Thorvaldsen statues in there (all 12 disciples, and a magnificent one of Christ).  Then we went down to the lower part of Copenhagen, and I found one of the statues of Søren Kierkegaard!  He sits out in the garden behind the Royal Library.

A Søren Kierkegaard statue. Doesn't he look good up there!

Speaking of the Royal Library!  There is a magnificent new addition to the library, called the Black Diamond.  I wish I had a good picture from outside, but if you really care you can look it up.  It’s an imposing black structure, jutting out into the Copenhagen harbor.  It is located in Søren Kierkegaard square, and there is a Søren K. restaurant.  And inside is just fantastic.

It's hard to capture the scope and beauty of the Black Diamond, but I try in this picture.

Mom and dad were quite jetlagged at this point, and both of them got into chairs outside and took a thiry-minute nap.  I have pictures, but mom forbade me from showing them to anyone. You can take that up with her.

Then we walked around Copenhagen for a while.  I got to visit a good amount of Kierkegaard sites, and then we saw Nyhavn – that quintessential Copenhagen street that is on all the postcards.

Nyhavn. Now I have photographic proof that I went to Copenhagen!

After that, we walked down to Amalienborg (where the queen lives), the Marble Church (where there’s another Kierkegaard statue), and the old Royal Frederik’s hospital (where Kierkegaard died at the age of 42).  I didn’t get any good pictures of Amalienborg, and I’ve had explicit requests to keep Kierkegaard out of this blog as much as I can, so I will just share a few random pictures from the day.

A stuffed muskox from Greenland. Found in the Royal Library.

The Royal Theater on Kongens Nytorv. When Kierkegaard was writing his books, he didn't want high society to think that he was too busy with them. So at intermissions at the plays in this theater, he would walk down and visit with everyone so they would think that he was at the play the whole time. Then, he would walk back home and continue writing.

 Okay, that’s it for Wednesday.  On to Thursday!