Matt & Jill's Zurich Adventures: Copenhagen, Denmark

Our next three nights of vacation were spent in Copenhagen, Denmark. It would have been a quick 5 hour drive up from Berlin if we had hit the ferry right, but we missed it by about 5 minutes, which costs us another 2 hours. I guess it pays to do your trip research, at least that's what I thought when we were sitting in the parking lot for all that extra time.

Our first night in Copenhagen we went out to the pub and met some interesting locals. Upon their recommendation we went first thing the next morning to the area of Christianhavn. This area originally settled as a fortification in 1639. One of the places within Christianhavn that adds character to the city of Copenhagen is called Christiania. This area of 85 acres is known as a "free town" and is self governed by it's residence. It has developed since 1971, when it began as a squatter's community on an abandoned military zone. It was once infamous for Pusher St. where drugs were openly sold until 2004 when Copenhagen law enforcement shut it down. Today it's a collection of cafes and vendor stands among the buildings the residence use for yoga, theater, and other governing purposes.

After our walk through Christiania we went to the Carlberg Brewery Tour. After seeing the world's largest collection of beer bottles (complete with Guinness certificate) we read the information boards staged alongside the many antiques of the old beer production methods. Then we passed through the horse stables and saw the official Jutland horses kept for the beer promotions. This breed begun being used in 1928 for beer keg delivery. However, nowadays they are kept just for show. Of course, no tour is complete without samples. We each got two beers from the many kinds Carlsberg produces and drank them at the bar while watching over the bottling process.
In the evening we were able to get over to Tivoli Gardens to see one of the oldest amusement parks in the world, opening in 1843. It was beautiful! We walked along the well manicured paths exhibiting a gorgeous array of flowers. There were many stages and live musicians playing throughout the park. Unfortunately there wasn't a fireworks show that night, as is a bi-weekly event there in the summer. But we did enjoy walking under the many colored lights that come on at night. I can see why this has been a meeting place for the people of Copenhagen throughout the years.
The following day we drove 40 minutes to a nearby town called Roskilde. This area is known for an amazing summer music festival (wish I were going!) and also the Vikingeskibsmuseet or Viking Ship Museum. It's a small place, but after watching the video you understand it's significance. The boats, which were sunk purposely by the vikings as a defense of their waterway, were extracted from the waters of the fjord in 1962. It took decades of work to get these boats reconstructed. The result is an upclose look at the 5 cargo and war ships from around 1,000 A.D. We loved the museum, but it was definitely a very narrow view of vikings and focused more on the boat building.

After the museum we drove back toward Copenhagen then crossed over the Oresund Bridge into Malmö, Sweden. The Oresund Bridge opened in 2000 and is the longest combined road/rail bridge in Europe. While it is an impressive bridge, it's costs over $100 USD to go roundtrip on it. Guess they are still paying for it :) We had a nice lunch in Malmö and walked around the downtown area before spending the afternoon in the park.

After one last night in Copenhagen, we were off to Bremen, Germany. Goodbye Scandinavia!