Big City Nights

But the holiday wasn't over for me hee hee!

Nope, now that Toots had finished her SSTQ course it was time for me to whisk her away for her October holiday:

Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of around 650,000 in the city itself and 1.4 million in the urban area.  Originally a Viking fishing village established in the 10th century, Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark in the early 15th century, and from the 17th century became a regional centre of power with its institutions, defences and armed forces. During the Renaissance the city was basically the capital of the Kalmar Union and the seat of monarchy governing most of the present day Nordic region in a union with Sweden and Norway ruled by the Danish monarchy serving as the head of state.  Copenhagen's name (Kopenhavn in Danish) reflects its origin as a harbour and a place of commerce and essentially means Merchant's Harbour.

We landed mid-morning and after an easy train ride into town and dumping our bags at the hostel, we hit the city.

Completed in 1905, Copenhagen's National Romantic-style
city hall is the work of architect Martin Nyrop

Inside you'll find Jens Olsen's World Clock designed by the astro-mechanic and built at the cost of one million kroner.  The mechanical workings of the clock are built to last thousands of years when it will still be able to show the starry sky above city hall, the date Easter falls and the time in Singapore. One of the clock's gears completes one rotation every 25,753 years.

When Jens Olsen's World Clock was completed it surpassed all previous astronomical clocks in terms of both its precision and its functions.  The clock shows the changing positions of the planets in the Solar System, true solar time, sidereal time, the day number in the Julian period and the date according to the Gregorian calendar.  And the clock also showed something new - the time zones.  Prior to this each city has its own indication of time, based on the sun, otherwise known as local meantime. During the Industrial Revolution, countries and regions were linked by railways and telegraph lines. The varying indications of time made it impossible to compile reliable timetables.  Telegraph lines were used to send signals between the nations and to each region to inform about the time. In this way it was ensured that all regions within a time zone kept to the same time,

Housed in the former royal palace, the
Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen's National
Museum, gave us quite literally
 millenia of Danish history

As evening fell we ventured into the wonder of Tivoli Gardens, the world's second oldest amusement parks which opened in 1843.  Walt Disney visited for inspiration in 1951, opening Disney Land four years later.  Events change with the season and there was no doubt Autumn and Halloween were upon us. We'd never seen so many millions of pumpkins in one place!

You'd pay a fortune to go on all the rides, and even the unlimited-ride wristband is not cheap. There were only two rides that Toots and I really wanted to go on though, and sadly the Star Flyer was closed. It twirls you around at heights of up to 80m - a bit like being on a skyscraping swing - travelling at 70km/h and taking in breathtaking views of the city.

The Rutschebanen we did get on, and it was such great fun.  Built in 1914 it claims to be the world's oldest operating wooden rollercoaster, and rollicks through and around a faux mountain reaching speeds of 60km/h. Since it was dark when we went on we couldn't see any of the dips and where they started or stopped, which totally justified our screams and scared faces (see below!).

Forgive me Toots, the photo is just too funny not to post!!

So. Many. Pumpkins. Everywhere.
Can only imagine what it'd be like
when decorated for Christmas - I imagine
it is really magical