The Copenhagen Experience 2006

 The Copenhagen Experience 2006




 While Astrid went to lectures at the teachers Convention and kept warm I went to the streets of the old city and kept walking from Museum to Museum and tried to understand what Denmark is all about. When outside I had to keep moving it is too cold for me to stand in 1 place   -2C There is a whole exhibit at the National Museum about the years 1939 to 1945. The Danish under occupation provided 10% of Germany's food and 100 thousand Danish workers found work in Germany. However when they saw which way the wind was blowing in 1943 the underground
 started getting support plus the British organized the underground.
 Southern Jutland had a German speaking population that was pro Nazi but the government banned wearing uniforms for political parties.
 Getting the 7000 Jews out of Denmark to Sweden shows that the Nazi race bigotry never convinced the population and in total 15000 Danes were refugees in Sweden.
 Today the whole population of Denmark, including  Greenland and Faroe Island today is only 4.7 million.  It appears to be an egalitarian society and one sees few police and it feels very safe in the streets.  Denmark does not use the Euro , it kept the Krone as  currency.
 People there all speak English and usually quite well and I see many English books in the shops.
 I went to shull on Friday night in a beautiful building in the centre of the old Copenhagen obout 40 men. Good hazzan but I was surprised that the shamus gave the sermon instead of the Rabbi, afterwards I met the Rabbi a habadnik from London who obviously doesn't
 speak Danish well. I met someone from Jo'burg he has been in Copenhagen 25 years.

 While I was walking across the main bridge the traffic was stopped and the bridge lifted up for a ship to pass through.  I walked around and through Palace gardens, past the house of Parliament, the bourse, different Government ministries and university.
 The teachers and I were all taken to Carlsberg brewery Art Gallery where Carlsberg gave cocktails and a dozen varieties to beer to taste.  Astrid saw Princess
 Betrix , the Danish Queen's sister who opened the convention. I read that the Crown Prince’s wife is Australian and she just had a baby. The other thing that one is aware of is bicycles ,
 bicycle lanes, bicycle parking, bikes  that look as if  they have not been moved since autumn. Snow brushing machines that keep the bicycle paths clear. Bikes used as prams and hundreds of people riding to work in  below zero temperatures. Grandmothers and grandfathers
 riding their bikes to do shopping. One gets the feeling that Danes got into the bicycle habit when
 they were still poor, during the week the bicycle  lanes are packed.


Thank you for the interesting account of your visit to Copenhagen. I have
never visited Copenhagen so I was quite interested in your perambulations in
the cold. All I know about Copenhagen is it pivotal role as an equivocal
ally of Napoleon and the two naval battles there.

Frank
 Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 5:35 PM

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