Open Road Journal

Beach volleyball near Malmo

We caught the 9:42 train for a 4-hour trip from Gothenburg to Copenhagen this morning. Although the pastoral scenery was pleasant, I opted to drop my camera and spend most of the ride catching up some past blog entries. I did manage to catch one photo of a beach volleyball tournament going on under gray and rainy skies somewhere north of Malmo. I did miss one other shot I wished I had caught of an enormous trailer (caravan) park overlooking a long sandy beach somewhere in the vicinity of Angelholm. It made me think of a North Sea answer to Florida's oceanside trailer parks.

Square at Gammeltorv

Per the forecast for today we arrived at Copenhagen in the rain. After the usual walking around in circles to get oriented, we hoofed it to the hotel in the rain. Unfortunately, the hike of about a half kilometer felt a lot more miserable in the rain, and we must have looked like a couple of wet rats as we rolled in the door of the Tivoli Hotel (which IS NOT actually in the Tivoli Gardens, though they are just across the street from the train station). About the time we finished showers and got cleaned up, on cue the weather broke and we enjoyed a sunny late afternoon walk through the streets of the old city center.

Church of the Holy Ghost

Past the Stork Fountain to Helligsaandskirken

A second wave of showers forced us for a time into a covered alley near the Observatory, but the cold front came through pretty quickly and drove the rest of the rain and clouds away. The forecast has it that we should enjoy nice skies and a fair amount of sun over the weekend.

On a long, circuitous route back to the hotel during which we wandered from one restaurant offering hamburger specials to another offering various wrapped sandwiches we finally opted for an Indian buffet restaurant called the Koh-i-noor. Very friendly people and attentive service from a young Chinese woman who was still working to master English, but the food was pretty unremarkable. I guess the place has been around long enough for Danish palates to have stripped all the spice out of the chef's repertoire. Certianly we'll be looking hard at the guidebooks to find more interesting dining tomorrow.

The Stork Fountain

Helligaandskirken

View NW toward the Observatory

The Observatory (Rundetaarn)

Streetscape near the university

Church of Our Lady

University of Copenhagen

Jorck's Passage

City model outdoors at the City Museum

Sunset behind Dybbolsgade

Reflecting pool and glass sculpture

Succulent chair and cactus lamp

Lady slippers

The weather forecast had been for scattered clouds this morning, which is why we had waited to visit the botanical garden, but instead the morning started cloudy with drizzle. After hitting the Norstam to shop for a pair of cheaply made, over-priced, clown-sized umbrellas we grabbed a tram that wound past the Slottsparken to deposit us very near where we attended the concert yesterday.

Entrance to the botanical garden was free, although there we opted to give them a voluntary donation at the gate. (As can be seen from the pictures, the park is woefully undervalued. We hope other visitors are being as generous as possible since this is really a wonderful garden.)

North American desert flower

Banded garden snail

We did start the visit with something of a chuckle that I think indicated that neither one of us was fully awake yet. As we approached the reflection pool just inside the main gate the most obvious feature that jumped out at us looked at first like some alien flower springing from the water's surface. Upon seeing it, Gi exclaimed that this must be the unique and magnificent flower she had read was blooming just now at the garden. I have to admit that I snapped off photos from a couple of different angles before I moved close enough to see clearly that it was in reality a blown-glass sculpture. It was a very pretty piece, but I felt a bit sheepish for having not trusted my immediate impression that this couldn't be real since it's form was completely unlike any I had ever seen.

Vibernum

Equisetum and wild geranium

Sporadic bursts of drizzle drove us toward the greenhouses and a display of desert flowers kept in an open area under glass. We didn't pay the extra fee to go inside the greenhouses, but coul see lovely collections of orchids and carnivorous plants through the glass. Among the more interesting displays outside the greenhouse were some living sculptures using succulents and cacti to look like pieces of furniture.

Peony and columbine

Dew covered poppies

Unlike in Oslo (as well as Stockholm and Umea) we hit this garden just as the early bloomers were reaching full flower. Among the most spectacular were the extensive collections of azaleas and rhododendron species from all over the world. There was an easily accessible main track that wound up a hillside through the collections to an enormous rock pool and natural-looking, but nonetheless artificial, waterfall, but Gi and I agreed that one of the features that set this garden apart from so many others we have visited were the numerous tiny trails that wound back and forth across the hillside and even up onto the top of a rocky ridge from where you could look out over the top of the city. One of the things that I found most impressive was that even along these tiny and inaccessible tracks the garden staff had planted and kept clearly marked interesting species that were particularly well-suited for the niche in which they were placed. We've visited many great botenical gardens -- for example, Butchart in Victoria and the one next to Table mountain in CapeTown, just to name a couple -- but we agreed the garden in Gothenburg is among the best. I would very happily retire to a house next door because I am sure that I could visit every day for the rest of my life and still find surprises

Gi and a variegated Japanese maple

Lupine and Iris

Early in the afternoon we left the garden and hopped a tram headed back downtown to follow a guidebook recommendation to eat lunch at the Feskekorka. It was interesting to see the inside of the building, and the fish certainly looked to be fresh. The funniest part of the visit was the herring gull that insisted on waiting at the door like a lapdog. He kept walking back and forth between the entrance and the exit, looking fr an invitation to come inside and enjoy the treats.

Gi bought a shrimp and langostino salad, while I had a fish gratin and a beer. The premade lunches for take-out were unmemorable, but the fellow behind the counter was very amicable, strengthening our perceptions of folks in this region as among the most pleasant we've encountered this trip. We both agree that Gothenburg is a place where we could easily be at home.

Poppy

Fading lady slipper

After lunch we caught a tram, missed our stop and then hoofed it a few blocks to the Goteborg Art Museum, which was established by Pontus Furstenberg. Up on the top floor was a very nice collection of master works -- a couple of Rembrandts, a Van Gogh, Picassos, Gauguins, Chegall and a nice visiting collection of works by Edvard Munch. It was after 5 PM by the time we had (quickly) toured all the major parts of the museum, so we too k a break and sat on benches out front to rest next to the statue of Poseidon. There was debris and trash everywhere in the plaza around the fountain which had served as the rendezvous point that afternoon for several truckloads of recent graduates who came to party in the fountain. They raised quite a ruckus and we could hear the bass beats thumping from the stereo systems on board the trucks for nearly the entire time we were in the museum.

Duck and Rhododendron

Spectacular azalea

From Gotaplatsen we wandered a few short blocks to the entrance to Liseberg amusement park where we sat some more and watched people walking by. By this point we decided that sitting was a good thing -- we've covered a lot of miles afoot so far on this trip -- so we hopped the tram and headed to a stop near the Nordstan mall. As short walk from there took us out near the Harken Viking and a ferry that runs up and down the harbor as part of the regular transit system. Doing a full round-trip circuit was a nice way to see more of the city as well as new angles on areas we had already visited.