We got the tickets to Malmö (ö should be pronounced as 'o and e' together, I am yet to master that pronounciation, and all my German colleagues laugh when I try that; although they cant pronounce 'R' in Rajesh as we do :>) and reached DAN hostel, checked in to unloaded our baggage and freely set towards Sweden. We stayed in a DAN Hostel at Belle Center connected by the electronic M1 (metro) route active from 2002. The speciality of this metro is it is a 'driverless light metro' with the entire metro system run by a fully-automated computer system, first of its kind in Europe. Malmö - the third largest city of Sweden, is just a 35mins train travel from Copenhagen, but you cross again a sea border (Denmark and Sweden), this time not by a ship, but by a tunnel cum bridge called Øresund Bridge ('Ø' is nothing but 'O' in English). Few of the interesting facts about Oresund Bridge (thanks to Wiki):
1. It starts from Denmark going beneath the sea thru a tunnel for 4kms to reach a man made unpopulated island and then a giant bridge rises up and runs across the sea for 8Kms to reach Sweden's Malmö. The reason for building a tunnel instead of another section of bridge is that the Copenhagen Airport is nearby.
2. The bridge has one of the longest cable-stayed main spans in the world at 490 metres (1,608 ft). On the bridge, there are two rail-tracks which are beneath the four road lanes.
3. There were challenges related to the difference in electrification and signalling between the Danish and Swedish railway networks. The solution chosen is to SWITCH the electrical system, from Swedish 15 kV, 16.7 Hz to Danish 25 kV, 50 Hz AC right before the eastern bridgehead at Sweden (Being an Electrical Engineer, I was curious on this fact).
4. The line is signalled according to the standard Swedish system across the length of the bridge. On the artificial island, the line switches to Danish signalling which continues into the tunnel.
5. Sweden runs railways with left-hand traffic and Denmark with right-hand traffic, the bridge uses the Danish method (RH track driving).
The train travel on the bridge was wondrous, we saw the Lillgrund wind farm located 10 km off the coast of southern Sweden, just south of Öresund Bridge. With its 48 wind turbines (arranged in a matrix format), Lillgrund is Sweden’s biggest offshore wind farm and one of the largest in the world. The wind farm generates 0.33 TWh annually (domestic electricity demand of more than 60,000 homes). The view of the circling blades from the moving train was awesome as at some point all the wind turbines (positioned in a single row of the matrix) fell in one view with numerous blades rotating in different phase sequences!Reached Malmö and converted few more Euros for Swedish Krona (SEK) at the forex center. We found the Malmö festival happening just outside the central station and peeped into it, it was sponsored by IKEA (international home products retailer from Sweden). Instead of taking a transport to the Turning Torso, we decided to walk in the swedish streets and it was real fun.
Facts about Turning Torso:
1. The tower uses nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises; the topmost segment is twisted 90° clockwise with respect to the ground floor.
2. Each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape rotating around the vertical core, which is supported by an exterior steel framework.
3. The two bottom segments are intended as office space. Segments three to nine house 147 luxury apartments.
4. As Turning Torso is a private residential building there is no access for the general public.
So we didnt go up the building and enjoyed the civil engineering wonder from outside. Just a 5mins walk from there is the Baltic sea and a beautiful view of the Oresund bridge. The weather was superb, bright and sunny, but on the wrong side, the Sun was just near the bridge and we cant take good photo with the Sun directly falling on our camera lens, no issues, we admired the view with our natural camera (eyes) and it will remain in memory for ever... Reached back to Copenhagen and entered directly into TIVOLI.
Tivoli is a amusement park and pleasure garden opened on August 15, 1843 (coincidently, we were there on Aug 15, 2009 just 166 years difference!) and it is the second the oldest amusement park in the world. We enjoyed the evening entirely and the four bests of Tivoli are: the demon (rollercoaster ride), the pantomime theatre, the midnight fire works, and the illumination show at the lake. Enjoy the rollercoaster ride virtually thru the below video.
The ancient Pantomime theatre from 1874 is one of the oldest establishments in Tivoli. Pantomime means a play when performers express themselves by mute gesture and are accompaniment by music. It was mind blowing synchronisation between the music (which is played live beneath the stage) and the action and worth for the time you spend in Tivoli.
The fireworks starts at 2345 and goes on for 15mins, virtually our Deepavali is brought to Denmark, it was colourful and majestic. The Illumination show was using focused light over water fountains and smoke in between. If you ever go to Tivoli, dont leave the garden after the fireworks (as many do), go to the lake in the center of the garden and enjoy this illumination show, its a special one and I dont think we can find it somewhere else!!Reached hostel at 0130Hrs and had a nice sleep, the first day of the trip had much more thrill than I expected.
Day2 (Aug 16, 2009): It was good that we booked the hostel with the breakfast and had a nice morning food, checked out and directly head towards the central station cloak room and stored our luggage safely. Caught a train and reached the Osterport train station and had a short walk to reach the seashore where the symbol of Copenhagen - "The Little Mermaid" is sitting. She was pretty, short but attractive. The Little Mermaid statue is only 1.25 metres high and weighs around 175 kg itseems. The Copenhagen City Council are planning to move the statue to Shanghai for the duration of the Expo 2010 (from May to October), thank God we visited it before that... Below is the extract of the fairy tale written by Danish author - Hans Christian Andersen: "The Little Mermaid lives in a utopian underwater kingdom with her father the sea king; her grandmother; and her five elder sisters, born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world above, and as the sisters become old enough, one of them visits the surface every year. As each of them returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their descriptions of the surface and of human beings. When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A great storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from a near-drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother whether humans can live forever if they do not drown. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolk's 300 years, but that when mermaids die they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs, in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice in the world). Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords, and her feet will bleed most terribly. In addition, she will only get a soul if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam. The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is attracted to her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of all he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite her excruciating pain. When the prince's father orders his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not, because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, but adds that the Little Mermaid is beginning to take the temple girl's place in his heart. It turns out that the princess is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be educated. The prince loves her and the wedding is announced. The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end and she will live out her full life. The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and, as dawn breaks, throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds, and she will eventually rise up into the kingdom of God. "
Bought a souvenir (hand made copper little mermaid) for my copenhagen trip rememberance and started walking towards the Amalienborg Castle infront of the Marble Church. As per our plan, we made ourself available for the famous Amalienborg Castle changing of the guards, but our bad luck the Queen was not at home and the royal guards were missing (as they go along with the Queen). Only there were lieutenants guards (sergeant and 12 palace guards) without music we saw the guard changing, it was not that attractive as we expected and I need to visit London to view the changing of guards at Buckingham palace!!
The best way to tour Copenhagen is by foot and we got a excellent city map from the infocenter (near the central railway station) and it was quite helpful. We walked towards the Nyhavn, a colourful waterfront, canal and popular entertainment district in Copenhagen. It is lined by brightly coloured 17th and early 18th century townhouses and numerous bars, cafes and restaurants. Serving as a heritage harbour, the canal is packed with old wooden ships and numerous ferry tour starts from here. Then entered the street named Strøget. The Strøget is located in the centre of town and it is the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe (carfree zone in Copenhagen from 1962). Enjoyed the walk along the Strøget, eventhough it was Sunday, 50% of the shops were open and tourists were enjoying their time in Copenhagen. At the end of Strøget, we reached the Rådhuspladsen, the City Hall Square. It is a city square beside Copenhagen City Hall at the center of Copenhagen. The square is home to a large statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the author of The Little Mermaid fairytale.
During my info collection for this trip, I read about the 1930's mechanism called 'golden weather girls (Vejrpigerne) of Copenhagen' near the City hall square. I was searching through out the square for sometime to see them but I was lost in the square... I felt bad to miss them eventhough I was infront of them!! Suddenly my eyes fell on a neon thermometer and atop I saw The girls are on a rotating disc and provided a weather forecast for Copenhageners. One girl on a bicycle would rotate to the front when it was sunny, and the second girl with an umbrella would rotate to the front when it was rainy. Today the statue is permanently stuck half way in between! But the neon thermometer (also from the 1930's) is still working and you can see the temperature reading captured by me on a bright summer day! Hardly scientific and really rather vague, but an excellent example of how girls on bikes are an integral part of the Danish mentality. With lots of satisfaction, happiness and beautiful memories, we boarded the train back to Hamburg. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset during the border crossing (Denmark to Germany) from the ship deck... I sign off with my own saying: 'The perfect utilisation of a weekend in Hamburg (North Germany) is a trip to Copenhagen!'
Day2 (Aug 16, 2009): It was good that we booked the hostel with the breakfast and had a nice morning food, checked out and directly head towards the central station cloak room and stored our luggage safely. Caught a train and reached the Osterport train station and had a short walk to reach the seashore where the symbol of Copenhagen - "The Little Mermaid" is sitting. She was pretty, short but attractive. The Little Mermaid statue is only 1.25 metres high and weighs around 175 kg itseems. The Copenhagen City Council are planning to move the statue to Shanghai for the duration of the Expo 2010 (from May to October), thank God we visited it before that... Below is the extract of the fairy tale written by Danish author - Hans Christian Andersen: "The Little Mermaid lives in a utopian underwater kingdom with her father the sea king; her grandmother; and her five elder sisters, born one year apart. When a mermaid turns 15, she is allowed to swim to the surface to watch the world above, and as the sisters become old enough, one of them visits the surface every year. As each of them returns, the Little Mermaid listens longingly to their descriptions of the surface and of human beings. When the Little Mermaid's turn comes, she ventures to the surface, sees a ship with a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a distance. A great storm hits, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from a near-drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here she waits until a young girl from the temple finds him. The prince never sees the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid asks her grandmother whether humans can live forever if they do not drown. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than merfolk's 300 years, but that when mermaids die they turn to sea foam and cease to exist, while humans have an eternal soul that lives on in Heaven. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, eventually visits the Sea Witch, who sells her a potion that gives her legs, in exchange for her tongue (as the Little Mermaid has the most intoxicating voice in the world). Drinking the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her, yet when she recovers she will have two beautiful legs, and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, it will constantly feel like she is walking on sharp swords, and her feet will bleed most terribly. In addition, she will only get a soul if the prince loves her and marries her, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries another woman, the Little Mermaid will die brokenhearted and disintegrate into sea foam. The Little Mermaid drinks the potion and meets the prince, who is attracted to her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of all he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite her excruciating pain. When the prince's father orders his son to marry the neighboring king's daughter, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not, because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, but adds that the Little Mermaid is beginning to take the temple girl's place in his heart. It turns out that the princess is the temple girl, who had been sent to the temple to be educated. The prince loves her and the wedding is announced. The prince and princess marry, and the Little Mermaid's heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has given up and of all the pain she has suffered. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters bring her a knife that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long hair. If the Little Mermaid slays the prince with the knife and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid again, all her suffering will end and she will live out her full life. The Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and, as dawn breaks, throws herself into the sea. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. She will earn her own soul by doing good deeds, and she will eventually rise up into the kingdom of God. "
Bought a souvenir (hand made copper little mermaid) for my copenhagen trip rememberance and started walking towards the Amalienborg Castle infront of the Marble Church. As per our plan, we made ourself available for the famous Amalienborg Castle changing of the guards, but our bad luck the Queen was not at home and the royal guards were missing (as they go along with the Queen). Only there were lieutenants guards (sergeant and 12 palace guards) without music we saw the guard changing, it was not that attractive as we expected and I need to visit London to view the changing of guards at Buckingham palace!!
The best way to tour Copenhagen is by foot and we got a excellent city map from the infocenter (near the central railway station) and it was quite helpful. We walked towards the Nyhavn, a colourful waterfront, canal and popular entertainment district in Copenhagen. It is lined by brightly coloured 17th and early 18th century townhouses and numerous bars, cafes and restaurants. Serving as a heritage harbour, the canal is packed with old wooden ships and numerous ferry tour starts from here. Then entered the street named Strøget. The Strøget is located in the centre of town and it is the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe (carfree zone in Copenhagen from 1962). Enjoyed the walk along the Strøget, eventhough it was Sunday, 50% of the shops were open and tourists were enjoying their time in Copenhagen. At the end of Strøget, we reached the Rådhuspladsen, the City Hall Square. It is a city square beside Copenhagen City Hall at the center of Copenhagen. The square is home to a large statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the author of The Little Mermaid fairytale.
During my info collection for this trip, I read about the 1930's mechanism called 'golden weather girls (Vejrpigerne) of Copenhagen' near the City hall square. I was searching through out the square for sometime to see them but I was lost in the square... I felt bad to miss them eventhough I was infront of them!! Suddenly my eyes fell on a neon thermometer and atop I saw The girls are on a rotating disc and provided a weather forecast for Copenhageners. One girl on a bicycle would rotate to the front when it was sunny, and the second girl with an umbrella would rotate to the front when it was rainy. Today the statue is permanently stuck half way in between! But the neon thermometer (also from the 1930's) is still working and you can see the temperature reading captured by me on a bright summer day! Hardly scientific and really rather vague, but an excellent example of how girls on bikes are an integral part of the Danish mentality. With lots of satisfaction, happiness and beautiful memories, we boarded the train back to Hamburg. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset during the border crossing (Denmark to Germany) from the ship deck... I sign off with my own saying: 'The perfect utilisation of a weekend in Hamburg (North Germany) is a trip to Copenhagen!'
Excellent blog with extra-ordinary narration and informative facts.... wish i could have been with you for the trip... Keep up the momentum ...
ReplyDeleteCheers!!!
Vijay...excellent narration and great memory...i am really glad to your travel partner. it was really great experience...looking fwd for many more of these :)
ReplyDeleteAnna semma description na... Entha blog read pannum pothu, i feel that, i was there with u....I know my brother was extra-ordinary in writing these type of comments....very proud to have u as my brother... love you na....
ReplyDeletegood one....;-)
ReplyDeleteHey Vijay, Superb narration!! Virtually I was there with you:) Until the time I scrolled up to read "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE !"
ReplyDeleteGirish Ramadas