Just returned from an all too brief visit to the old country. < ?xml:namespace prefix ="" o />
Funny how a place becomes so much more attractive when you no longer live there. When I was at school all I ever thought about was getting away. Away from the cold, the wind, the boring people, the too much beer and snaps, the nothing-ever-happens- here. Basically the “ little Denmark” syndrome. Nowadays, and I’m talking mostly Copenhagen, it’s a happening, multicultural melting pot.
Oh and I do love those great little trolleys at the airport. Just a basket at the top and bottom, for small hand luggage.
Hell. I wasn’t supposed to say this! Flying! How can a committed environmentalist like me do such a thing? Mea culpa entirely. I love the train and was determined to use it. Unfortunately, when it came down to cost, travelling from Scotland where I live to Denmark by train, was double the price of flying!
Is there a campaign there somewhere? Isn’t it high time that rail fares were reduced so that people were encouraged to use this great form of transport, instead of subsidising the most polluting form of travel with it’s insane expansions . Who am I talking to? Everyone knows this. Whether they agree or not. It’s me that’s gotta change! I know. I will.
On the subject of trains . I always loved the Danish ones. So much space, both seat-wise and in the gangways. How do they do it? I have never ever been on a train in the UK where there was enough space. It’s always a struggle to move around and the seats are incredibly uncomfortable.
Of course, the local trains I travelled on in Denmark also have a special carriage for folk with bicycles. Eight folding seats on either side of the carriage and one side, with what looks like recycled rubber tyres by each seat, just enough space to park your machine. All you do is slot it in between the “tyres”! Amazing!
And they have these small plastic bags ( recycled plastic of course) , for rubbish, hanging under the windows! The text on the pic says: ‘TAKE THE TRAIN. REDUCE YOUR co2 EMISSIONS. Pic of Polar bear - Take responsibility for the future. Reduce your emissions. We support (Danish Railways) The One Tonne less Campaign. You put out 10 times less co2 when you choose the train instead of your car.
As you can see I managed a few cycle pics. Unfortunately I missed the lady on an ‘old’ iron horse type one pedalling away with what looked like a large box on the front, completely enclosed, with a small window. What better way to transport your child?
But there was one major item on this particular agenda I had to check.
Do the Danes still used the ‘invisible’ brakes ( you brake by trying to pedal backwards) and…hurray…they do! Always thought it was far safer than those flimsy handbrakes.
Believe it or not it’s actually quite hard to look at Denmark ‘ as a tourist’, when you’ve lived there for years. To hit the spots that others might find fascinating. So much is old news to me. For example Radhuspladsen, the main square, which was ruined many years ago, when some idiot bureaucrats decided to build a ‘modern’-not-sure-what-they-call-it, but something to do with buses. A hideous, dark-glass quarter circle of a building that serves no purpose whatsoever.
I’m amazed they didn’t blow it up long ago, following the furore when it first appeared. Maybe that’s one too far for the peaceful Danes?
You’ve got to give them that, though. They’re not short of an idea or two.
In 1964 Some imaginative soul actually had the audacity to behead The Little Mermaid, the famous statue at Langelinie, by the sea and the greatest tourist attraction in the country. It was sawn off and stolen by an artist from the Situationist movement. The head was never found but eventually replaced.
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