July04den1

As the train from the airport pulled into Copenhagen Central Station, I resolved to try to avoid some of the cliches associated with Scandinavia- cleanliness, efficiency, conformity, but it was too easy to break down that will as the carriages seemed to float on the very air. Uneven railway track is evidently not allowed here.

Sadly, the fun and entertainment of finding somewhere to stay that I had largely allowed myself on my Balkan trip is missing here- a couple of hours in front of my computer screen had organised some cheap hotel acommodation and my pied-a-terre here, the Loeven Hotel shows that you get what you pay for. Not that it in anyway bothers me- I had a chat with the receptionist about Tony Hancock (when she saw my name) and the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre (when she misunderstood my postcode)-. "I've heard that no-one can find anywhere to live in London," she said. I thought about telling her that I had come to Denmark to seek economic asylum but demurred.

So to the City itself- I stopped off first to see Jen Olsen's world clock in the Town Hall, an astronomical timepiece which took 27 years to construct- one of the dials takes 25,753 years to rotate, so I hope it's well oiled. The main dial is actually one hour behind current Copenhagen time, so anyone popping in to actually check their watches would be in for some befuddlement.

The centre of Copenhagen, Indre By, is pleasingly low-level and quite picturesque, if not spectacular,- some older timbered properties mingle here and there with more modern edifices.

The Chriastiansborg, on the island of Slotsholmen is a bit dour- the royal reception rooms from the outside at least could be a municipal office in Aberdeen. Then over the Inder Havnen to Christianshaven, a pleasant canalside area, before I made for the utterly improbable Vor Frelsers Kirke, the spire of which houses an eternal, giddying, staircase. It was 400 weary steps to the top, but worth it. By the time the final steps were conquered, I felt as if I were about to be thrown off the tower in a final Hitchcockian denoument, but the views of the city were magnificent, and a look to the east afforded a glimpse of Sweden and the Oresund bridge that now links Malmo and Copenhagen.

Copenhagen, 10th July

Then I made a quick detour out of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the EU altogether (well sort of), into the community of Christiania, a kind of hippy Mount Athos, whose 800 or so inhabitants live in a precarious existence with the Danish state.

I took a guided tour, led by a fifty-something lady whose clothing was almost Amish-like- I playfully asked her for A VAT receipt for my 30 kroners, which got a laugh from some of the others in the group, but the guide politely (wilfully or not, I don't know) decided not to understand- Christiania refuses to pay sales taxes to the Danish state. Christiania, though, is a political sociologist's dream- an attempt to create a new community outside the confines of the state in which it finds itself. Children are educated here and there is a mostly complementary health-care system. I don't suppose that open-heart surgery is offered here, but my question to the guide about hospitals was answered with a suitably woolly " we have an arrangement with a hospital on the outside.."

There were some appropriately wacky homes and artwork, but Pusher Street was not the obvious open hash market that one could reasonably expect- a recent operation by the police on the pretext that the drug trade was funding international terrorism had quietened things down. "All we wanted, " said my guide "was peace and love and to smoke hash, but it's not that simple."

Democracy is local, with Christiania being divided into fourteen neighbourhoods, and consultation is required between the residents before any changes in the local environment are made. There are only nine rules in Christiania- the guide told us that attempts to bring in more Christiania-wide legislation didn't work as nothing could ever be decided. It's subsidiarity in action, I suppose.

Well, that's that then. I've avoided going to see that flaming mermaid all day.

above: Gameltorv Square

The wacky spire of
the Vor Frelsers
Kirke

Christiania: a hippy disneyland?

The laws of Christiania:more on the history of the community may be found here
and an online tour may be found by clicking here.

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Off with the fairies:
a mural in Christiania