If there was one word to describe our final day in
Copenhagen it would be WET! It was a chilly and very rainy day today, and I
think each of us went through at least two changes of clothes. We began our day
by visiting the harbor bath; an interesting swimming /bath area set into the
harbor channel. Apparently these pools are supposed to be quite the hot spot on
a warm summer day. Next, we continued down the canal channel, admiring views of
large iconic buildings and unique industrial art pieces. As we continued down
toward Ameger Strand, the character of the city changed dramatically from what
we had seen the last two days. This side was much more modern with very large
buildings and more open space.
Ameger Park was our next stop. This park seemed to be the
first actual glimpse of nature in the city we have seen. It was a more natural
trail with a meandering stream crisscrossing the path at times. Though the trail
was rough gravel and very muddy, there were still quite a few bikers riding
through. There were also curious branch domes created as land art installations
or some other purpose. As we left the park there was an area designated for
allotment gardens. These were probably the most extravagant allotment gardens I
have seen, having little houses and gated entries for people to have a mini
weekend vacation at their garden.
Staying in the realm of the extravagant, our next stop was a
collegiums, or dorm, right next to the park. This was luxury living at its
finest. Our tour guide Elias took us around the circular building with a large
inner courtyard. Within the building walls were student rooms, with shared
kitchens and social areas, all with amazing views of the inner courtyard or
outer park and canals. The building contained a gym, music rooms, party rooms,
bicycle garages and many other amenities that were all mainly day lit. Each of
the suites was spotless and modern, and would be an inspirational place to live
in every day.
After saying farewell to Elias we hoped on the metro train
that took us into Orestad. Here we visited a number of interesting park and
huge modern buildings. It seems as though the people here don’t have much of a
privacy issue, because most of the buildings had huge glass windows that
allowed us to view almost the entire apartment from the ground. We climbed to
the top of a large parking structure and got views of the entire area, then
headed down to see the parks and buildings at the ground level. We visited a
number of small and large parks, including Byparken where we once again got to
test out some of the playground equipment. Also in this end of town, we visited
8 House, designed by BIG.
The metro provided us with a bit of relief from the rain as
we rode back to Chrisianshavn, the “hippie district.” Here, we walked around
and then hoped on a double decker bus tour of the city which took us by the opera house, the canal,
and a few other local attractions.
After a brief trip back to the hotel to change into dry
clothes (that stayed dry for about 2 minutes), we headed back to Chrisianshavn
and sneakily wandered into a courtyard that Bianca told us to visit yesterday.
It was nice to see so much greenery, since the streetscapes in the city tend to
be much harder in appearance. Our
evening ended with a visit to the Danish Architecture Center along the harbor.
We finally headed back to the hotel to prep for our train ride to Malmo in the
morning as well as Ross’s birthday!
-Alyssa
-Alyssa
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