A Trip Through København, Stockholm and Helsinkiin

July 14 is Bastille Day in France, but rather than stay in Paris for the celebrations, I put the extra day off towards a five and half day trip through Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. This trip was more complicated in terms of logistics, as I used a different mode of transport between each city, but this gave me the chance to see the Swedish countryside, the archipelago outside of Stockholm as well as the Finnish coast, plus it forced me to slow down and relax for a few hours on each trip rather than try to pack too many activities into each long summer day.

Copenhagen

I arrived in Copenhagen after 6pm, expecting that there wouldn't be much to do except check into my hotel, but it was still very bright out, so I walked to the northeast part of the city where I could see a few landmarks. Along the way, I even visited the Rundetaarn (Round Tower), which is a large tower in the old part of the city. It was still open so I managed to climb up and get a good view of the city. The tower also offers access to a few historical exhibits and a small chapel. I then went further northeast to the Frederiksstaden part of the city.

Copenhagen's most famous landmark, Den Lille Havfrue (the Little Mermaid). The sculpture was created by Edvard Ericksen as a homage to the character in the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

The statue of Frederick V in the center of Amelionborg Palace. Amelionborg is actually a complex of four palaces all facing each other in this courtyard, and it also includes Frederick's Church which is just down the street.

 

The following day, I started by visiting the National Museum of Denmark, which contains a large number of artifacts from the history of Denmark going back as far as prehistoric times as well as various exhibits on Ancient Egypt, China, India and Africa. The subject of exhibits felt a bit random in relation to one another, but they were all well done. A block away from there is the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum containing a mix of Danish and French impressionist art as well as a disproportionately large amount of Greek and Roman sculptures. 

At the center of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is a small garden, which contains a beautiful sculpture: Water Mother by Kai Neilsen.

After the two museums, I walked through the Botanical Gardens, which were next to the gardens of Rosenborg Palace. The palace itself is small, but there are several uniquely decorated rooms to go with a small armoury and treasury that make it worth the visit. 

The Botanical Gardens in Copenhagen has a mix of naturally occurring plants and ponds with man-made paths and gardens that make for a relaxing park. The one downside is that the greenhouses appeared to be closed to the public.

One of the salons in Rosenborg Palace.

I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the central part of Copenhagen and passing by many of the secondary sites around the city, including the Christiansborg Palace (went up the tower for an ok view of the city), Copenhagen City Hall (the interior had an exhibition of modern art), and the Christians Kirke (it was closed by the time I got there). I also went to the Nyhavn (New Harbour), which is a waterfront lined with colourful old buildings. The area felt too touristy for me, but I think some people would like it for simply sitting at a waterfront café and people-watching.

The colourful buildings along Nyhavn.

While the days are long in the summer, most of the palaces and museums closed by 5pm, so I saved my visit to Tivoli for the evening. Tivoli is basically an amusement park peppered with some other entertainment venues (an open air theater, a concert stage, a casino, etc.). The lineups for the roller coaster and other exciting rides were too long, so I just rode the bumper boats and took in a show at the theater.


The theater at Tivoli. There was a peacock roaming around the flowerbed behind the stands and a lot of people (young and old) found the bird more interesting than the show, but most everyone came for the rides and not the theater anyway.



The next day, I had enough time to see the western part of Copenhagen. This part of the city is calmer and less touristy but still has a few sites to visit. I took a quick look at the Enghaven (a small park) before heading to the Carlsberg Brewery, which has a museum summarizing the history of the Carlsberg family and the Carlsberg brewing process. Of course, there were samples provided as well. After the brewery, I walked through the Søndermarken (a forest/park which was busy with a weekend crowd of locals) and on to the Fredericksberg Palace. The palace has a nice garden surrounding it, but the building itself did not appear to be open to the public. 

Carlsberg Brewery has the world's largest collection of unopened beer bottles. All of the bottles contain Carlsberg or Tuborg (also brewed by the Carlsberg family).

In the late afternoon, I took the train to Stockholm. The trip took over five hours, but it was a good chance to kick back and relax after two days scrambling around Copenhagen. The scenery was like most of Europe, a mix of forests and farmland, although occasionally the track would run close to the coast and you'd get a view of the Baltic Sea.

Stockholm (first part)

My first day in Stockholm was dedicated to the Gamla Stan (Old Town) area of the city. I started off by visiting the Stortorget (the public square in the old town) and came upon the Nobel Museum in the square. The museum wasn't on my to-do list but I was making good time that morning so I gave it a visit. It contained a few artifacts and displays of past Nobel Prize winners as well as the death mask of Alfred Nobel and a replica of his will (in which he creates the prize), but otherwise the museum was very small. If it weren't for the fact that the museum is moving and expanding in 2019, I think they would otherwise be better off merging into a larger museum.

At the Nobel Museum, the death mask of Alfred Nobel.

After the Nobel Museum, I visited the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace of Stockholm). The palace has four parts that you can visit: the Royal Apartments (comprised of the bedrooms, office, salons and meeting rooms of the royal family); the Treasury (containing crowns, swords and other ceremonial items); the Tre Kroner Museum (containing artifacts from medieval Sweden); and, the Museum of Antiquities (containing a few paintings and several sculptures of the royal family's art collection). Each one of the four seemed small on its own, but together they made for a comprehensive and diverse palace visit (comparable to Fontainebleau in Paris).

One of the salons in the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace).

The changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. 

 

After the Royal Palace, I viewed the Tyska Kyrkan (a church with a nice exterior but plain interior), walked through the Mårten Trotzigs Gränd (a plain narrow alley which is oddly a minor landmark for tourists) and then went to the Evert Taube Terrass. 



At the Evert Taube Terrass. The statue in the foreground is of Evert Taube, a famous Swedish author and musician. In the background is the Stadhuis (Stockholm City Hall).  

I also took a closer look at the exterior of the Stockholm Stadhuis. The building looks plain from a distance, but it has a pleasant courtyard in its center and there is a relaxing boardwalk along one side. I did not have time to visit the interior as I had to rush across the city to catch the Viking Cruise, which took me on an overnight cruise through the Stockholm archipelago and on to Helsinki. The views were nice, although the coastal area of Sweden and Finland is relatively flat (i.e. not mountainous).

Helsinki

I had about eight hours of free time in Helsinki before the Viking Cruise went back to Stockholm, so I was worried that I would have to forgo some significant sites in order to get back to the ship in time. This wasn't a problem, as Helsinki is geographically small enough that you can see the major sites in one day. While I never thought of Finland as a very religious country, it turns out a lot of the famous sites in its capital are churches.

The Uspenskin Cathedral in the east side of Helsinki. The church is closed on Mondays so I did not get to see the interior.

The Helsinki Cathedral (aka Lutheran Cathedral) in the center of Helsinki. This church is in the Senate Square and overlooks the Government Palace and the University of Helsinki. The interior was plain but very modern and pristine.

Heading from central Helsinki towards the west is the Esplandi Park. Pictured is a statue of Johan Ludvig Runeberg (the national poet of Finland) at the center of the park.

The Kamppi Chapel of Silence has a very unique architecture. The interior is just as the exterior suggests, an oval shaped room with similar wood paneling, with a very small altar and a few pews. This is one of the most minimalist buildings I have ever seen on both the inside and outside.

The interior of the Temppeliaukio Kirkko (Rock Church) in the northwest part of the city. The church is built right into solid rock.

One of Helsinki's most famous landmarks is the Sibelius Monument in the Sibelius Park. The monument consists of 600 hollow steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern to reflect the music of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

 

It turns out Monday is the off-day for some buildings around Helsinki (like the Uspenskin Cathedral), so the Ateneum Art Museum was closed during my visit. Since I was able to see the major landmarks in less time than I expected and the museum was closed, I had enough time to take the ferry out to Suomenlinna, a series of islands south of Helsinki where a sea fortress was built in the 1700's. The islands were small enough that I was able to walk around six islands in under three hours. The fortress itself was a series of walls and small buildings made of grey bricks, built into the landscape.

The best photo I have of the Fortress of Suomenlinna was actually taken while I was on the Viking Cruise ship leaving Helsinki.

After returning from Suomenlinna, I had enough time to look around the Helsinki Market Square and try a local dish comprised of reindeer meatballs, reindeer sausage and potatoes covered in garlic sauce. The meat had a milder taste than deer, but it was moist and filling. If you're ever in Helsinki, I recommend trying it.

Stockholm (second part)

For my second leg in Stockholm, I visited the Djurgarden area in the eastern part of the city. Djugarden is a large park containing a wide variety of different museums and I decided to visit the two museums that were rated highest by tourist websites. (And no, I did not visit the Abba Museum although I did pass by and watch tourists posing with the cardboard cutouts of the band members.)

The Vasa Museum provides a good mix of the history behind a ship that sunk in Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage in 1628, and the science of raising the ship back to the surface and preserving it with as many of her original materials as possible. Pictured is a model of the ship in front of the actual ship. The museum was too dark and the actual ship was too large for me to take a complete photo of it.

The Skansen Open Air Museum is a combination of many activities, including a museum on Swedish agricultural life in the 17th and 18th century, an aquarium, a open concert hall and a zoo containing animals native to Sweden. The reindeer in the zoo were much smaller than I expected (perhaps only three feet tall) and had shed most of their fur for the summer. They seemed domesticated but still cautious around me, probably on account of me still smelling of reindeer meatballs from Helsinki.

A shot of a quiet spot in the western part of Djurgarden. The Swedish geese are smaller than Canadian geese, but much less fearful of people. I was even able to stand next to a gosling without much hissing from the mother.

That was my five and a half days through three Nordic countries. Copenhagen ended up being one of the more interesting cities that I've visited, given the number and diversity of places to visit. Stockholm and Helsinki were also very engaging, although I think an extra day in Stockholm would have allowed me to get a more complete view of the city. The one other observation that I have to mention is that the people in Copenhagen and Stockholm seemed very different (at least anecdotally). Copenhagen had a small town feel to it, as many people would nod and smile to me as I walked by. The opposite was the case in Stockholm, where most people had a serious demeanour (like Paris, a lot of people just seemed to have a bitchy resting face).

Next up will be a short visit in Eastern Europe.