Day 8: Back to (Traffic) school & Midsommer!
Castles, bicycles, and bonfires, oh my!
June 23, 2022
Living in a Fairytale
Since it was my last “free” morning in Copenhagen, I decided to head out by myself a bit before breakfast to return to Rosenborg Castle, so I could get some photos of the palace in morning lighting. With it being only a short 8-minute bike ride from our hotel, I got there a little after 7 am, when the grounds opened, walking around Rosenhaven.
After photographing the castle, I ended up continuing through the King’s Garden until I reached a rose garden with a pavilion in it. Through a row of squarely manicured trees, I saw a pavilion and went over to get a better look at it, finding the Herkules Pavilion, which featured statues of Hercules, Orpheus, and Eurydice. Since I knew I had to get back to the hotel for breakfast, I kept my visit to the grounds short, returning to my bike to go back to the hotel, however one interesting thing I observed while I was leaving was smoothed areas on the cobblestones entering and exiting the grounds, which was meant to make navigating the cobblestones easier for those in wheelchairs or with bicycles.
Once returning to the hotel, I grabbed a quick breakfast (consisting of my - at that point - routine meal of a half-sandwich, croissants, a danish, crispbread with jelly, some granola, fruit, and Kiefer and a cup of coffee) with the group before our major activity of the day - going to the Trafiklegepladsen (bike school)!
Back to (Traffic) School
With various locations throughout the country, the Trafikledgepladsen is a social innovation that serves as a place where the community (but mostly children) can go to learn the rules of the road and drive around a miniature, simulated “town”, or as I referred to it, “Tiny Town”!
Returning to Fælledparken, we met up with the University of Oregon, which also was in Copenhagen on a study abroad trip at the same time as us, and were able to learn about the traffic garden and bike culture. At the traffic garden, our guide showed us the miniature bikes they had available for children, who would start out on balance bikes before moving on to pedal bikes, and we were able to see a few children navigating the gardens with their parents. Once our guide was done teaching us about the facility, we were able to take it on ourselves and navigate “the town” on our bicycles! Amongst miniature signs, roundabouts and hedges landscaped to simulate miniature “buildings”, we had fun being able to ride around carefree and all agreed this was a facility more places should have to promote cycling not just as a means of recreation, but as a means of transportation as well.
After a little over an hour of riding around, we didn’t have any other “official” things to do with the rest of the day, however, our professors set up a scavenger hunt for us, where we could break into smaller groups and find various transportation elements focused in one neighborhood of your choice in the city. My partner and I chose to go to Christiania for our scavenger hunt, however since it was around lunchtime, and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast we decided to take a quick pit stop at Nyhavn to grab something to eat.
On the Hunt
Leaving the Trafiklegepladsen and biking through Fælledparken, we passed by the stadium for FC Copenhagen (a professional Danish football club) and the Danish national football team, as well as passing by the Alexander Nevsky Church, and Amalienborg, where the changing of the guard ceremony was occurring with large groups of people - mostly seeming like tourists - gathered around the palace plaza.
Arriving at Nyhavn, we stopped at Restaurant Hummer for lunch, a seafood restaurant, where I got some fried oysters with spinach & mustard creme. After lunch, we also stopped at Vaffelbageren, to get some ice cream, while continuing to walk around Nyhavn for a bit, taking in the sights and shops, since it was the first time we had been there with blue skies.
A little before 2 pm, we were on our way to Christiania to begin our scavenger hunt, walking through the community and exploring more of it along the way. One noticeable shop we came across was Christiania Cykler, a popular bicycle shop where cargo bikes, which are extremely popular throughout the city, were sold.
After about an hour and a half, we wanted to do some other shopping and left Christiania to browse a few street markets and stop in a few shops around Israels Plads - the public plaza we had visited the day before.
Following an hour or so of browsing around Torvehallerne, a covered marketplace, I headed back to the hotel to drop off my things and see what the other members of our group were planning on doing for Sankthansaften later that evening. While some people had decided to stay in, a few others decided to go out to see the annual celebration. Recalling a bonfire we had seen getting set up earlier that day at the Lakes, a smaller group of us decided to go there for the celebration, hoping it wouldn’t be as crowded as some of the more popular locations, such as Nyhavn or Tivoli Gardens.
A Night to Remember
Seeing how the celebration started around 10 pm, we biked over to the Lakes a bit before 9 pm, so we could find somewhere to watch the festivities as well as potentially find somewhere to grab a quick dinner. Arriving at Sortedams Sø, we were greeted by a large crowd of people on both sides of the lakeshore as well as lined up along Dronning Louises Bro (Queen Louise’s Bridge), with most of them seemingly having parked their bikes around one of the hillside parks, so we decided to try to find a spot to sit on the bridge, taking our bikes with us. Having been able to find a spot to sit well before the celebration began, a few of us wanted to find something to eat and ended up stopping at Frankie’s Pizza, a Naples-style pizzeria, where I grabbed an olive pizza to-go to enjoy on the bridge.
Around 10 pm, a brief speech was given by a person standing on the bonfire pyre, before they set it ablaze, celebrating the longest day of the year.
Once the festivities concluded, the rest of the group who hadn’t stopped to get pizza with us wanted to find somewhere to get dinner. Stopping around Indre Nørrebro, we walked around a bit before they found a Middle Eastern restaurant that was still open where we stopped for a bit. Afterward, we did a bit more exploring along the various pedestrian paths, eventually ending up at Indre By, near Højbro Plads and Christiansborg Palace. After wandering around a bit more, and seeing the city properly at night, we decided to head back to the hotel, with a few of us staying up a bit later to play a few chess games before calling it a night.
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