Copenhagen, another city with chocolate box imagery. The houses and buildings along the canals are everything that we had imagined. There are bikes everywhere, and I am sure that they outnumber the cars by a considerable amount. The cycle lanes are almost as wide as the car lanes, and they need to be. The amusing thing is the obvious tourists out riding the ‘Hotel’ bikes, and it becomes blatantly clear that this is the first time that they have been in the saddle since a very young age. They say that you never forget how, well I am sure that some of these people are putting that to the test with varying degrees of success.
We went to watch the changing of the guard at the palace this morning. If you think this would be a quick march in and march out, it isn’t. The whole thing takes about three quarters of an hour, but it is very entertaining, especially when what appears to be one of the younger guards firstly breaks into a smile at the wrong moment and then trips as they march out of the square. I wonder how many floors he will need to scrub to compensate. We told Kirsten on our return home that these guards look no more than kids, or cadets playing soldiers, and she very indignantly told us that you had to be at least 18 years to join. But they certainly didn’t look that.
We decided to risk another boat tour as this is the best way to see some of the sights here, and this time we seemed to have got it right. The commentary was bi-lingual, actually it was tri-lingual, so it was well covered, and took us around the various sights that are accessible by the canals, with the complementary little tit-bits of history and humour along the way.
We spent a bit of time mooching around taking in the sights and taking photos and ended up walking through Christianshavn. As we were exiting out the other side we were called over by what seemed to be an English couple having trouble with a parking meter. They thought we might be able to help them understand the instructions … Ha! No chance. However they did pick us as kiwis very quickly. They thought we were locals … until we spoke, that gave us away immediately. Evidently he has quite a few kiwis who work for him in London and even now (in mid recession) they prefer to employ kiwis. So understandably, we explained our desire to work in the UK and handed him our card as soon as was polite. You never know what might come out of a chance meeting do you.
Later in the evening we were mid chew on our dinner when the local piano accordion player turned up. Thrashing out the same old numbers that we have been listening to throughout our travels, and you know that it won’t be long before the hat gets passed around. However he had only been going for a few minutes when a group of young African guys turned up with their drums and started to give him a run for his money. I don’t think he has moved so fast in his life. We were in the middle of a busker’s turf war. Unfortunately the young guys moved on, but if it had been put to the vote of the patrons, I am sure there would have been a different outcome.
As we headed to the train from here we came across a couple more young guys busking, one on electric guitar and vocals, the other on the Cello, playing covers. They were really very good, and it made us reflect on the street artists that we have seen. Firstly there seems to be a lot more of them in Europe than what we are used to, secondly, the quality really is very impressive, and thirdly, there seems to be a lot of classical instruments used not only for classical music, but for all genres of music. There is something special about hearing a cello, a violin, and a sax hit out an enthusiastic retro rock number. Instruments like the cello seem to be regarded as ‘cool’ here. I like that.
We went to watch the changing of the guard at the palace this morning. If you think this would be a quick march in and march out, it isn’t. The whole thing takes about three quarters of an hour, but it is very entertaining, especially when what appears to be one of the younger guards firstly breaks into a smile at the wrong moment and then trips as they march out of the square. I wonder how many floors he will need to scrub to compensate. We told Kirsten on our return home that these guards look no more than kids, or cadets playing soldiers, and she very indignantly told us that you had to be at least 18 years to join. But they certainly didn’t look that.
We decided to risk another boat tour as this is the best way to see some of the sights here, and this time we seemed to have got it right. The commentary was bi-lingual, actually it was tri-lingual, so it was well covered, and took us around the various sights that are accessible by the canals, with the complementary little tit-bits of history and humour along the way.
We spent a bit of time mooching around taking in the sights and taking photos and ended up walking through Christianshavn. As we were exiting out the other side we were called over by what seemed to be an English couple having trouble with a parking meter. They thought we might be able to help them understand the instructions … Ha! No chance. However they did pick us as kiwis very quickly. They thought we were locals … until we spoke, that gave us away immediately. Evidently he has quite a few kiwis who work for him in London and even now (in mid recession) they prefer to employ kiwis. So understandably, we explained our desire to work in the UK and handed him our card as soon as was polite. You never know what might come out of a chance meeting do you.
Later in the evening we were mid chew on our dinner when the local piano accordion player turned up. Thrashing out the same old numbers that we have been listening to throughout our travels, and you know that it won’t be long before the hat gets passed around. However he had only been going for a few minutes when a group of young African guys turned up with their drums and started to give him a run for his money. I don’t think he has moved so fast in his life. We were in the middle of a busker’s turf war. Unfortunately the young guys moved on, but if it had been put to the vote of the patrons, I am sure there would have been a different outcome.
As we headed to the train from here we came across a couple more young guys busking, one on electric guitar and vocals, the other on the Cello, playing covers. They were really very good, and it made us reflect on the street artists that we have seen. Firstly there seems to be a lot more of them in Europe than what we are used to, secondly, the quality really is very impressive, and thirdly, there seems to be a lot of classical instruments used not only for classical music, but for all genres of music. There is something special about hearing a cello, a violin, and a sax hit out an enthusiastic retro rock number. Instruments like the cello seem to be regarded as ‘cool’ here. I like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment