Hmmm... having been in Denmark now for 5months.... i must say that its rather rare to have fantastic weather.... coz now we're having winter... and for the past weeks its like today it can snow pretty heavy in the night or day.... and tomorrow the weather will be warmer with the sun... and all the snow gets melted... and its as if it was not snowing at all yesterday.... not sure if u get the picture....
So I decided to visit Christianhavn (pronounce as Christian-hound) with Ritika. Well apparently, Christianhavn is a pretty unique part of Copenhagen or in the whole of Denmark. I heard from my friends that there are drug dealings here in Christianhavn and its sort of legal here.... hmmm... you can say that Christianhavn is somewhat similar to Amsterdam. =P
And also this part of Copenhagen is supposedly to have some fantastic graffiti on the walls....
So from Nørreport, we took the metro to Christianhavn. Once we get off from the metro, we were in some sort of a town square with some statues....
Statues in the town square of Christianhavn. This is above the Christianhavn metro station
As there was no tourist information counter, and we were unsure of where we should go.... we just walked... hahaha... we decided to walk towards the church. This church is somewhat unique, coz there were some sort of spirals on the tower... and to me the architecture looks a little like Russian. But apparently its not. It was only much later that I got to know that this church is called 'Church of our Saviour' (danish: Vor Frelsers Kirke).
Church of our Saviour. You can see the cockscrew design on the tower
Its a pity that the church was closed until March. Hence we were not able to enter it to look around. We decided to walk further down the street, and we found ourselves in somesort of along a river... and we saw a pretty old building... and apparently that building was a museum. It was only later when I googled that this museum is called 'Lille Mølle'. It used to be a windmill but was turned into a private house in 1916. But it was closed.
Lille Mølle built in 1669
The river in front of Lille Mølle
and we did see some graffiti on the walls... but I did not capture any pictures of them. After seeing those stuffs, we decided to walk to the other side of Christianhavn. Hmmm... and we ended up along the river-banks of Christianhavn. We really had no idea where we were heading... but we saw new and interesting things... hahaha... so it was ok. And this river is in fact known as the Christianhavns Kanal. I must say that the canal looks pretty nice....
Christianhavn Kanal
that's me at the Christianhavn canal
Walking further down, we saw the iconic black building. after checking the google map on my iphone, I got to know that it was the Black Diamond Library. This is a modern waterfront extension of the Royal Danish Library. I must say that the interior of the library is really very posh! we walked to the old segment and we saw rows and rows of books (they are encycopedieas) and we also saw huge brown cabinets with rows of pulled out drawers. and in such drawers contained cards that was to check out the books I guess. I must say that some of them data back to the early part of 20th century! Amazing! But looking at the binded books, they also looked really old... I was amazed that quite a number of the old books were in English! Yup! not joking....
Black Diamond seen from Christianhavn Canal
Warehouses and offices opposite the Black Diamond
Close up view of the black diamond
Escalators inside the library
Wooden cabinet filled with drawers and books shelved nicely
Saw this eccentric poster in the library and was very tempted to take a picture of it
After walking through the library, we decided to head to Copenhagen Central station. Coz I wanted to get some asian groceries. Hmmm mainly my tofus and golden mushrooms.... I'm thinking of cooking like 1 pot stews or hot pots so that I can eat for a couple of days... as my danish classes are going to start and they end around 7.45pm. So by the time i reached home to cook, it will take some time before I can eat. cooking 1 pot stews or hot pots on sundays can help to save time on cooking on mons and wed evenings! hahahaa....
So after getting our groceries, we wanted to have a cuppa and some muffins at a tea shop that 1 of my friends recommended few months back... however, it was so crowded, that we decided to get some food at the 7-11 outlet a couple of 100m away from the tea shop.
After our tiny break, we took the train to Østerport. Coz we intended to go and see the Little Mermaid and also walk along the waterfront to Nørreport station. Hmmm....I must say I'm a little familiar with this place now... coz I've been there myself, went there with Francesca and now with Ritika. Hmmm... even though I've been there a couple of times... I really like this part of Copenhagen. I mean its in the city... but at least there's sort of tranquility.... and I really like it. I was thinking if I'm not able to get an apartment on campus where I'm staying now sometime in Aug, then i most probably will want to rent a place somewhere here in Østerport. But we'll see how it goes later.
Walking to the Little Mermaid
Yatches and boats docked near to the Little Mermaid
A standing tower
There she is! Little Mermaid
So we went to visit the Little Mermaid. Hmmm... its my 3rd time seeing her.... hahaha.... But Ritika had never seen her yet. After snapping a couple of pictures of her.... we decided to walk along the waterfront, towards Amalienborg. It was a nice stroll. after all the walks, we decided to call it a day and I took the bus back to my apartment. Tomorrow I will bike to Raadvad.
Sure enough, the weather on Sunday was also pretty good! I woke up pretty early.... hmmm... maybe because I'm used to waking up early on weekdays.... hahaha.... anyway I washed up, had my breakfast and saw that the sun had come out! It is really rare! I mean at 8.30am I was able to see the sun shinning on the walls of the apartments opposite mine! So i quickly filled up my water bottle and went to get my bike. It will be about 4.5km from my place to Raadvad. Hmmm... on the google map, it said it will take me about 16min to reach there.... but maybe because i bike pretty slow... and i also had to stop a couple of times to find my way on my phone and also to capture the landscape, it definitely took me about 1hr to get there... hahaha....Coz to get to Raadvad, there was a portion that I had to bike through the forest!
Passing by a huge field on my way to Raadvad. The grass was dusted with snow crystals/flakes
The meandering river had freezed up in the cold
On the forest bike path
anyway I also did not know until I was there.... and it was definitely an interesting form of exercise for me that morning! I also saw some pretty fantastic sceneries! Coz it snowed a little maybe early that morning, so fields and trees were sort of like dusted with the snow! It was indeed beautiful sceneries to behold! I also saw lots of people out running or biking..... Danes really are into keeping themselves healthy!
This part of the river was not freezed up though... hahaha
This is Raadvad! yup! the lake in front of it had freezed up!
As the weather now is cold, so the lakes and puddles of water had all freezed up! I was not able to see reflections of the houses in Raadvad on the lake... it was ok... coz they still look nice.... As it was still early for me, I decided to ride a little more.... more eastwards to the sea! Yup! coz I thought it took me quite a bit of effort to get there... and from here to the sea was nearer than getting back home... so I decided to find my way in the forest bike path to the sea... and also checked my phone.... and finally found the way....
1 costal town further up north. I suspect its Skodsborg
My trusty bike
Snow crystals that had turned to ice crystals on the grass
captured this on my way back from the sea! Thought that this was rather picturesque. =D
pity that there were no designated bike paths on the coastal road. Hence, I only capture a couple of pictures and headed back to the bike path and head home. This whole morning was a morning of exercise.... I think I've been pretty unhealthy... hahaa... coz later in the day, the muscles in my legs were 'screaming' with achiness. =P
If the weather for next weekend will be as good as this sun, probably I will bike to Charlottelund that is south-east of Kollegiebakken. Its a town just beside the sea.... otherwise I may bike a little north-west of kollegiebakken to a lake and deer park....
