May 2nd was a very full day for us. We spent the morning at the Thorvaldsen Museum as I have already shared. The afternoon was spent exploring more sites and ended with a visit to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. We stayed at the Scandic Palace Hotel, right in the heart of historic Copenhagen and very close to one of the most famous Hans Christian Andersen sites in Copenhagen, the bronze statue of HCA looking at the Tivoli. Probably the Little Mermaid in the harbor is only more famous for HCA sites in Copenhagen. Sorry, I failed to get a good picture of the Andersen Castle at the Tivoli and hadn't realized it. You can see the statue to the left in the picture above.
The Tivoli is an amusement park and entertainment facility, one that charmed HCA when it opened. The gardens inspired him to write "The Nightingale" according to Tivoli's historical timeline:
On August 15, 1843 the garden gates were opened for the first time and the guests were awestruck by the elegant and exotic gardens. Among them was the one and only Hans Christian Andersen, who was inspired to write the fairy tale the Nightingale .
Within the gates is one ride inside inspired by Andersen's tale of "The Flying Trunk." We didn't visit due to time priorities and weather. It was cold! I don't know how people were standing to be on many of those rides. The Andersen Castle isn't a museum for Andersen, by the way, it's just a building named after him. I was fine walking around and bundled up, but getting onto a breezy open air ride would not have been my definition of fun. It was colder than usual according to the locals.
And while I am here, I will highly recommend the Scandic Palace Hotel. We were there for four nights and were quite comfortable. The staff was wonderful and I was thrilled with the history of the place, too, for many famous people have slept within its walls, including Audrey Hepburn. The hotel is across the City Hall Square from the Tivoli and literally right next door to the HCA Museum, which I will post about soon. And I will sound fully like a spoiled Tennessean when I say it also had some of the largest rooms we've slept in when traveling in Europe. It's nice to not trip over your luggage when changing time zones has one stumbling around sleepless but exhausted in the dark in a new hotel room. The hotel was also quiet despite being in the middle of the city. The only sounds we heard at night were the clock tower bells which I wish I could hear every day and night. I love them.
Anyway, it took three days but we finally had good sun so I stopped to take pictures of HCA after having only greeted him the previous days for I saw him each day of our stay in the city.
He needed a good cleaning on one side but his knees were shiny from plenty of tourists climbing on his knee. A graffiti artist had tagged the book in his hand recently, too. Poor HCA!
One of the most important rules of travel--and life actually--is to not only look around you but up and down as well. Looking down by the statue treated me to two sewer covers that also honored Andersen, the only two I saw. The rest were ornate but not Andersen related. I wonder if there used to be more. The one above has an inset with the Steadfast Tin Soldier on it. The other was missing its inset figure. Wonder what it was? Thanks to whoever the selfish tourist was who took it! I'm assuming, but I feel pretty safe in doing that.
Wonder what Andersen would have thought about having sewer covers with his visage on them? Rather a dubious honor when one considers it.
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