 |
| Nyhavn, called “the
longest bar in Europe” |
One Friday afternoon, in the bar of the Royal Hotel,
two respectable-looking Englishmen asked this writer
to suggest a nice stroll. The Nyhaven walk was recommended.
This would, in normal walking time, consume about
60-90 minutes. The hotel, located just off Tivoli
Gardens, is so located that their walk would end
without even a fractional detour. They were given
the following instructions:
The best way to get to Nyhaven (pronounced New-houn,
meaning “New Harbor”) is to take the S-bahn
train at Central Station to Osterport. This ride
will be finished before you can find a seat. Then
take an agreeable walk through Winston Churchill
Park to St. Albans Church, which is worth a quick
look in itself. Then go straight through the gates,
turn right, and you’re at the water, at a seaside
walk called Larsens Plads.
Continue right along to the Little Mermaid, which
is perhaps a five-minute walk. This is a nice statue,
and she is never alone. As the second most popular
tourist attraction in the city (Tivoli Gardens is
the first) her life is a perpetual photo shoot.
But keep walking. You’re along the water, and
it’s a working harbor. There is the big ferry
to Bornholm and a dock for water taxis and coast
guard vessels. Unusual boats land there, like the
Australian schooner S.V.Concordia, which travels
the world, educating people.(www.classafloat.com)
This, from the church to the Bornholm ferry, takes
perhaps 15 minutes. And since it’s Denmark,
it will soon be time for a hot drink. You have arrived
in Nyhavn.
NYHAVEN
Nyhavn runs along the Kongens Nytorv, a canal running
out to the main harbor. Some of the people live
in their boats the years round. Nyhavn began as
a neighborhood in 1673, and it immediately became
a real, classic harbor, the stuff of Jack London
stories, with drunken sailors, brothels, tattoo
parlors and grog shops. It was to keep this character
for 300 years. Older residents can still remember
springtime, when the city would pull out the ice-encrusted
bodies of drunken sailors who had drowned in the
canal the previous autumn. In the 1970s, all of
that seediness gave way to sidewalk cafes and restaurants.
They preserved the old buildings, however, and it’s
a rare structure that is younger than Napoleon.
It is one of the international neighborhoods of
the world, complete with bars, street entertainers
and tourists of every description. And it is still
a harbor, with ferries, hydrofoils, small boats
coming and going.
Nyhavn is one of the spots for Copenhagen’s
Christmas market. They also feature “Silden’s
Tag” (the Celebration of the herring) on September
14th. The most recent, 2002, was played out in a
collective good mood that was pushing giddiness.
There was a Dixieland band playing. Hans Elsborg,
a former IBM executive who tossed it all up to live
in a boat moored to the quay, was hosting a gaggle
of street musicians, waiting to take their turn.
(“My boat is the backstage area,” he grinned.)
Fish of all kinds were for sale in makeshift stalls
along the canals. A middle-aged man in dreadlocks
walked by with a auto racing suit that said “Rasta
Ferrari,” and what seemed like everybody else
in the city was strolling up and down, smiling,
sampling fish and schnapps, getting the best out
of life.
Nyhavn is also the site for the legendary Copenhagen
Jazz Festival (July 5-14)
Leaving Nyhavn, head west, which means continue
along the canal towards the Hotel D’Angleterre.
At that corner is the far end of the Stroget, the
longest pedestrian street in the world. Built in
1962 to make the most of the town’s main shopping
street, it succeeded wildly; every summer it carries
approximately 55,000 people a day. It has been calculated
that the Stroget, which goes from 10 to 12 meters
wide, can handle 145 pedestrians per minute. On
peak times (summer afternoons) that’s exactly
the number it gets. Every square inch of retail
space is filled with merchandise and customers.
And, of course, it is the city’s main promenade.
At night the Stroget is transformed into an alternative
retail area. The stores are closed, and the wares
are street music, handmade jewelry spread out on
blankets, balloon venders, jugglers, a knife-sharpening
cart, fruit stands, and caramel apple stands. It
is all being handled by hundreds of pedestrians,
still in a shopping mood. One policeman, who has
walked that beat for 10 years, says that his is
a “great job.” Just be careful,”
he cautioned, “of pickpockets.” And what
else? “What else? Nothing else. What else could
there be?” He looked surprised at the question.
At 2:30 am, the two Englishmen came back to the
hotel. They were smiling.
|
