Page 242 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

from Copenhagen

JOHN MUNCIE AND JODY JAFFE

Dear Ron, horns on their hats founded the place in the tenth cen-
tury. It became the country’s capital some 500 years
How appropriate that Carol King’s voice, singing “I later and has the castles and ramparts to prove it.
feel the earth move….”, swirled down from the sound Our boat tour – which included a troop of tow-
system just as the waitress put an open-faced herring headed school kids -- began by cruising down the
sandwich in front of Jody. Nyhavn canal but before we got out to the harbor, the
She’d been on the hunt for herring all day. And here guide – who switched back and forth between Danish
it was, elevated to its culinary peak, at Aamanns 1921. and English – warned us sternly: “Watch out for low
Appropriate, because it’s only a slight exaggeration to bridges. Keep your heads down and your hands inside
say that the earth moves when Jody finds herring. the boat.” He was not exaggerating. Near the end of
And what better way to fuel up for the second half of the canal – and not far from Hans Christian Ander-
a day in Copenhagen than to eat a trio of open-faced son’s house – we scooted under a bridge so low you
sandwiches at one of Copenhagen’s more renowned could slap the stone archway. Which several of the
restaurants? school kids tried to do.
It's also a slight exaggeration to say we spent “a Once out in open waters, our boat made a big loop
day” in Copenhagen. It was a 12-hour layover on our past such sights as the city’s futuristic opera house,
way to Frankfurt. In at 7:00 a.m., out at 7 that even- navy docks, the Royal Danish Playhouse, a power sta-
ing. In between, we attempted to cram in a weekend’s tion and, of course, the famous Little Mermaid statue,
worth of exploration. which sits pensively on some rocks just a few feet off
We trained in from the airport to Kongens Nytorv the city’s coast.
(King’s New Square) in Copenhagen’s historic center From our vantage point we only saw her back; she
at around 9 that morning. Within an hour we were on a faced inland and a zillion tourists who lined the shore
sightseeing boat touring the city’s harbor and canals. shooting Mermaid selfies.
Copenhagen is a compact city of 800,000 on the The day was beautiful; clear and around 70 degrees
compact Danish island of Zealand. The island is so which was 20 degrees cooler than anything we’d felt
close to Sweden the two countries are connected by a in months at home in steamy Southwest Virginia. The
bridge. Copenhagen has been a port since guys with harbor’s soft, cool breeze, smelling of sea salt, felt like

242 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018