Missing posts

Readers I must apologise for the missing posts.  This was unintended and unforseen.  If I had realised there was going to be a problem I would have drafted three posts in advance.

What happened was I had an invitation from our youngest son to accompany him on an overseas trip.  He is rather good a sniffing out a bargain and we managed to get some cheap fares.

The first thing I noticed on arrival were the large number of bicycles. Much of the population seemed to get around the inner city on bikes.

Now you might be thinking …… China!  But you would be wrong.  This city has proper bike lanes with bike traffic lights.

Can you see the small set of traffic lights adjacent to the main vehicle lights?

Car parking is done in a manner that provides a barrier between moving vehicles and bicycles.

It took several hours to adjust to the idea that the smooth and wide pedestrian lane was actually for bikes (which travelled fast).  Pedestrians had to stay on the uneven footpath.

If you haven’t worked out where we were by now this following photo may help.

Yes, we were in Copenhagen, Denmark.  What were our impressions?  The general population appeared to be healthy and happy.  Perhaps some of this can be attributed to the general use of bikes.  Denmark isn’t particularly cheap.  I have the impression the income gap between rich and poor is small.  There was little sign of excessive wealth and no sign of poverty.  I didn’t see any graffiti.  The Danes appear to be happy with their situation!

After reading all about star forts I was pleased to finally be able to visit one.  The Danes built one down by the water front. 

This type of fort became popular around the Napoleonic period.  Cannon could breach stonework but earth more readily absorbed the energy.  The shape of the fort allowed for mutual support as can be seen in the following diagram.

On the landward side the fort has an inner and outer moat.  Although open to the public, it is still occupied by the Danish military.

There is a round tower in the centre of the CBD.  It’s now a tourist attraction with good views of Copenhagen from the top.

I suspect it is a former ‘shot tower’.  The last time I inspected a tower like this was in Istanbul.  The tower was used to make lead musket balls.  Molten lead would be dropped from the top down the hollow centre of the tower.  It would form a perfect sphere during the fall and also solidify.  There would be a sand layer at the base of the tower to collect the balls.

I happened to notice this man wrestling a bull on top of one of the buildings.

Walking around the reverse side of the building revealed it to be colourfully painted. On looking more closely I found it to be a cinema.

There are some very interesting buildings in Copenhagen.  I particularly liked this one.

It was the spire that first caught my eye.

Entwined dragon tales I think!

It’s interesting how some things can catch your attention.  We were wandering around the supermarket looking to buy food for dinner when I happened to notice all the price tags were digital and appeared to be part of a wifi network.  The photo is a little blurred.

The system would have an initial high cost but there must be labour saving and it would make it easier to adjust prices.

We wandered down to the edge of the canal that runs through the CBD to take a few photos.

Actually over the 3 days we did a significant amount of walking.  It’s a pity we experienced rain on two of our three days !  It was mid June…….??????  And the English complain about their weather.  

Well that’s another one ticked off the bucket list!