Weekend Picture Upload: Street lights in Scandinavia

Some of the pictures of Street Lights I have taken in Denmark,Sweden and Norway in 2005. These lights of different shapes and colours, reflect the cultural trends of Scandinavia in general. Here goes the link.

Skayen - Denmark; A Journey to remember

One can have many problems while traveling, starting from health problem, robbery to inadvertently violating rules (I was going through Cuckoo’s blog , and found an interesting story about her inadvertent stupidity). Health hazards are not new to me, happened many time while traveling in India, but fortunately not here in Europe. But once we experienced a scary incidence, while going to Skayen, from Arhus in Denmark.One new guy (A Sardar without turban) came from US in our project and was approached me to join a trip to Skayen. It was a typical Sardar, an over-smart underdog resource, behaves as if born and brought up in US. The reason for that is he has green card. But he has a nice charming personality and can easily mix with unknown people.

From the very first he started driving rashly, not caring anybody(we were 4 in the car) and scaring me, as I am a typical bong and used to get frightened easily. Yes, I am little more conservative and hardly take any additional risks. So he took the opportunity to create a heroic impression (don’t take it otherwise, that guy was married and had a child) but that never means we have to drive in 160 kph. I asked him to slow down, but he was not bothered about anything and pressed the accelerator to its maximum, almost reaching towards 200. We didn’t know the speed limit.

All of a sudden we hear police sirens and were not sure it’s for us. But one of the police cars asked us to stop. What have we done? I was puzzled, bit scared, and thought of all possible scenarios except the real one. The police told the max limit was 130kph, which we violated by far (Later we came to know that the speed limits can be tracked by the hidden cameras in highway) and he asked the CPR card (Residence Card) to fine directly in the official bank account. But that guy was in business visa and didn’t have CPR number; so I had to give my card. The policeman was already going to fine me 5000DKK, which is equivalent of almost 40,000/- (INR). It would have been a heavy fine for me if not they grace us.

We escaped luckily, and I thanked God (That time I used to believe in God); but the sardar was cool like a cucumber, casually teasing as usual, Dor gaya kaya!! Dekho dekho Dor gaya!!, as if he was successful in his intentions. Later I handled this psycho differently not reacting to his every rubbish words. I do not have anything against Punjabis, but that guy was exceptional, has pissed off everyone in the project, specially the south Indians. I like Sardars in general, but somehow could not manage with this guy.
Finally we visited the Kanyakumarika of Denmark, Skayen. This is the North most point of Denmark, in North Sea. [According to Wikipedia, Skagen takes its name from the region, which projects into the waters between the North Sea and the straits of Denmark. Skagen is considered the boundary between the Skagerrak (named after Skagen) and the Kattegat. At its very tip is a sandy, shifting headland known as Grenen.]

The landscape of this place was stunning and magnificent; specially the cost is very different from the conventional beaches. The light house is something worth to watch. The smooth serene breeze and amazing beauty helped us to forget the unfortunate incident quickly.

Copenhagen - Top 5 Places

Amalienborg Palace

My brother is going to visit Copenhagen in this weekend and asked me which sights/places he can cover in 2/3 days. I have been there for much longer period and visited 7 out of the Top 10 places mentioned in the official website. I have not seen Tivoli (an amusement park), because I don’t like tough and exiting rides and never managed to see some museums in Copenhagen.

I really dont agree with the rating of these sites, like Little Mermaid (picture1) (picture2) which is the much hyped statue in miniature, with very little historical significance but heavily publicized tourist attraction. The official site describe it as “Hans Christian Andersen wrote a fairy tale about her, Disney produced the movie, and Copenhagen maintains a statue in her honour.” The interesting fact about this one is the head of the statue is replaced every year with a new one.
I have seen the The Viking Ship Museum (Genuine viking ships on display at the museum in Roskilde.), which was very ordinary one.

10 places can not be covered in a single weekend, so I have to make top 5 for him. I mean the list can vary with the choice of tourist, but if I had been given option to see five places I could have seen these one.

Kronborg Castle

1) Kronborg Castle, Helsingor(Denmark) – Helsingborg(Sweden) – Malmo(Sweden) – Copenhagen(Denmark) round trip. This is a must seen trip, if one is visiting Copenhagen. The Helsingor castle is very famous as “William Shakespeare's play Hamlet takes place at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør.” From Helsingor one can reach Helsingborg in 20 mins by boats. Helsinborg is a very old city with castle and ageold history. Malmo a small industrial town of Sweden, adjacent to Copenhagen seperated by Oresund Bridge. My visit to Malmo and Oresund Bridge was really wonderful.

Canal Tour

2)Canel cruise in small canals of Copenhagen: The fascinating view of different locations like old churches, Vesterport(old port), Opera house, little mermaid, royal ship etc can be seen in a 60 minute guided tour. This canal drive is really enjoying and highly recommended. One can see a large section of the city through this drive.

3)Town Hall - Walking street –Børsen (former Stock Exchange building) - Danish Parliament: Copenhagen's largest shopping area is the Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street, Strøget. There is an Erotica Museum also, unique of its kind. The walking street is quite crowded, and always full of activities, specially near the Town Hall. There is a booklet called “Copenhagen this week”, which contains all details of these activities.

4)Amalienborg Palace : This is the home of the Danish royal family , always patrolled by royal guard, the change of guard is something special for the tourists. A domed Marble Church can be seen behind the Royal Palace.

Frederiksberg Park(Left) and (Right) Shopping street, Strøget

5) I have a tie here with Frederiksberg Park and Frederiksborg Palace :
Frederiksberg Park, was close to my apartment and I have seen many different typical Danish festival here, so you can say I am somehow emotionally attached with it. But the Castle and Natural beauty is really beautiful in this park, the zoo is next to it.
Frederiksborg Palace in Hillerød is located on three small islands in the middle of Palace Lake and is adjoined by a large, baroque formal garden.

There are many more places I have seen like Rosenberg Palace(pic), Frederiksdal, (Pic), Copenhagen Zoo. The National Gallery, an Art museum situated in Copenhagen centre is also worth visiting. But its difficult to cover by in short trip.

Here goes some more picture link.

Two More Statues

The above statue is situated in the Victoria Memorial (London), placed at the centre of Queen's Gardens in front of Buckingham Palace. This statue symbolises the concept of royal female guard of the queen.

Every statue has its story. Like the following picture is taken in a small Danish city called Helsingør. This city is famous for setting of William Shakespeare's Hamlet ;the story of the Danish Prince "Hamlet",
In Helsingor port(Denmark) is still remembering their brave hero through this magestic sculpture.