Journal no. 3

Den lille havfrue - The little mermaid


The mermaid waits at a section of a huge park called Langelinie next to a yacht harbour. We took bus 26 near Osterport station and alighted at Indiakaj street. From there, follow the signs for "den lille havfrue". There was an American family that walked the wrong way because they expected signs in English.




The wiki entry for the statue provides an interesting read. 
The founder of Carlsberg commissioned this after watching a ballet based on H.C. Anderson's tale of the little mermaid. 
We did see a version of the statue at Visit Carlsberg, set in the middle of a fountain. But this version, unveiled in 1913, somehow captured the public's imagination.
Basically, it is a piece of art that has become iconic and Copenhagen has taken advantage of it to establish it as their mascot.
The mermaid is part tourist magnet, part representative of the spirit of city, and an easy target for people who want to make the news.

The setting of the lone little bronze maiden in her vulnerable pose, gazing over the water, is very poetic, romantic and wistful, capturing the spirit of Anderson's story. 
Except that the background is full of industrial buildings.
This guy was sketching her in his notebook. It looked good.
 

There were some flowers strewn on her.
We visited in the late evening, after the busloads of tourists are not longer there.
She was still very popular as we had to wait a bit to get a solo shot with her.

We walked along the edge of the water and saw people chucking sticks in the water for their dogs to fetch.

The sunset had a lovely pink tinge.


That's a view of Kastellet, a star-shaped fortress from the 1600s. The shape looks amazing in Google maps.
Actually I didn't know what it was, but the bridge that allowed access to the fortress was already closed, so I couldn't explore.

Summer flowers.

That's the Gefion fountain, which is huge - humans in the photo for scale.

There it is from the back.
This was also contributed by the Carlsberg group and features a Norse Goddess on a chariot driven by beasts.
Somehow it doesn't fit in with the atmosphere of the place.
Too grand and imposing!

And this was my last photo of the lovely city of Copenhagen as we took a bus home.
The next day, we had an early flight back to Stockholm.