We spent 5 nights and 4 very busy days in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark and where Hans Christian Andersen, the author of “The little mermaid” and “A little match girl”, wrote many of his fairytales.
Joy shared is joy doubled, knowledge shared is knowledge gained. Hope you don’t mind me sharing some of what I saw, heard and felt during my short stay there.
#1. Descendants of viking people are white and blonde, and very very tall, lots of women are 6ft (180cm) in height and men are giants! With 5’2” (160cm) height, I can’t even reach the overhead holding bar inside the subway trains, felt like a dwarf.
#2. All public washrooms are shared by all genders. Felt quite odd the first time to see both men and women in the same washroom washing hands outside the toilet booths, but one gets used to it very quickly.
#3. Daylight is long and everything is very expensive there: a cup of coffee costs $10CAD, and felt cost an arm and a leg to eat a simple meal in restaurants.
#4. Different from any city I have been to so far, I didn’t see any panhandlers nor homeless people in streets. I was told by our walking tour guide that Denmark has very good social support system (eg. with 20%+ housing is social housing) to help its disadvantaged people.
I highly admire this, as I strongly believe the measurement of advancement of a society lies not only in its GDP, but also in how well it takes care of the disadvantaged ones.
That’s one of the main reasons I love and chose to stay in Canada (over US), although I must admit that Canada can't compare to the Scandinavian countries. To me, it has nothing to do with right or left wing politics, but the basic humanity.
BTW, not only is tuition free, Danish people get paid about $1000US/month to study in university !!! I’m not sure if Trump could match those even if he did take Greenland.
#5. Bicycles, bicycles, and they are everywhere. The tour guide said 9 out of 10 people in Copenhagen have at least one bike. Many use bikes as their main transportation, and the city has built very good bike infrastructure. We were told there are even separate bike paths between towns/villages. The weather wasn’t friendly, cold and rainy when we were there, otherwise I would love to bike some, rather than depending on No 11 all the time.
So much to say but so little time. Have to go now, till next time … …
Note: all pictures below were taken by my dear cellphone “devil”
Denmark parliament building (used to be king’s palace)
丹麦国家议会（以前是国王的宫殿）
Copenhagen city hall
哥本哈根市政府
The little mermaid looking out to sea
凝视着大海的鱼美人（她的故事其实有一个悲惨的结局，这尊雕像也曾被多次损害过）
Danish navy on solid ground (with permission)
驻守在陆地的丹麦海军（拍照得到了他们批准）
Inside Copenhagen university old library
哥本哈根大学老图书馆
The famous ones associated with university
和学校有关系的那些得过诺贝尔奖的学者
Copenhagen art gallery, the one we missed first
美术馆
An original drawing by Michelangelo
米开朗基罗碳笔画原作（是他在做雕塑之前的底稿）
Canal built using Swedish labour
丹麦以前在北欧三国里称霸，用瑞典俘虏挖的运河
Bikers everywhere
到处都是行车人
Expensive (+ tip) lunch in museum cafe
博物馆餐厅里的午餐（盘里那两根是当地令时的白芦笋）
The shared washroom
合用的公共厕所
A magpie outside our stay
住处外：喜鹊喜鹊在看什么？
A gentle visitor who came into our stay without invitation, and spoke universal cat language with me
我还在旅途中，感谢云儿鸡毛信通知活动。
我是个很直的人，也是个慢热的人。虽然以前和林子，云儿美眉，杜鹃美眉在文城博客都有过友好来往，还是犹豫很久以后才在去年金秋悄悄地走进星坛发帖，试探着和大家互动。
是班长们和各位坛友们给了我温暖和支持，西岛非常感动感恩（。。。此处省略千字，因为试了几次，笔迹未落，泪水先行 。。。 ）
嗯，那就把我在美坛的英文小游记译成中文，为这次星坛活动助兴。
旅途中时间有限，请星星们原谅我不能多互动。
谢谢读帖。
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我和先生上月底在丹麦首都哥本哈根住了5夜自由游了4天。这里也是安徒生童话里的“鱼美人”和“卖火柴的小女孩”故事发生的地方。
发个小帖子说说哥本哈根给我留下的几个印象。
1。丹麦是北欧海盗维京人的老家。他们的后代非常高（但不胖），我们看见很多女士和我先生一样高（6英尺，1米8），男士们更高，个个像巨人。在那里1米6的我觉得像个诛儒，使劲儿伸手也够不着地铁车里头上的把手。
2。所有公共厕所都是男女合用的（有下面照片为证）。头一次去时看见男士女士都在toilet booth外面同一个地方洗手，觉得很不习惯。但是，去了几次后，很快就入乡随俗了。而且觉得这样很合理，没有女厕所排长队的问题。
3。这里的白天很长，东西也很贵。一杯普通咖啡要10加元！更别提在餐馆用餐了。
4。和我去过的其它城市不同，我在哥本哈根街头没有看见讨乞者和流浪汉。听带着我们做城市步行游的导游说，丹麦虽然是一个资本主义国家，但有很好的社会福利，特别是对那些处于劣势地位的人们。比如所有住房里有20%是国家补助房。
丹麦国家公民的平均收入高，税收也很高（大概是42%左右，但我没机会询问这是平均税率还是边界税率）。这里是公费全民教育，包括大学。而且，每个月国家还发给每个大学相当于1000美元的生活补助。
我个人觉得衡量一个国家的先进不仅是她有多高的GDP，更在于她是否爱护帮助自己社会里的穷人和不幸的人们。这也是我虽然在工作时有很多机会移民去美国，但选择了加拿大为第二故乡的主要原因（当然加拿大的社会福利比北欧国家要差不少，目前公费医疗和住房政策都有急需改进的地方）。
5。自行车，自行车，哥本哈根到处都是自行车。导游说，这里10个居民里有9个有至少一辆自行车。而且不少人用自行车为主要交通工具。不仅城市里有安全方便的自行车道，市外各村镇之间也建有自行车专用小路。我们在的那几天气候不友好，天天都下雨，不然我们肯定也会租自行车骑骑滴。
下面是我在美坛对应的英文帖子和我照的照片和大家分享。
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We spent 5 nights and 4 very busy days in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark and where Hans Christian Andersen, the author of “The little mermaid” and “A little match girl”, wrote many of his fairytales.
Joy shared is joy doubled, knowledge shared is knowledge gained. Hope you don’t mind me sharing some of what I saw, heard and felt during my short stay there.
#1. Descendants of viking people are white and blonde, and very very tall, lots of women are 6ft (180cm) in height and men are giants! With 5’2” (160cm) height, I can’t even reach the overhead holding bar inside the subway trains, felt like a dwarf.
#2. All public washrooms are shared by all genders. Felt quite odd the first time to see both men and women in the same washroom washing hands outside the toilet booths
, but one gets used to it very quickly.
#3. Daylight is long and everything is very expensive there: a cup of coffee costs $10CAD, and felt cost an arm and a leg to eat a simple meal in restaurants.
#4. Different from any city I have been to so far, I didn’t see any panhandlers nor homeless people in streets. I was told by our walking tour guide that Denmark has very good social support system (eg. with 20%+ housing is social housing) to help its disadvantaged people.
I highly admire this, as I strongly believe the measurement of advancement of a society lies not only in its GDP, but also in how well it takes care of the disadvantaged ones.
That’s one of the main reasons I love and chose to stay in Canada (over US), although I must admit that Canada can't compare to the Scandinavian countries. To me, it has nothing to do with right or left wing politics, but the basic humanity.
BTW, not only is tuition free, Danish people get paid about $1000US/month to study in university !!! I’m not sure if Trump could match those even if he did take Greenland.
#5. Bicycles, bicycles, and they are everywhere. The tour guide said 9 out of 10 people in Copenhagen have at least one bike. Many use bikes as their main transportation, and the city has built very good bike infrastructure. We were told there are even separate bike paths between towns/villages. The weather wasn’t friendly, cold and rainy when we were there, otherwise I would love to bike some, rather than depending on No 11 all the time.
So much to say but so little time. Have to go now, till next time … …
Note: all pictures below were taken by my dear cellphone “devil”
Denmark parliament building (used to be king’s palace)
丹麦国家议会（以前是国王的宫殿）
Copenhagen city hall
哥本哈根市政府
The little mermaid looking out to sea
凝视着大海的鱼美人（她的故事其实有一个悲惨的结局，这尊雕像也曾被多次损害过）
Danish navy on solid ground (with permission)
驻守在陆地的丹麦海军（拍照得到了他们批准）
Inside Copenhagen university old library
哥本哈根大学老图书馆
The famous ones associated with university
和学校有关系的那些得过诺贝尔奖的学者
Copenhagen art gallery, the one we missed first
美术馆
An original drawing by Michelangelo
米开朗基罗碳笔画原作（是他在做雕塑之前的底稿）
Canal built using Swedish labour
丹麦以前在北欧三国里称霸，用瑞典俘虏挖的运河
Bikers everywhere
到处都是行车人
Expensive (+ tip) lunch in museum cafe
博物馆餐厅里的午餐（盘里那两根是当地令时的白芦笋）
The shared washroom
合用的公共厕所
A magpie outside our stay
住处外：喜鹊喜鹊在看什么？
A gentle visitor who came into our stay without invitation, and spoke universal cat language with me
住处内：一位不请自入的友好礼貌猫咪