"I Always Say : "People Make Places" " a Copenhagen Travel Page by johngayton

I must apologise to Raz before I even start this, I am probably going to totally mangle the story of this lion, but here goes anyway:
It seems that there were a couple of wars between Denmark and Germany in the 1800's, the Danes won the first one but lost the second, and this lion was captured by the Germans and taken to Berlin. As Raz accounts: just after the end of hostilities in 1945 a certain Danish (?)journalist and an American general were having a few drinks in Berlin and the journalist mentions this lion - one thing the Yanks are good at is logistics!

The lion was immediately located, transportation organised and taken home to Copenhagen, delivered to the king personally - quick knock on door: "Hi Your Majesty, here's your lion back."

This created a minor problem in that they had no idea where to put it, after all Thorvaldsens statues occupy most of the main places where statues can be located and Bishop Absalom the other, and so, given this lions belliferous history, he was put outside the armory on his plinth, and a square built around him.

This is my intro to Copenhagen - but I love the story, mangled it though I may have done - Please feel absolutely free to correct details :)

And here is the original storyteller, taking a breather at La Glace - tip to follow.

From an all too short visit to Copenhagen all I can really provide are a few first impressions and these were all good: the scenery, history, architecture, food, the people I met - especially the people.

For some reason I had a pre-conceived idea that the Danes would be brusque and business-like, lacking humour - but this was definitely not so! I even met a local called Erik in Claus's bar who could outquote me on Robert Burns, which is pretty damn impressive!

Everyone, without exception, that I met, was helpful and friendly, from the receptionist at the hotel to the barman at the bar at the airport going home.

Which of course brings me to my favourite subject, I knew I could manipulate this intro in this direction :)

Another preconception which I had was that beer was going to be horrendously expensive, this proved not to be the case AT ALL.

Just back from the most amazing weekend here in Copenhagen; a weekend of sunshine, great company, dancing with Greenlanders, good food, a bit of culture and history, a new country visited and one or two beers imbibed - purely for social lubricaton LOL ;)

Coming across my friend Claus's meeting to be held in a brewery on the Friday was just the sort of thing I couldn't turn down: adding on a day trip by train and ferry to Sweden and a minor pub crawl with my to be betrothed, Raz, ably assisted by Allan, and finishing with a pleasant al fresco lunch on the Sunday with new friends made for a trip which will be difficult (if not impossible) to surpass.

The 4 days yielded perhaps a total of 15 hours sleep but such was the buzz created that any more would have been superflous - this was serious party time commencing even before I met up with the rest of the crew and it was with leaden feet and a heavy heart that I departed on the Sunday evening but the weekends' memories reproduce an instant high as I sort through my photos and type up this page.

Cheers Guys, and thanks especially for all the fish!!

Tips and travelogues will probably take weeks to complete, so that'll be weeks of reliving the whole thing, weeks of returning to someplace magical, memories unforgetable.