It’s hard to believe, but my semester abroad is almost finished. I’ve been in a bit of a rush the past week simply because I’m trying to finish all of my final exam papers early so that I’ll have enough time squeeze in a few last days of sightseeing. Since I was ahead of schedule by the end of the week, I planned out a couple fun activities still on my bucket list for Friday, April 27, and Saturday, April 28.
The National Museum
On Friday, April 27, I spent the afternoon at the National Museum. They have exhibitions and artifacts from all over the world and across different time periods (the Stone Age, the Viking Age, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and Modern Danish History). When I arrived midday, I had no idea how large it actually was! Even though the Visit Copenhagen website says you can tour the museum in about an hour, I somehow managed to spend several hours just exploring and reading everything in the Danish Prehistory exhibition on the ground floor. This was unfortunate since the museum kicked me out when they closed at 4 pm, so I didn’t get a chance to see much from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Classical Antiquities exhibitions.
Oops. Well, I heavily enjoyed what I did manage to see at the museum, so I guess that’s really what matters. The Danish Prehistory exhibition on the ground floor contained rooms divided by three time periods: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. You can see flint tools, kitchen middens, skulls on which trephination was performed, passage graves, and rune stones. Obviously there were a lot of artifacts, so I’ll just highlight a few of my favorites. In the first room, you can see a bow of elm from Holmegård c. 7000 BC. The use of the bow was a technological innovation that made hunting very efficient. In another room, you can see the Guldhøy folding chair. The folding chair was an important furniture item associated with palaces and the richest graves. Of course, I would be remiss not to mention the Bronze Age Egtved Girl. The young girl died in 1370 BC and her body was discovered in Jutland in the 1920s. Chemical analysis of the teeth revealed that she travelled vast distances back and forth between the Alps and didn’t actually spend much time in Denmark. She was 16-18 years old, around 160 cm tall, and only hair, teeth, nails, and some skin remain. After a nice afternoon at the National Museum, I took the train to Klampenborg to head to Bakken.
Bakken
Bakken is one of the world’s oldest amusement parks, operating since at least 1753. The park has 32 rides and a variety of restaurants, games, food, and ice cream stalls. Bakken is located in Jaegersborg Dyrehave, “the deer park.” The deer park and enclosure is a legacy from par force hunting by the Danish royalty. Thankfully, there is no entrance fee at Bakken, so you’re free to just walk on up and enter the park. You do have to pay a pretty penny if you want to experience any of the rides. As I walked over to Bakken, I didn’t see any deer (but I did meet a few horses).
Honestly, it was fun to just walk around the park a couple times and look at everything. The park is definitely geared towards kids, and I imagine it’s the-place-to-be for Danish children during the summer. I recommend grabbing some “is,” or ice cream. There was a noteworthy wooden roller coaster, but I had to politely decline to ride it once I realized it would cost 50 kroner (roughly $8-9). So, I admired the coaster from a distance. There was a water log coaster / ride where I saw some kids get splashed. There were also plenty of restaurants and food stalls. Finally, there was also a little area for Pjerrot / Pierrot. Pjerrot is a stock character of pantomime in popular culture typically seen as a buffoonish fool. Pjerrot has a whitened face, a boat-like hat, and is dressed in white with large buttons. He regularly performs for (and is very popular with) the Danish children. You may not feel compelled to ride the rides there, but it’s worth visiting Bakken on a nice summer evening just to see what this Danish amusement park is like.
Danny in Denmark 