Sculpture and Sausage

Goddag

I thought it was some kind of joke but no.  Danes really eat burgers with a knife and fork.  Seriously.  I have seen this with my own eyes.  The rule seems to be that if one is at an actual table with a plate, one uses a knife and fork on whatever is before one, but it’s all right to use hands if one is just walking along.  So many tourists come to Copenhagen I don’t think Danes care what the rest of us do with burgers.

Then I came across a dude got up like Hans Christian Andersen explaining to a group of horrified Americans that Danes handed over forty percent of their income to the government.  They get good value for their money including health care and free college education.  Despite their reverence for their royal family, I have the impression that Danes value egalitarianism.  No "elite" universities exist in Denmark, so students wanting one need to study abroad.

I enjoyed a bright sunny day for a change.  I went out early to walk around the town.  I revisited Christianborgslot.  My first stop was the Thorvaldsen Museum.  I just regarded this as an Art History duty visit to tick off thinking I'd spend half an hour looking at a few statues.  Boy was I wrong!

The Torvald Museum is Denmark's oldest and the Neo Classical building it occupies is worth seeing on its own.  I went early and spent hours in a largely empty museum having all those statues to myself!

I'm glad you had a nice time.  Who or what is this Thorvaldsen?

He's Denmark's great artist—although he did most of his work in Rome.  Bertel Thorvald  was handsome Dane who created neo classical sculptures—the great skill and beauty and yet . . .  little expressiveness.  His bas reliefs are better as they show move movement and interaction.  You might get tired of the Greek gods and goddesses or the flattering portrait busts.

I liked the Alexander Frieze, which was commissioned by one of the King Christians for Christianborgslot.  Torvaldsen always made casts of his sculptures, so he could sell copies, so I could study the relief up close in the museum and later I saw it in one of the state apartments of the palace.  His other great work is a free-standing sculpture group of Christ and the Twelve Apostles minus Judas and plus Paul.  He made that for Vor Frue (i.e. Our Lady) or the Copenhagen Cathedral just down the street from my apartment.  I'll visit it later, but now let us enter Christianborgslot itself.

In order to see the royal reception rooms one dons blue plastic shoe shields to protect the marble and parquet floors from one's plebeian soles.  I found the place well worth visiting.  Grandeur, gilt, molded ceilings, velvet covered walls are laid on thick and most of it looks gorgeous.  An exception is the awful modern tapestries hanging in the state dining room.  They are brightly colored but distorted and disturbing.  I think one of the panels is meant to be Queen Margarethe and her consort Prince Henrick as Adam and Eve.  Oh dear.  If I were ever invited to a banquet in this setting the sight of those tapestries would put me off my feed!

One can also visit the ruins under the castle.  This is more interesting than it sounds because of the excellent explanation provided of the different levels and techniques of construction.

And you ate?

The Polsger are hot dogs—sorta.  One gets them from Polsgervogn or sausage wagon on main squares, and they are the traditional Danish street food.  A variety of sausage is on offer, and I got the most common kind.  Well, it tasted fine.  I think one has to be hungry to enjoy one.  I was and I did.  But the color!  The only time I’ve seen food that color it was candy.  It’s a sort of seriously unnatural coral red.  I don’t know what gives it that color and since I put some in my mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it, I don’t want to know.  Ok?  It’s on a white bread bun with catsup.

Gick!!

Yes, I know catsup on a hot dog in the USA is enough to doom one to the ninth circle of hell, but I’m in Denmark.  It also featured mustard, remoulade sauce (Don’t blame me!  It’s the Danes’ favorite), raw onion and sweet pickles.  So I’ve had one and now I can go back to smorrebrod.

Farvel