Forever Young in Copenhagen
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p>Last month Monacle Magazine named Copenhagen the world's "Best City to Live In." At almost any time of day you'll find visitors crowding Copenhagen's waterfront to gaze at the statue of the Little Mermaid, who looks longingly from her otherworldly perch for her human lover. The statue embodies the city's most essential trait, namely it provides you with ability to keep one foot in childhood as you negotiate the steps of adult urban life. A child-like wonder can be found all over this city, where the omnipresent spirit of Hans Christian Andersen seems to turn up at every corner -- a spirit that recognizes children have as much to teach adults as adults do to learn from them.
It's no wonder then that in 1964 Walt Disney said of Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens: "Now this is what an amusement place should be!" Though Tivoli Gardens opened in 1843 just outside the city gate, today it's as fully integrated into the heart of the Copenhagen as Times Square is in Manhattan. And it's just as integrated into the lives of the city's people, who use it as one of the top meeting places in town.
The fact that people of all ages, with and without their children, enjoy Tivoli Gardens so much is due in part to its 19th century atmosphere – it is part amusement park and part beer garden. But it's also due to the way Tivoli has continually added modern elements along the way. Andersen joined the crowd at Tivoli's opening night, an experience that inspired his "Emperor and the Nightingale" tale. Like Tivoli, Andersen's best tales speak as eloquently to adults as they do to children. People of all ages still take refuge in Tivoli Gardens, where a full schedule of music, ballet and opera are integrated seamlessly into a landscape out of a childhood dream.
In Tivoli, rides, duck ponds, shooting galleries, band stands, gardens and glowing lanterns mingle comfortably alongside gourmet markets, 38 restaurants and taverns. Tivoli's Concert Hall attracts a steady stream of international artists. Its Friday night Rock series, "Fredagsrock" has featured such luminaries as the Smashing Pumpkins, Sting, the Beach Boys and the Pet Shop Boys. This September the New York City Ballet will perform for six nights.
From the Pirate Ship and the Chinese Pagoda to the New York City Ballet and the gourmet restaurants, Tivoli gives Copenhagen a place where you can engage in grown-up pursuits within a context that recalls the way the wider world looked to us as children. From the outside, the palatial Nimb building with its fountain and its onion domes conjures up our first wonder of Islam as a fantastical culture of magic carpets, magic lamps and jolly pashas. Inside the building, there's a gourmet wonderland with The Paul, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and the Restaurant NIMB where the kitchen is the restaurant itself and where diners sit next to working chefs who prepare their meals in front of them.
Likewise, the Chinese Pantomime Theater, with its mechanical peacock curtain, recalls childhood images of China. Last summer, Denmark's Queen Margrethe created scenery for the Pantomime Theatre's production of Andersen's The Tinder Box and many in attendance that night didn't realize that the woman bowing to their applause at the end of the show was a monarch from the oldest of royal European lines, one that stretches back more then a 1,000 years. How like a kingdom out of Andersen, in which the Queen performs incognito before her subjects and bows to their applause.
Many of Tivoli's rides are familiar bumper cars and merry-go-rounds, but the Rutsjebanen, one of the park's four roller coasters, is a historic gem. Built in 1914, the Rutsjebanen is a historic wooden roller coaster. The Rutsjebanen earned 7.5 out of 10 from Coaster Grotto which rates roller coasters all around the world. Each of the Rutsjebanen's cars has an operator working the brakes.
Andersen is well represented at Tivoli with the Hans Christian Andersen Castle, the Hans Christian Andersen Shop and The Flying Trunk ride, which depicts 32 scenes from his tales. Just across the street from Tivoli you can pay homage at Andersen's statue. Andersen (1805-1875) moved to Copenhagen in 1819 when he was 14 and the city's old town looks much as it did in his day. The houses he lived in are all still there, as are many of his favorite cafes.
The Royal Theatre, where Andersen played in chorus roles and which he wrote plays for, is still Denmark's top venue for theater, opera and ballet. The Wonderful World of Hans Christian Andersen Museum, presenting his life and works, is located right in City Hall Square.
Tivoli Gardens stays open from mid-April to mid-September and reopens with a Christmas market during the holidays. In their Best City rating, the editors of Monacle Magazine cite Copenhagen's biking paths, its human scale and its superb airport (which recently received a fabulous new terminal), but I've got to believe that Tivoli Gardens plays a major role in making Copenhagen's citizens so happy to live there. Tell your clients to arrive at Tivoli in the early evening as the lamps gradually grow their mystical glow as the darkness comes in.