Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1974 Feb
Contents
peace, customs inspector, police chief, and postmaster. "Many of our country's remote islands are losing all their young people to Copenhagen and the other cities," Mr. Jakobsen continued, "but Christians0 has been lucky in that re spect. Although our children must leave the island after seventh grade to complete their education, more than half of them eventually return home to live." I asked about isolation in winter, and Mr. Jakobsen dismissed the idea. "Often the ice is no problem at all," he said, "and in any case today we have icebreakers and helicopter flights for emergencies. "In the old days it was quite different. Sometimes we went for weeks without boat connections to Bornholm, though we always had supplies enough to see us through. "I remember one terrible winter after the last war when the ice was so bad that the government decided to transport our mail by plane. Of course it was expensive, and the plane made only one flight. When it came, we loaded it down with a huge sack of letters. "About a month later an icebreaker turned up, and everyone was very excited to see what it had brought. To their delight, the ship landed a big mailbag. People could hardly wait for me to sort it." He shook his head sadly. "Governments, I'm afraid, are very much alike the world over. When I opened the sack, it turned out to be the same letters we had sent off by plane the month before. All we could do was put them on the icebreaker again and hope that this time they would make it." Closed Tivoli Holds Promise of Spring Back in Copenhagen I paid a last call on Tivoli, then officially closed for the season. With the director's permission I strolled for a time along the gravel paths strewn with the pale gold of shedding lindens and elms. On the facades of amusement rides and theaters, maintenance crews had begun removing or naments and lights, and many of the kiosks were already shuttered. The restaurant ter races were empty of chairs and tables, leaving the final cleanup to those veteran freeloaders, the sparrows and pigeons. The celebrated Tivoli charm was still there, only in quieter form, a blend of nostalgia and the promise of seasons to come. With another spring, the gates would open and Tivoli would once again captivate the world with its color, its laughter, and instinctive hospitality. And so, of course, would Denmark. [ Gentle as the land, spotted fallow deer roam in Dyrehaven, the royal game preserve. Over a hundred years of internal peace have brought forth a Denmark that would have aston ished the old Vikings: an intensely organized, hardworking, and com fortable welfare state whose best known hero is Hans Christian Ander sen-author of fairy tales. Denmark, Field of the Danes 275
Links
Archive
1974 Mar
1974 Jan
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page