Visitors To Copenhagen See Deer Park By Coach

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27986, 5 June 1956, Page 2

Visitors To Copenhagen See Deer Park By Coach

A trip round the King’s deer park in Copenhagen in an old-fashioned coach, pulled by two horses, is described by Mrs Rolf Grut. formerly Miss Dora Neville, of Christchurch, in a recent letter to her parents. Mr and Mrs F. H. Neville, of Merivale. The coaches were kept for tourists and were most picturesque. They res°mbled a landau, or fiacre, with two facing seats, said Mrs Grut. It was a delightful way of seeing the park and the herds of deer. The coachman obligingly stopped for the children to descend and attempt to catch some of the deer. Mr and Mrs Grut, who have been living in Malaya for some years, are visiting Mr Grut’s mother in Copenhagen. On the homeward journey in the soring, Mrs Grut, accompanied by the three children—Diana. William and Joseohine—will visit her parents in Christchurch. “We have been to the famous Tivoli, which is a huge amusement park in the heart of Copenhagen. It is an

amusement park with a lot of character, very clean and orderly, beautifully laid out with gardens, fountains and trees, and nothing dirty or slipshod about it. It is quite peculiar to Denmark, annarently, and a great feature of the city. There are big smart restaurants. small beer taverns, and sta’ls that sell sausages. The amusements are wonderful. A m^^v- go-round ha? giraffes, camels, a rhinoceros, and a hippopotamus on it, as well as horses. ’ wrote Mrs Grut. Hnrnbaek beach in Denmark reminded her of the sand dunes at Waikuku. with the same type of long grass growing on them, and if it had rot been for Sweden on the horizon instead of the Port Hills, it could have been the same place, she said. From Strandvej, which stretched along the coast from Copenhagen to Elsinor for about 30 miles, one obtained a clear view of Sweden on the opposite side. It was the narrow part of the Baltic, and looking across it was like looking across a lake. The water was beautifully clear and shallow for

swimming and there was plenty of beach. This winter the water was completely frozen, and it was possible to walk across the stretch to Sweden. The architecture in Denmark was particularly good, said Mrs Grut. All the houses were very pretty, and none were built of wood. All were of brick or stone, and all appeared so different. The house where she was staying had, like most Danish houses, a big cellar where the oil central heating was. Mrs Grut said the cellar consisted of at least six big rooms, where the washing was done, and boxes and other articles were stored. There were pantries where the food was kept in summer, and the children had the ’arrest room for a play room. Upstairs, on the ground floor, was a dining room leading on to a sunny terrace, a drawing room, and a study, she said. The stairs ran attractively round two walls and then to a balcony, like some of the old flats in Dunedin. Upstairs were five bedrooms. Fefore going to Copenhagen, Mr and Mrs Grut had a journey round the canals in Amsterdam in a modern launch had plastic sides and roof, so t b at the view from the launch, which seated IfO persons or more, would not be obscured. It was like ridin? in a large bus said Mrs Grut. “With 70 canals winding through the city. you can imagine how many bridges there are—more than 400.” wrote Mrs Grut. Along all the waterways were trees which were changing intn spring green. Describing a motor journey, Mrs Grut said; “We saw fields of red and whi+e and yellow and blue, just carpet? of colour—either tulips or hvacinths We stooped at a little exhibition where <here a glasshouse of the choicest blooms—huge heads of every imaginable colour. “Cutside there were fields of hyacinths, deep purple like grapes, and all shades of pink and blue. After that wo drove through all the tulip belt, which is on sandy soil near the soa. There were stalls by the wayside wh°re great chains of tulips were being sold to hang on motor-cars,” she said