Borgen

 

Borgen

 I’ve been watching the series “Borgen” about a fictional female Prime Minister of Denmark, and her local, EU and international involvements.  “Borgen” is short for Christiansborg Palace, the Danish parliament building in Copenhagen.

 Denmark is a small country, with s population is 5.8 million people. There are another 57 thousand people in Greenland, which is affiliated with, and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

 When I watch some series, they bring me back to some of my own life memories and adventures, The scenes of Copenhagen in “Borgen” take me back to a trip to Denmark and the tip of Sweden that we took in 1963 while living in Rotterdam.  This was before driving into Berlin from Denmark during the Berlin crisis of 1963.

 We took a car ferry from Germany to Denmark, and later another shorter ferry from Copenhagen to Malmo, Sweden.  Now, the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, the world’s longest tunnel, is being built between Denmark and Germany for 2029 completion, and the Øresund Bridge connects Copenhagen and Malmo, Sweden.

 I still remember the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, and seeing Eartha Kitt perform.

 Cars drove on the left in Sweden in 1963, (until 1967), but many cars, including my French Simca, had left hand controls.  This made it interesting when passing.  Also, it must have been really interesting in the far north of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, with Swedish cars driving on the left, and the others driving on the right.

 The next part of this trip was into East Germany and East Berlin, and U.S. and Soviet tanks facing each other at Check Point Charlie.

 Ray Gruszecki

September 1, 2022