Inderhavnsbroen / the inner harbour bridge

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Inderhavnsbroen - the inner harbour bridge for pedestrians and bikes that crosses from Nyhavn to Christianshavn - opened in the summer of 2016.

It provides an important and fast link between the old city, on the west side of the harbour, and Christianshavn, Christiania, Holmen and the opera house on the east side of the harbour.

Until the completion of the bridge, the simple way to cross the harbour was to use the ferry between the Skuespilhuset - the National Theatre - and the opera house - a distance of about 600 metres door to door by foot and boat.

To walk or to ride a bike from the theatre to the opera house without using the ferry meant going down to Knippelsbro and then back up to Holmen - a distance of just over 3 kilometres.

With the Inner Harbour Bridge and the new three-way Transgravsbroen, it is still 1,500 metres from the door of the theatre to the door of the opera house.

By car it was even further. When I first moved to Copenhagen, cars could not drive over the bridge from Christianshavn to Holmen so the route meant driving over to Amager and then across the north side Kløvermarken and up to the causeway at Minebådsgraven and from there to Holmen and the Opera House ..... a distance of well over 6 kilometres.

Inderhavnsbroen was designed by the English engineers Flint & Neill who are now a subsidiary of the Danish engineering group COWI.

It has been nicknamed the Kissing Bridge because of the unusual way that it opens and closes to let large ships move up and down the harbour.

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Inderhavnsbroen from the south …. Havngade and then Nyhavn are to the left and on the right is Nordatlantens Brygge - the warehouse on the east or Christianshavn side of the harbour
the cranes are for new apartment buildings on Papirøen

 
 

the bridge from the east or Christianshavn side looking up Nyhavn towards Kongens Nytorv

the bridge from the east with Nyhavn beyond with the centre sections open for a ship to come through

 

Understanding

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A large new sculpture has been set up on Ofelia Plads - the long wide concrete pier or mole that runs out from the north side of Skuespilhuset - The Royal Danish Playhouse.

Work No. 2630 Understanding by the British artist Martin Creed was planned to be part of the celebrations in Roskilde for the 50th anniversary of the festival in 2020 where there were to be three giant words with peace and love alongside understanding but, with the pandemic, the festival was cancelled. The plan now is that the sculpture will be moved to Roskilde if the festival can be held in 2021.

The huge letters, outlined in red neon, form a work that is 8 metres high and 15 metres wide and it rotates so at night the reflection of the lettering pans across the water of the harbour.

 

eating inside outside - pop-up restaurant cabins from Meyers

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With the whole business of lockdown and with restaurants only just being allowed to reopen … and even then only with diners outside … the Meyers restaurant at Skuespilhuset - the national theatre - have set up eight glasshouses on the board walk or terrace outside the theatre with each being large enough to take four people.

There are views across the harbour to The Opera House and,  maybe less romantic, across to the building site on Paper Island. Well less romantic unless you are civil engineers on a date.

There are another four greenhouses at the Meyers Deli on Gammel Kongevej. The setting there, on the street at the side, is not quite as scenic but never-the-less there is a good arrangement of plants to shield diners from the people walking past.

On their web site, the restaurant confess that the idea has come from Amsterdam but it seems to work well, particularly on the harbour.

The glasshouse dining spaces opened at the very end of May and tables in the greenhouses can be booked on line.

Meyers