So I’ll Be Living at Knippelsbro from Now On

A more distant view of a control tower of Copenhagen's Knippelsbro

Please forward my mail.

Looking up at a control tower of Copenhagen's Knippelsbro

I was walking back from Freetown Christiania (which I won’t be writing about here because I didn’t enjoy it very much), when I noticed… these. The control towers of Knippelsbro (or Knippels Bridge, if you’re a monolingual thing like me), just being all verdigris and weathered and incredibly beautiful. And… inhabited?

The side of a control tower of Copenhagen's Knippelsbro

Thar be curtains, no?

A ladder on the wall of Copenhagen's Knippelsbro

If I were more mischievous than I am, I could’ve tried to scale it to get some answers. Alas, I am polite.

The door and wall of a control tower of Copenhagen's Knippelsbro

But I could be a bridge control tower professional; I can feel it. No one collects tolls these days, so it’s probably a part-time thing.

Closer look of the door of a control tower of Copenhagen's Knippelsbro

Still: please forward my mail here sometime soon. I’m sure they’re fine with cats; Denmark and Sweden seem, on the whole, cool about the whole pet thing. Because, for reasons I can’t fully articulate, this is up there with houseboats and sailboats* and the narrow tops of skyscrapers so far as deeply and immediately desirable accommodations. This is why we rent, right? Options.

*Uh, related: today I realized, with a jolt, that I want to learn to sail. I began thinking about this when I was asked why I chose to stay in Nyhavn for my three nights in Copenhagen. “I like boats,” I answered, with very little conscious thought required. And… it’s just true. I like water. I like boats. Seeing both from my hotel room window made me happy every time I poked my head through the curtains. I can drive a motorboat. I can paddle a canoe or rowboat. But if one is going to do, say, a longer-distance boat journey (which feels like something I’d like to do, I realize), and one does not care to have (or afford) a yacht or crew, knowing how to sail seems pretty important. Well, French class is done in a month anyway. God forbid I have unscheduled spare time.