You may have seen in the news that the historic Børsen stock exchange building in Copenhagen, Denmark suffered massive damage in a fire today. For me, it brought back memories from our visit in 2022, when we spent time sightseeing on Slotsholmen, an island in the middle of the city that’s considered the center of the Denmark government.
Most of our time was spent exploring Christiansborg Palace (my travel journal from that day describes the palace in more detail, including the fact that it’s the only building in the world that houses all three branches of government). We also took a boat tour of the Copenhagen harbor, which started and ended in Slotholmens Kanal, right in front of the palace.
I didn’t specifically remember the Børsen, so I scrolled through our trip photos, looking in vain for a snapshot. If I had seen the building’s distinctive dragon spire at the time, I’m sure I would have taken a shot or two, so it must have escaped my notice. In my defense, there are architectural delights everywhere you look in Copenhagen, so it’s not so hard to miss one or two of them.
But after studying the Google Maps satellite view of Slotsholmen, I realized we must have walked (and boated) right past the Børsen several times. On the attached satellite image, I’ve circled the Børsen (bottom) and the dock (top) where we boarded our harbor boat tour.
And the small circle on the left indicates the approximate location where I took this photo of my daughter posing in front of Christiansborg Palace.
Today’s event also reminds me of our visit to Glasgow at the end of our Scotland trip in 2018, when our short stay limited us to only a few of the city’s highlights. The School of Art building, designed by famous Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, was not on our list—and two weeks after we returned home, it too was largely destroyed by fire.
Do I have a lesson to be learned amidst these reminiscences? Not really, no. When we travel, it’s impossible to see everything. And even when our eyes are wide open, we don’t always notice everything (as I noted above). Most of the time, the things we missed will still be there if we go back; but often, one visit is all we get.
So see what you can see (hopefully informed by some advance research), enjoy the memories that you make, and don’t fret over the missed opportunities.
Though, dang—that dragon spire sure looked cool. Not sure how I missed it.
Nice first post Mike 👍🏼