View From The Rundetaarn

The Rundetaarn, or the Round Tower in English, is a 17th century tower and one of Copenhagen's more popular tourist attractions. Easily accessible today, round and round you go as you walk up its spiral ramp to the top. Originally built as an astronomical observatory, today it's a great place to get a commanding view of the older part of Copenhagen.

In the distance, you can just make out the Øresund Bridge. Flying in/out of Copenhagen, you may notice this bridge seemingly connect the city of Copenhagen to a tiny island with virtually nothing on it. I admit I was perplexed when I saw this, as I couldn't understand why anyone would spend so much money to build a huge bridge to an island of nothing. As it turns out, it's actually the artificial island of Peberholm.

A number of interesting engineering and economic challenges were solved by placing an artificial island that connects the bridge to an underground tunnel, linking Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmo in Sweden. Everything from ship traffic to air traffic and freight train traffic had to balanced to come to the solution.

In the end, you get a bridge that looks like it goes to nowhere from the plane, but in reality provides a link between these two cities. The rest of the views, with its spires piercing the horizon is as beautiful as it is colorful.