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The English Invasion

- an illustrated report - Part I

The is the account of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London's visit to Copenhagen August 28, 2001. This article includes a lot of small pictures, all of which can be studied in greater detail by clicking on them.

Waiting on the Langelinie Quay.

It all began .... last year when The Sherlock Holmes Society of London announced that they were going to pay a visit to Copenhagen as part of their "Jubilee Cruise Round the Baltic Sea".

In the local Sherlockian scion, The Copenhagen Speckled Gang, we discussed the posibilities and started planning even before Christmas 2000, so the preparations had been going on for quite some time, although, of course, the last weeks had been the busy ones. Tuesday the 28th of August dawned and we were all ready. Participants from the Danish Baker Street Irregulars (Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark) were: President Bjarne Nielsen, Kristian Cordtz, Lise Lotte Frederiksen, Alvin Andersen, Jørgen Frørup, P.J. Snare and May Christiansen.

The President passes the waiting time.

Kristian, Mia, Nancy Beiman and Sherrinford the Snake.

Anders Hammarqvist from Malmø in Sweden had used the one occasion to cross the strait and apart from yours truly also Nancy Beiman from the USA took part in the festivities. Mrs. Beiman was dressed up as Helen-Julia Roylott-Stoner from the story THE SPECKLED BAND in Victorian camisole and petticoat and equipped with a 2 m long milk-drinking snake (soft toy). Both attracted a great deal of attention during the day.

The cruise liner is in sight. We all met around noon on the Toldboden, which is one of the old quays in Copenhagen, where the Royal Yacht is normally anchored, also. The Copenhagen Harbour Authorites have a beautiful building here, and they had allowed us to use their board room for a reception later that day.

Musicians, Sherlockians and other good people on the Langelinie Quay.

The actors who were going to make a little show later on used the board room for their last rehearsals and Jens Lagergaard, who had kindly agreet to be in charge of the reception, received the sandwiches, cheese and Hound-of-Baskerville shaped ginger cookies, - all prepared by the paticipating Sherlockians.

At 1 o'clock we left the Toldboden, strolled along the water, passed the Little Mermaid and arrived in good time on the Langelinie Quai. Here we waited, had a beer, and waited... At first, we were not exactly sure where to find the ship. "It would be a poor thing if someone dressed as Sherlock Holmes was not able to find an ocean liner," said Kristian Cordtz, who was in white tie.

The cruise liner is being towed in.

Kristian and Nancy Beiman quickly deduced, however, that the most obvious place to hide it would be in the ocean, so we turned our gaze towards Sweden and soon we caught the sight of the Princess Danae, which, because of the strong current, was being towed in by a tugboat, escorted by the Harbour's fire-boat, where water cannons produced spectacular cascades of water. This was an impressive detail arranged by Copenhagen Harbour and the tourist agency called Wonderful Copenhagen.
'Sherlock Holmes', 'Watson' and 'The British Ambassador' disembark.

On the quay also waited a small brass orchestra dressed in elaborate uniforms - complete with admiral's outfit for the leader. They played various show tunes, besides WHEN I WAS YOUNG, from the twentieth century, and (of course) WONDERFUL COPENHAGEN. With style and salute we greeted Princess Danae when she put in. Unfortunately, our guests were only allowed to disembark as the very last group of all the passangers.
'A Certain Gracious Lady'.	You can't start too early, can you?	An English Lady.

But finally began an amazing procession of 82 beautifully dressed Sherlockians from England and the USA in their finest travelling clothes. The ladies had great difficulties keeping their hats on and their skirts down, for it was an exceptionally windy day.

The first people to cross the gangway were 'Mr. Sherlock Holmes' himself and a 'Dr. Watson'. Then followed 'The British Ambassador' and 'A Certain Gracious Lady' and finally the rest of this colourful and merry party.

The wind was definitely not on the ladies' side.

A bunch of ladies.

Since the disembarking took so long time, the quay resounded with music for at least an hour, but, regrettably, it also meant, that our programme for the day, which was from the beginning very tight, became completely impossible to follow. But, finally, we had everyone ashore.

English and American Holmesians / Sherlockians.	Curious looks, funny chats and "a picture, please".
Could there be more than one Watson?	Two presidents meet.

There was laughter and greetings and chatting and it took some time before we had everyone safely seated in the two yellow busses that we had rented. We were bound for the Carlsberg Brewery Museum, unfortunately already one hour too late.

When we arrived, the drivers sat us down at the wrong entrance!!! Apparently the museum had moved recently - not far, but it was still easier to drive than to walk. (3 pictures round here) Cheery feelings around the local bar in the Carlsberg Museum.

We only had time for a very short visit, a beer (of course) and a pat on the muzzles of the big working horses. The said horses are, in fact, still used occationally to bring out beer to the bars and cafés. Without doubt for the publicity, but it still evokes nostalgic feelings too see the very special Carlberg carriages pulled by two strong long-haired horses in the middle of the city traffic.

Next stop on our tour was the Storm P. Museum. Storm P. was a great humorist and cartoonist who produced several illustrations of Sherlock Holmes. He also had a collection of 450 pipes. But, alas, also here the visit could only be very short.	Outside the Storm P. Museet
On reflection it would probably have been better only to go to either Carlsberg OR the Storm P. Museum, but we had decided that visiting both was the most polite thing to do since we were awaited, and the Storm P. Museum even had opened extraordinarily for us.

Entering the Canal Tour boat

So, even though we had a tremendous funny time, the first part of the afternoon was a bit hectic. But our guests plunged into everything, spirit high. Apparently they were very happy and surprised that we had arranged so many activities. And no one, of course, could have foreseen that we would be so delayed on the quay.

From the museum in Frederiksberg our marvellously capable drivers managed to get our company to Nyhavn, through the worst rush hour in record time. In Nyhavn (a tiny harbour in the heart of Copenhagen, founded in the early 17th century), we had hired a Canal Tour boat. And accompanied by a more and more grey and threatening sky, the boat weighed anchor with our picturesque troop.

On our way out of Nyhavn.

----- End of Part I -----

Go to Part II

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