From Paris to Prague: We got locked in a Copenhagen graveyard!

On Nov. 1, “All Soul’s Day,” we visited the old city cemetery in Copenhagen to see graves of some of the famous Danes. We went late, not knowing until just before we got there that Nov. 1 starts a new schedule and the place closes at 4 p.m. But at 4 p.m. the gate was open so we went in. A few others were also visiting graves. It took a while but we found the graves of Søren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen.

We saw a number of graves here and there that were lit with candles. The cemetery is beautiful – lots of huge trees and stone & brick walls and vines and low-growing brush – perfect. When we try to get out – it’s now close to 5 p.m. and getting quite dark – we find the gate locked.

A man who seemed a bit drunk and who may have been a graveyard worker is at the gate. He’s also locked inside and getting ready to climb the gate with a satchel and a bottle of beer in his hands. He tells us to walk all the way to the other end of the cemetery for a way out. A couple of men passing by see us and say, “Yes, it closes at 4. You’ll have to wait till 8 o’clock tomorrow to get out. Ha-ha!” Another man passing by says, “Go to the other end, turn left and you’ll see a gate.” He describes it as a kind of turn-stile – you can walk out but not in.

So we start walking. It’s getting real dark now. We walk and walk and see a bicyclist inside who’s visiting graves apparently, locked in like us, but not seeming worried or anything, and we walk and finally come to the wall on the other side, turn left and get to a gate, and it’s nothing like described. A regular gate and very locked.

OK, we decide to walk along the perimeter until we find the damn turnstile. We walk and walk and now it’s nearly fully dark. Walking close to the outer wall, we see one gate after another, all locked. We decide that if we don’t find that turnstile we’ll climb the walls, since I saw one place earlier that looked very climbable.

We are now walking in the direction of the original entry. Finally we find the exit and get out. We’re on the sidewalk, well lit with people walking here and there. And we walk 35 feet to our left and there is the main entrance. We have come all the way back to find the turnstile that those guys didn’t know was right there near the main entrance, or knew it and felt like having some fun with us.

Here's proof we found what we came for, the Soren Kierkegard site, and the Hans Christian Anderson site. Maeve took a lit class on his work and told us a lot about him. Later in Copenhagen, we visited the famous "Little Mermaid" water-side statuette that pays tribute to his Little Mermaid story.