Sunday’s exploration of Christiania began with us checking out some art installations and murals at the main entrance near the north-west corner of the enclave. The entire end of a two-story building is covered by a colorful mural invoking a lush, green fairy-tale fantasy world.

The other thing greeting visitors is a representation of the Statue of Liberty. This is not a celebration of the American version, but a mockery of a nation that doesn’t live up to its ideals. The statue is a skeleton constructed of rebar, holding up a set of chains and wearing a tiara of missiles.

We were happy with the experience we had for breakfast at the Moon Fisher yesterday, so we went back there today. (The places we visited in Denmark all have Danish names, but our brains and typing fingers have not bonded well enough to the Danish language to use it here. Our English translations will have to do.)

A seemingly trivial thing we must point out about Denmark is the quality of the toilets. Nowhere have we found such stylish and immaculately maintained potty rooms. Even the Moon Fisher has toilets that look like they belong in a five-star hotel. We can’t explain why the Danes seem to have very high standards when it comes to maintaining their privies.

Christiania is built on the two shores of a narrow old canal. Yesterday we explored the north side of the canal close to the central neighborhoods of the community. Today we’re crossing a footbridge to the south side of the canal.

We took a break near the western end of the southern shore, at a spot overlooking the adjacent neighborhoods of Copenhagen. There are large apartment buildings of red brick with steep pitched roofs, and rising above them is a church steeple that looks like an enormous wood screw. The Church of Our Savior looks like it has a spiral staircase on the outside of its steeple, and it’s a major landmark in this part of Copenhagen.

We noticed a few approaches to making a home in Christiania. Some reclaimed abandoned buildings and worked with what was there. Others added on to those buildings. We found stacks of timbers twelve inches square, and we also found newly built houses framed by such timbers.

Some houses had colorful paint jobs, and others had whimsical decorations. One house was decorated with shoes, and there was a chimney with a figure constructed with chicken wire. It was too nice of a day for smoke to be coming from the chimney, but the figure probably looked like a ghostly presence in the smoke.

Christiania feels like a big populated park. In fact, much of it feels like the marsh area of our home town of La Crosse, complete with a menagerie of bird life.

It’s a shame that the availability of cannabis is the center of attention for most people who come to Christiania, because this place is important for so much more than that.

This is a community of 800-1000 people who have made something out of nothing and who continue to work their asses off to make this a beautiful place. They have their own economy and their own system of government.

The important story of Christiania is this grand social experiment, and we hope the creativity and innovation of this place can benefit the rest of the world for centuries to come.

A funny thing happened on the way back to our room tonight. We stopped at a convenience store for some snacks for tomorrow’s train trip. We also wanted a beer to drink in our room before bed, but couldn’t find any. We asked the clerk, “is there somewhere nearby where we can buy a beer to take home with us?”

“You can buy it here,” she replied, pointing to a display cooler next to her with a curtain draped over it. “We’re not supposed to sell beer after 8 o’clock, but what kind of beer would you like?”

Such regulations usually exist to reduce alcoholism and public drunkenness, but it was good to see that violating the letter of the law can be overlooked as long as the spirit of the law is followed.

We went back to our room with our snacks and one beer.