Oasis

In the heart of Copenhagen, perched between a busy thoroughfare and a botanical garden-park, we came upon the city's incredible indoor botanical conservatory.  Approaching the building from the park, the enormous glass structure was reminiscent of some sort of fairytale palace.  As we came closer, we could make out a forest of green through the glass--a lush garden oasis in the midst of a snowy Copenhagen winter.

We pulled open the door and were met with a rush of warm, humid air--quite a shock to the system after trudging through the snow and wind.  We pushed aside a set of plastic drapes and found ourselves amongst throngs of towering palms, ferns, flowers, fruit trees, moss, tall grass, carnivorous plants and thorny vines.  Red and black butterflies inhabited the space, and we spent many fruitless minutes impersonating trees, trying to get them to land on our outstretched arms.

The place was divided into 3 enormous greenhouses, connected by sealed hallways, each a different temperature and cultivating a variety of species from around the world.  In the central chamber--the largest of the three--there was a spiral staircase leading up to the canopy, where we could get a birds-eye view of the "forest" below.

It was an incredible place--a tropic paradise, flourishing and serenely oblivious to the snow and ice accumulating just outside the glass panes.

The half-frozen pond in the Botanical Garden just outside the  conservatory.