Wouter
Is this what you've been doing in your spare time?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20060330/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_denmark_little_mermaid

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - This city's famous Little Mermaid statue may be moved out of the reach of vandals and tourists, a city official said Wednesday.

The bronze sculpture based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the same name may be relocated a few yards offshore, said Jon Pape, a spokesman for the city's roads and parks department. A decision will be made later this year, he said.

The 5-foot-high statue by Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen has been sitting on a rock at the edge of the harbor since 1913.

The mermaid statue can easily be reached by stepping on a concrete platform and other rocks that surround her. It draws about 1 million visitors a year, and is occasionally targeted by vandals.

"We regularly get complaints from tourist guides saying it often is hard for their group to see the mermaid because other tourists constantly are climbing on her to be photographed," Pape said.

The statue has been beheaded twice. Its arm has been amputated. Hooligans have doused it in paint several times. Three years ago, vandals used explosives to blow its off its perch.

It has been repaired and replaced every time.

In Andersen's tale, the Little Mermaid is a sea king's daughter who falls in love with a prince and must wait 300 years to become human.

You know that really SUCKS.
For some reason, that statue has made it into my heart. I have it on my list of things I want to see before I die. The idea that someone would wake up one day and say, "Gee I think I'll blow up the Little Mermaid" just amazes me. There should be a special place in hell reserved........

Greg

I thought the little mermaid was beautifully subdued in her greeny-bronze color and delicate shape. I think I teared up a little to see her for the first time there on her rock.

And this is supposed to be funny ?

Wouter

This is the second piece of evidence in just a week that Bill is succumbing to the stresses of a long winter

Wouter,

I hope it was meant as a joke but I don't think it is funny either. Bill apparently doesn't know the difference between the Netherlands and Denmark.

When I first saw the statue I was amazed at how close to shore it is. You can step onto the rock easily. I hope they do move it to a safe location but I worry that making it more difficult to reach will make it more appealing to the idiots who get their kicks destroying things everyone admires. What they should do is set up surveilance cameras to catch them and put them in jail.

Howard

I had formed an opinion from previous posts that Bill was a measured, quite talented, rational person (apart from the centreboards business ) but I am now beginning to wonder?

If this was meant as a joke, it's pretty lame. If it wasn't then I'm shocked and amazed.

BTW there're a LOT of miles between Holland (where Wouter is) and Denmark (where the statue is).

Hey Bill, It couldn't have been him. He was too busy with his finger stuck in a Dike and nobody would come help him!!

Seems that we have more youth sailors in our midst than we realized.

That would be very sad, when Wouter is usually one of the first to jump to help people with problems on this forum

I guess I should have signed it Hans B.

To Quote Foghorn Leghorn ............. "It's a Joke Son, a Joke I Say"

I meant it as a joke, sorry to be so lame.

Bill

Okay.

Wouter