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With three of my friends for company we set out. No one was to know of our little adventure.
At the tail end of our study programme in Copenhagen, we were supposed to be completing an important assignment for Pier, our friendly but fastidious tutor and mentor.
Nevertheless life would be worthless if I cannot have a glimpse of her. I will repent it for the rest of my life.
We took the bus from our class to Langelinie where she was waiting and had been waiting patiently through all these long years.
The long walk to her abode from the bus stop was sheer agony. The icy breeze from the ocean kept blocking our way attempting to turn us also into living statues.
My friend Christine from Lankapuwath braved the chill with mere cotton gloves, exchanging her hardy leather ones from time to time with me to keep my hands safe from frostbite. I was ill prepared for the trip.
Niroshan from Rupavahini and Saman from Divaina were our other companions. It was my call and everyone was suffering as a result. I felt sorry but the reward would be much more satisfying.
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Unable to obtain a map because of our sudden arrangement we followed verbal directions from a Danish friend. The memory of the details, however, was very vague that we had to stop often and ask for directions from passers-by. Everyone assured we were on the correct heading.
The sound of sea gulls came before the ocean began to show its outline from the distance - a clear sign we were reaching our destination. We became impatient and doubled our pace disregarding the cruel weather.
A glimpse of an assembly of different water craft among which stood exquisitely designed yachts, luxury cruisers and fishing boats told us we were near the Langelinie quay, her 'cosy abode'.
Upon reaching the quay, we passed a pair of white swans, gliding close to each other elegantly, with their long necks straight and heads bowed down, in a manner distinctive to these graceful creatures. Their velvety coats were in perfect contrast to the deep crystal-blue of the sea.
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The swans were there as if to keep her company, reassuring that she was not alone.
Walking on the path along the coastline we saw the delicate figure in the distance, seated on a small stone straining her eyes, waiting for her prince. Sad indeed to know that her wait was so painfully long.
Little Mermaid, Denmark's biggest tourist attraction and a national symbol, was sculpted by Edvard Eriksen in August 1913. It was a result of an idea by brewer Carl Jacobsen who wanted to donate a special monument to the 'Danish Corps Ballet'.
The story behind this wonderful piece of art that has stolen the hearts of millions who visit her annually, is as moving as the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale itself.
Initially the monument was destined to be a fountain, but when the ballet "The Little Mermaid" fairytale was staged at the Royal Theatre, Jacobsen was filled with awe, seeing the female solo dancer Ellen Price. He asked the sculptor to immediately start work on the monument - Little Mermaid.
It is said that he invited the beautiful solo dancer to model for the monument, although there is some uncertainty about this.
Some say Ellen declined to pose naked and therefore the sculpture got his wife to pose instead. But the head is recognised to be the mirror image of the solo dancer.
There is a story behind the positioning of the little monument. Her creator wanted the mermaid to be placed in the seashore where "she could always be wet, just like a real mermaid". And she now sits on a high rock, which is half submerged in water, close to the seashore.
Seeing the divine figure, with her bare breasts and the fish tail, looking serene and composed, it is hard to believe that the Little Mermaid had been the target of mindless vandalism.
In 1964 her head was chopped off by vandals. In this first instance the head was never recovered. She got a new head. Long after the incident, in 1997, Danish artist Jorgen Nash confessed in his book that he committed the crime.
Then in January 1998 the head went missing again. It was literally decapitated. A group of Japanese tourists who visited the place to get a glimpse of her were shocked to see the headless body.
In response to an appeal and an offer of a reward by a local TV station the head resurfaced and it was restored two days short of a month. Funds flowed in from admirers and fans from around the world for the restoration.
On many occasions the little figure was soaked in colour paint by vandals and once it was knocked off from its rock-pedestal.
The reasons for these brutal acts could never be perceived for she is an admired and popular character all over the world. More than a million tourists visit the Little Mermaid annually. Thousands of postcards, t-shirts and other souvenirs are sold to tourists every day.
Despite our high hopes we could not help thinking that the monument had a larger than life legacy behind her.
But the experience indeed was fulfilling for no child had grown without being recited the story of the Little Mermaid, the prettiest and youngest daughter of the King of the Ocean, who fell in love with a mortal prince.
The writer visited Denmark in March with a group of Sri Lankan journalists on a training fellowship sponsored by the Danish Government. The Danida Fellowship Centre (DFC) coordinated the programme conducted by DANICOM.
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