Day 24: Copenhagen Part 1🌞

A Very Fun City!

We are just about to get on the train for a 5 hour run to Stockholm, our last stop on this Scandinavian travel. The weather has improved greatly the last two days with cooler temperatures, but thankfully with lots of sun.

Copenhagen is such a fun city! Wonderful for walking, though a great deal more vehicular traffic than our last two stops. There are bike lanes properly in place, unlike somewhere else I could name.😉 It’s a great deal like the Netherlands with older, interesting colourful buildings, boat lined canals, majestic castles and many green spaces. It looks like a very livable city, particularly for young people. There are restaurants and coffee houses in many locations, and I only saw just one Starbucks.

The sunset out our 5th floor dormer window on the first evening. And yes, we stayed in a hotel that was more like a hostel. Lots of young folks and a few older. The place met our needs and had a nice vibe.

*The central train station the first evening.*

We enjoyed some very full days, but always found time for a short break. The days were so full that I’ve decided to post our Copenhagen experience in two parts.

The first day we decided to simply walk the city following as many waterways as possible with a very flexible plan to visit the sites that interested us. A couple of good friends had also made a few recommendations which we endeavoured to fit in. We often found something of interest on Google maps and simply changed direction.

We soon left the major commercial waterways behind and wandered through the side streets until we located smaller and smaller canals.

We made our way to a church I’d read about with a spiral outside walk to the very top! It was an extremely windy day which was a good excuse for not attempting the gut wrenching climb to the top.😅

*Narrow streets translate to smaller delivery vehicles.*

We moved on to the so called Hippie section in Christiana District. An area that we understand is very accepted by the city, and which even has some of its own rules. It is a different sort of space, and attracts a lot of attention from tourists. Fortunately we are visiting during the shoulder season so pretty quiet.

We found other canals and followed them from one to another.

We eventually ended up in Nyhavn, a spot that Louise had suggested was worth a visit where herring was readily available for consumption.

However, the herring is pretty much none existent there these days. I saw trade references on some of the old building signage, but times have changed and there is now a long row of restaurants along the quay. They are generally frequented by the large numbers of tourists who visit this location. Hard to argue as it’s very scenic!

I’d like to say that we purposefully arrived at Amalienborg Royal Palace on time for the noon time changing of the guard, but in all honesty we just happen to walk into the huge square where people were already beginning to gather. So we joined them!

It’s quit colourful, and having seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace a few times, I thought this was comparable.

They march into the square through a main gate dressed in their Prussian-like uniforms and supported by a military band. We had a great front row spot!

As they marched past our position people began running towards them to get the best positions to watch the final stages of the event. That was our cue to quickly walk away from the palace as we wanted to get to København Kastel, home of the famous Little Mermaid before this large group could potentially arrive.

*The iconic statue. These days people flock here and climb on the mermaid to have their photo taken.*🙄

Then on to the Kastels. A very typical defensive structure one often finds in Northern Europe with an outer wall, a moat and the inside defensive wall in a star shape to permit cross fire with canon and anything else they might have available. The garrison is housed in the middle.

We decided to have a quick visit inside the fortress then walked the inner wall.

*There was a mill on the main inner wall. I’m thinking that this was added at a later date. The year it was built was not indicated as is the case with the Dutch molen.*

From the fortress it was on to another church🥳😬 This time it was simply to see the largest dome in Scandinavia, or maybe it was in Northern Europe?

*It is quite special and to view is free! So many sites charge a fee.*

*The refracted light from the high windows.*

Walking, walking, walking. We continued onwards to see King’s Gardens, yet another Royal palace. I wondered how much has really changed today with the few managing the many resources and humanity. I find myself reflecting on this when I see these places. I must be getting old.🤔

We headed back towards the centre where AM spotted the home of Royal Copenhagen porcelain.

*Royal Copenhagen porcelain located in the older buildings on the left.*

My Uncle Bern was originally from Denmark, and he and my Auntie Barb had a wonderful collection of this porcelain that was left to my sister Kathy when they both passed. With Kathy’s recent passing we are now the stewards of this beautiful collection. We intend to eventually pass it onwards to our children, and hope that they will find its history and beauty to their taste.

Eventually pooping out some 18 km later, we walked back to our room and rested up for dinner. We had tried to get into the Maple restaurant the previous evening, but it was full. Not a surprise with an unusually high rating of 4.9/5 on about 1000 reviews! We were fortunate to make a reservation for the next night. It may have helped that the main employee’s husband was born in Port Alice on our Vancouver Island.😀 We had a very nice welcome that night and the food was excellent.