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Published: December 28th 2012
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Friday 28 December Apart from shops, not a lot opens until 10-11am, so we didn't get up too early today. It was very cold, but the sky was blue.
We'd pre-booked a bus tour (Grand Tour of Copenhagen) and got on it opposite Tivoli Gardens. The tour guide was an extravagant large lady in a big red coat and she sung a line of 'Wonderful wonderful Copenhagen' to us.
The bus took us around Tivoli, past a multi coloured cinema with ace shocking pink walls. We went past Hans Christian Andersen's statue and saw Rodin's Thinker sitting in a tiny park. We went through Christianshavn and through Kongens Nytorv.
We arrived at Amalienborg Slot, the Royal residence before 11.30am, in time for the changing of the guard.
Btw, 'Slot' mean palace or castle, which is cool because I don't know the difference between the two anyway!
Our red coated guide showed us a photo of the Danish Royal family and they are a lot better looking than our horse faced British Royals. Queen Margrethe II has been reigning for 40 years and wasn't in today.
The changing of the guard started and a couple
of policemen politely got the crowd to stand behind a line. The guards came marching up the street to us, getting closer and closer. Watching them through my camera lens, I thought they were on top of me with their big bayonets! Unlike the UK, the crowd do not watch this ceremony through bars and are VERY close to the guards. As they turned 90 degrees, the entire crowd were allowed to run around them and almost swallowed them up!
We stood by another guard in anticipation as instructed by red coat. I got too close and was told off by the guard. After a fair bit of marching and guards getting changed, we went back to our warm bus.
We stopped briefly at Gefion Springvandet, a fountain that was pretty fancy. Next to it was Sankt Albans Kirke (St Albans Church) which was Victorian with gothic influences.
Next stop was the Little Mermaid statue which is exactly that. It's ok, but no big deal. She's been beheaded twice, poor fish.
After this we drove past Rosenborg Slot and saw Royal Guards jogging in the park. They weren't wearing bear skin hats at this point.
We were dropped off at the Tivoli and then Glyn and I went walking to many of the places we had driven past, to get some good photos.
Copenhagen has continued not to disappoint us with it's cleanliness, and the street bins have painted foot prints trailing up to them across the pavements.
We walked up to the Rundetarn (Round Tower) which instead of stairs has a spiral ramp. It was erected on the orders of Christian IV and was intended as an observatory. Apparently his wife told him that he was getting too old to walk up a 115ft tower, so the spiral ramp was made wide enough for horses and a coach. There was a good view at the top but it was starting to get dark, the time being around 3.40pm.
We walked over to Rosenborg Slot which closes at 4pm, but still was very impressive from the outside.
By this time we were pretty hungry and went to what turned out to be a mediocre buffet on Frederiksbergade. The street was chock full of shoppers, as it is big sales time of year.
Copenhagen is full of designer gear, although no
one I've seen looks over dressed in over priced clobber, no one looks shoddy either. Very few skirts and dresses are worn, perhaps due to the cold time of year. Also noticeable, compared to the UK was a lack of chavs and trampy types. There was a distinct lack of sub cultures where we were, no goths, punks, metallers or hippies. Maybe we will find them in Christiana tomorrow?
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