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Published: June 18th 2017
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H.C Andersen's grave Hej (Hello in Danish).
After ten, fabulous hours of sleep my batteries were recharged and I was ready to step foot out the door. Marcus only managed about 7 hours. It is pretty challenging to sleep when there are eighteen hours of daylight. Thank goodness for eye masks!
Anyway, we wandered down from Nørrebro suburb to the city centre, stopping at a variety of places on the way. In particular, a groovy marketplace with a wide array of freshly baked breads and pastries, smørrebrød (rye bread open sandwiches with incredible toppings), great coffee, fresh seafood and drink bars (the healthy variety) and deli-type foods. It was wonderful to wander, smell, taste and sit to watch the Sunday morning routines of locals.
When we arrived in the city centre, we decided to get a canal cruise from Gammel Strand. The clouds were just burning off and it was a beautiful morning. Little did we know it was going to reach 28 degrees today. It was a very entertaining and informative hour of cruising which took us past and through many interesting sights. It meandered through canals and out through the Sound where the cruise ships
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Fisk (fish)/Seafood at the markets were moored, to see The a Little Mermaid from H.C Andersen's fairy tale. We had seen his grave on the way into the city earlier in the morning. There are a large number of streets, buildings, etc. named after him in this city.
Whilst on the cruise, we saw a range of sights some of which included: The Old Stock Exchange, Danish Architecture Centre, Black Diamond, The Christiansborg Palace, Marble Church, Amalienborg Palace (where our Princess Mary and her husband Frederik live... oh and the Queen in the adjacent royal building. Fun fact: The Danish monarchy is the oldest in the world), galleries, museums, naval base and museums, Paper Island (where we later ate a delicious lunch on sun lounges by the water), Our Saviour's Church, the very modern Opera House, Nyhavn- a very touristy, Parisian style pedestrian street with restaurants and galleries on either side of the canal, Christiania and the hippy house boats (some of the residents were sunbaking naked for the tourists floating by) and many lovely homes- a melting pot of modern and traditional architecture- it was a fantastic cruise to over a lot of scenery in a short space of time.
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Olives and antipasto style market produce The rest of the afternoon we meandered around the streets, visiting sights, walking through the longest pedestrian street in Europe called Strøget (the equivalent of Rodeo Drive, lined with designer stores) and watched street entertainers. There was one in particular called Chobbs Beatbox who was amazingly talented. I have since looked him up on You Tube- I doubt he will be busking for long. There were so many people everywhere as the were four cruise ships out in the Sound. It was also the weekend, so all the locals were out and about.... not to mention the Swedish boats we saw that had sailed over for the day or weekend.
Marcus' foot was tiring by the time we arrived at the Town Hall, statue of Hans Christian Andersen and Tivoli Gardens, so we decided it was probably wiser to walk back, via The Round Tower (originally an observatory built in the seventeenth century by King Christian IV, but is now a tower to view the city), Rosenborg Castle and King's Gardens, the Botanical Gardens and back up to Nørrebro. We stopped on the way to buy food and wine as we knew we would not
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Smørrebrød have the energy to go back out later.
By the time we arrived at our apartment, it was about 5:30p.m. with five hours remaining of daylight. It was still quite warm, so we decided to go for a swim in the pool. The temperature was that of a plunge pool, but it as still nice and refreshing.
We just relaxed after that... well I wrote to you, whilst Marcus lay on the bed, exhausted and snored until I had finished writing. It has been a great day. One of the most prominant things I will remember about Copenhagen is the number of cyclists we saw everywhere. They have their own bike lanes, their own traffic lights and 55% of all Copenhageners commute to work or to their place of study by bike. Their harbour was very clean - we saw people swimming in it. Not sure too many other cities (including ours) around the world can vouch for the water quality of their rivers. Copenhagen is a gorgeous city to visit and no doubt to live, which we would highly recommend.
It's wine o'clock, so Skål (cheers)! ? xo
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