Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

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Geo: 55.6763, 12.5681

Copenhagen is one of the most beautiful cities in the Baltic. It began as a fishing village and boasts more than 850 years of history. It has been an important Scandinavian port since the age of the Vikings and remains one of Europe's most enchanting places, thanks to Tivoli Gardens, the world's oldest amusement park, and The Little Mermaid statue sitting in the harbor at Langelinie. Grand palaces also grace the cityscape, including Amalienborg, the royal winter residence and Rosenberg Castle, home to the Danish Crown Jewels. The brightly colored houses and wooden ships of Nyhavn, or "New Harbor," are beautiful.

This morning we toured Copenhagen by bus stopping first at The Little Mermaid. Please see photo and story. Other highlights included the Royal Palace, City Hall, Christianshavn, Tivoli Gardens and more, I have discovered that "Panoramic" means highlights on the bus. I prefer the walking tours because you see so much more detail; but, large cities are difficult because of the size it's impossible to see it all; so the panoramic tours hit the main points of interest and then, if you have time you can explore on your own. We usually never have enough time to see it all. You could easily spend a week in Copenhagen and still not see everything. Maybe we'll come back someday. I wonder if Air B & B has a place here or possibly Untours. It would definitely be worth a visit.

In the after noon, we viewed Copenhagen by boat. A different perspective. The weather could have been nicer...it was cloudy an grey today. The last few days have spoiled us. Please see the pictures for more details on some of the sites we visited.

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Photos

Viking Sea
The screen in the Ship atrium changes daily and today depicts The Little Mermaid that Copenhagen is so famous for.

The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid statue was a gift to the city of Copenhagen in 1909 from brewing magnate Carl Jackson (whose art collection forms the basis of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek). Inspired by a ballet performance of Andersen's story, Jacobsen hired the young sculptor Edward Eriksen to immortalize the mermaid as a statue. Eriksen used his wife Elaine as the model. The statue sat unappreciated for 40 years until Danny Kaye sang "Wonderful Copenhagen" in the movie Hans Christian Andersen, and the tourist board decided to use the mermaid as a marketing symbol for the city.

The Little Mermaid (front view)
The mermaid's story goes like this: One day a young mermaid spies a passing ship and falls in love with a handsome human prince. The ship is wrecked in a storm, and she saves the prince's life. To be with the prince, the mermaid asks a sea witch to give her human legs. In exchange, she agrees to give up her voice and the chance of ever returning to the sea. And, the witch tells her, if the prince doesn't marry her, she will immediately die heart-broken and without an immortal soul. The mermaid agrees, and her fish tail becomes a pair of beautiful but painful legs. She woos the prince-who loves her in return-but he eventually marries another. Heartbroken, the mermaid prepares to die. She's given one last chance to save herself. She must kill the prince on his wedding night. She sneaks into the bed chamber with a knife...but can't bear to kill the man she loves. The mermaid throws herself into the sea to die. Suddenly, she's miraculously carried up by the mermaids of the air, who give her an immortal soul as a reward for her long-suffering love.
The tale of unrequited love mirrors Andersen's own sad love life. He had two major crushes-one of them for the famous opera singer, Jenny Lind-but he was turned down both times, and he never married. He had plenty of interest in sex but likely died a virgin. He had close brotherly and motherly relations with women but stayed single, had time to travel and write, and maintained a child-like wonder about the world to his dying days.

St Alban's Anglican Church
St Alban's is the only Anglican (Episcopal) church in Denmark. It was constructed in 1887. It is a fine example of Victorian "Early English" Gothic architecture.
After about 30 years of determination, hard work and raising funds, the church was built between 1885 and 1887. The site of the church, near the Royal Palace, was obtained with help from Princess Alexandra (1884-1925), daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark (1818-1906), and her husband Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of Britain. Prince Edward took a keen interest in the project and was Chairman of the London fund-raising committee.
The Princess laid the foundation stone on September 19, 1885, accompanied by the Prince, King Christian IX and Queen Louise, the Czar and Czarina of Russia.
This is probably more than you have ever wanted to know...

Royal Palace Guard
You can not get closer than 1 meter.

The Royal Palace
Queen Margrethe II and her husband live in the mansion to the left as you enter the square from the harbor side. (If the flag's flying, she's home.). The mansion across the street (on the right as you enter) is where her son and heir to the throne, Crown Prince Frederick, lives with his wife, Australian businesswoman Mary Donaldson, and their four children. The royal guesthouse palace is on the far left. And the palace on the far right is the Amalienborg Museum, which offers an intimate look at royal living.

Royal Palace Guard
Though the guards change daily at noon, they do it with royal fanfare only when the queen is in residence.

Equestrian Statue Frederick V
The equestrian statue of Frederick V is a reminder that this square was the centerpiece of a planned town he envisioned in 1750. It was named for him-Frederikstaden. During the 18th century Denmark's population grew and the country thrived (as trade flourished and its neutrality kept it out of the costly wars) Frederikstaden, with its strong architectural harmony, was designed as a luxury neighborhood for the city's business elite. Nobility and other big shots moved in, but the king came here only after his other palace burned down in the 1794 fire.

Royal Danish Theatre Playhouse
This picture was taken on our canal tour and the end of Nyhavn canal.

Copenhagen Canal Tour
Also many houseboats.

Colorful house boat
Christiania represents an ultra-human mishmash of idealists, hippies, potheads, nonmaterialists, and happy children. There are even a handful of Willie Nelson-type seniors among them. Amazingly, the place has become the second-most visited sight among tourists in Copenhagen.

Colorful house boats
These colorful houseboats are part of what's known as Christianshavn.

Baltic Sea
Beautiful sunset.

St Alban's Anglican Church
Apart from the addition of memorials and memorial windows, the church building has changed very little since 1887, other than the installation of electric lighting and a central heating system in the early 1930s. The interior wall facings and moldings are in fine white face limestone. The floor tiles were donated by Campbell Tile company from Staffordshire. The font (placed by the door to welcome members into the church through baptism), the pulpit and the altarpiece (reredos) are of terracotta and Doulton ware and were a gift from Doulton & Co from London.

The Royal Palace
The equestrian statue of Frederick V is a reminder that this square was the centerpiece of a planned town he envisioned in 1750. It was named for him-Frederikstaden. During the 18th century Denmark's population grew and the country thrived (as trade flourished and its neutrality kept it out of the costly wars) Frederikstaden, with its strong architectural harmony, was designed as a luxury neighborhood for the city's business elite. Nobility and other big shots moved in, but the king came here only after his other palace burned down in the 1794 fire.

Canal Tour
I loved the beautiful colored and brick buildings along the canal.

Tivoli Gardens
The world's grand old amusement park since 1843 is 20 acres, 110,000 lanterns and countless ice-cream cones. You pay one admission price and find yourself in a Hans Christian Andersen wonderland of rides, restaurants, games, marching bands, roulette wheels and funny mirrors. A roller coaster runs through the middle of a tranquil Asian food court. We only had time to drive by. It would have been nice to spend the day here. As I said, there is so much to see in this city and just not enough time. So, we hit the highlights as best we can.
It's been said that Walt Disney received his inspiration for Disneyland after visiting Tivoli Gardens.