Copenhagen

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Our first day in Copenhagen was a lovely sunny day and our first stop was at the Tivoli amusement park, which was very close to our hotel. We wandered around, picked out a restaurant for dinner and left the park to embark on a walking tour of the city. Starting at the grand town hall near the Tivoli, we walked up Stroget, the longest pedestrian mall in Europe with Denmark being the very expensive place that it is, we didn’t stop too much. Along the way were several great squares with statues and buildings not unlike the Piazza’s of Italy. We then walked to the Royal Palace and on to the Little Mermaid, a statue of the character immortalised by Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson. The little mermaid is a disappointingly small statue on the harbours edge a bit of a hike out of town. The statue was surrounded by tourists. Perhaps this attraction was a little wasted on me. We then walked back to the Tivoli for dinner and some local entertainment, but got bored quickly because of the language barrier, so we went back to the hotel until the light show was on, which was impressive.

The next day we saw the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace – on the way checking out the old royal palace which was closed for renovations. It is a bitterly cold day, so we don’t watch the entire changing of the guard but rather seek the warmth of the palace museum. The museum was extensive and focused on the times of Christian IX (in the 1850s), although some current day items in the museum including wedding photos of Mary & Frederick. We went to the round tower to climb it and get a great view of Copenhagen. From there we visited Christiania, a fascinating town where everyone lives for free, very much a hippy commune and more of a unique social experiment rather than a tourist attraction. There were many creative people living there and trying to sell stuff to tourists, and it certainly was fairly sketchy in parts.

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