Copenhagen Pass

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Geo: 55.6763, 12.5681

Its been a busy day. It all started with a free buffet breakfast around 9.30 at the hotel. The food was delicious, with heaps of options. Anticipating Copenhagen to be slightly pricey, we adopted a hobo strategy and made sandwiches from the free breakfast ingredients. A couple of ham and cheese sandwiches wrapped in napkins for later consumption would prove invaluable.
Sometimes, you've got to spend money to save money and today that was certainly the case. We decided to purchase a 48 hour Copenhagen Pass (similar to the London Pass) for 69€ each or around $90AUD. This included all entry fees for attractions, all public transport for our time here, (including train to the ship in the morning in two days time), discounts on food, and motivated us to do as much as we could to get the fullest experience for the best value. After the first day it had almost paid for itself.
We walked from the hotel to the metro station, catching it a few stops from Bella Centre to the city.
Tragically, Na ts small bag is falling apart, and needs replacing. Unfortunately, Copenhagen isn't the most affordable place to replace it. Our first stop for today was the Roundhouse, built in 1617, it is the worlds oldest functioning observatory. From here you could get some great views of the city. From there, a slight backtrack to the Rosenborg Castle. This was a refreshing and different castle type. Ornate, overlooking lush green gardens, residence of kings in the 15th and 16th centuries. The interior is dark, many rooms bereft of much illumination. The decor and furnishings are impressive and well crafted, some intricate clocks dating back to 1050 among my favorites. You had to pay to take photos so I refused. On the top floor in the grand hall were the thrones of the king and queen guarded by three silver lions. Beneath the castle, in the vaults and treasury below the crown jewels were on display, crowns worn in the 15 and 1600s by King Christians and Fredericks, the favored names of Danish monarchs.
We wandered from the castle, back past the Roundhouse and city centre, stopping by a church and the Copenhagen Cathedral on our way to a Natalie selected destination; a Canal cruise, also part of the Copenhagen Pass. This was a great choice, a chance to rest our well travelled legs, enjoy some sunshine, devour our hobo sandwiches, and see the city from a different viewpoint to the relaxing sound of waves at our side.
The trip lasted about an hour, and finished where we started at the entrance to the Christiansborg Palace. This has been until recently, the home of royalty. A palace has stood here since the first was constructed back in 1100AD. Since then, the palace has been destroyed, burned down and rebuilt time and time again, often updated and improved. The latest version a mere 100 years old, but full of surviving artifacts and tapestries from previous editions of the palace. Fortunately, a tour was firing up on arrival so we joined it. Strangely, plastic bags were required to be worn over the shoes. With bags on feet we headed inside for an interesting tour full of impressive staterooms and information from our guide. The tour lasted about an hour, bringing us to about 4.30pm. We took a breather for a quick drink and continued onwards to Tivoli Park.
Tivoli is a large amusement park, filled with restaurants and rides. Given there is an admission fee (covered by Copenhagen Pass) I was disappointed to find this included no rides or shows or entertainment. In fact there were none of the latter two. Rides were about $12AUD each and generally pretty lame so we didn't bother. We spent a short time looking around before leaving to find dinner. Everywhere seemed rather expensive so we finished up going to McDonalds, which at $26 for both of us wasn't really a steal. Notably, being peak time for dinner, it was near deserted. Early perceptions of Copenhagen and Danes; they are fitness focused, forward thinking, green/environment enthusiastic, modern, obsessed with bike riding, clean and organized.
From dinner a local beer was in order before heading home. As we left the bar a bus just happened to pull up heading to the Bella centre. So we climbed aboard. 15 minutes later we were back near our hotel, 8.30ish. Tomorrow were heading to a new aquarium and planning a longer trip north of Copenhagen and local restaurant for dinner in the city. Lets hope it goes as well as today!

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