Copenhagen

Photo 1: Copenhagen harbour. Three cruise ships in this picture but by Monday five were in.

Photo 2: Little Mermaid. Note the wind turbines in the background. They have lots of them in the sea.

Photo 3: Mary and Fredrick's wing of the Amalienborg Palace.

Photo 4: They're changing guard at Amalienborg Palace ...

Photo 5: Canal view.

Photo 6: National Opera House.

Photo 7: Modern apartments with canal views. Such apartment buildings are proliferating in the city-harbour area.

Photo 8: Christiansborg Palace.

Photo 9: Our hotel on Town Hall square.

Photo 10: Town Hall. The bell in the clock rings every 15 minutes. A lovely sound.

Photo 11: Us on the hop on hop off bus.

This is our last post before joining the Baltic cruise ship tomorrow. Internet on the boat is very slow and VERY EXPENSIVE. We will try and post every two or three days.

On Friday we arrived in beautiful Copenhagen, with sunny weather as a bonus after dull Brussels. On the way in to land we saw the amazing Øresund Bridge which is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe (16 km) and connects Denmark with Sweden. What an engineering feat!

We started with a half day tour to get a feel for the town and it didn’t take long to get the vibe. The city has lots of car-free space and there are always lots of people shopping and enjoying the buskers. As in Amsterdam cycling is a very popular way to get around, no doubt partly because the import duty on cars is 180 percent!! However, unlike Amsterdam the cyclists are polite and do not ride as though they each have a monthly kill quota. Nice change :)

In the city centre there are lots of lovely old buildings including apartments, shops and museums, dating from as early as the 17^th century blended nicely with more modern structures. The most impressive include the Town Hall, the Tivoli Theatre and its gardens, and the Christiansborg Palace which was the royal palace until 1794 and is now home to the Danish parliament and Supreme Court.

We also checked out the Amalienborg Palace, home of the royal family since 1794 and our very own Princess Mary and husband Fred who, like good Aussie parents (he’s an adopted Aussie isn’t he?), have taken the kids to the beach for the summer. Nice little shack they have, but it’d be a bugger to heat and clean :). The Palace is part of a triangle embracing the Marble Church and the magnificent modern Opera House across the canal. The line of sight was envisaged as embodying the ‘triple c’ - church, Crown and culture. The Opera House is amazing. It cost 500 Million US dollars to build and the main theatre seats 5000 people! The Maersk shipping company paid for it. How’s that for being a good corporate citizen!

We took a photo stop at the Little Mermaid, the 102 years old symbol of Copenhagen. Our guide told us that the statue has been painted twice in red, had an arm broken off and been blown of her rock by a bomb. Talk about being a survivor! 

Guess what Sue found? The Disney and Lego shops!!! Aren’t the grandchildren lucky? J And I think buying for birthdays and Christmas falls under the category of essential spending!!!