AngellTravels: Copenhagen, Denmark post-cruise, Day 2

On Saturday, May 24 we are in Copenhagen, Denmark – post-cruise Day 2

We enjoy breakfast in our hotel on Nyhavn. Breakfast is included in the cost of the room. There is a nice display of breads, cheeses, fruit, cereal, and the best Danish coffee.

Then we are off to explore Copenhagen on our own today. We head down the street along the canal in Nyhavn. Nyhavn is a picturesque canal with atmosphere, many colorful old houses and sailships. It is one of the oldest parts of the Copenhagen harbor and dates back to 1673.

At the end of Nyhavn there is the Amber Museum, and since we have plenty of time, we stop in for a look.

Then we come upon a craft market and browse a bit. We end up buying 2 glass Christmas ornaments.

Close up of insect trapped in resin and becomes amber

Instead of walking to Rosenborg Slot (castle) we decide to try out the Metro as we will be using the Metro when we head to the airport on Monday. It was a quick ride to the Norreport station, where we get off and walk a couple blocks to Rosenborg Castle. Our Copenhagen Card covers all our admission and transportation costs for our 72-hour time slot. Very handy!

This castle was built by King Christian IV in the early 1600s as a summer residence.

It houses the Danish crown jewels and 500 years of royal knickknacks.

We start our self-guided tour in the Winter Room. There is a bust of Christian IV. During his reign

Copenhagen doubled in size.

In a case there is a golden astronomical clock with musical works and moving figures.

The Marble Room has an impressive inlaid marble floor.

The family tree is displayed on this wall. It is labeled in German, the second language of the realm.

The Throne Room and Long Hall is considered to be one of the best-preserved Baroque rooms in Europe.

The king’s throne was made of “unicorn horn”, which is actually narwhal tusk from Greenland. It is believed to bring protection from evil and poison. The queen’s throne is made of hammered silver. The 150-pound lions are 300 years old.

The small mirror room was where the king used mirrors on the floor to see what was under the women’s hoop skirts! In hidden cupboards, he had a fold-out bed and a hand escape staircase. Hmmm!

We then headed to the Royal Danish Treasury, located in the castle basement.

There were diamond and pearl studded saddles.

And, a big jeweled sword. It was the 16^th century coronation sword. The king would cut crosses in the air in four directions, symbolically promising to defend the realm from all attacks.

This is Christian IV’s coronation crown from 1596, with 7 pounds of gold and precious stones. It is considered to be the finest Renaissance crown in Europe.

These two crowns are more modern, from 1670. The king’s crown is only 4 pounds, the queen’s, 2 pounds.

We leave the castle and walk through the Rosenborg Gardens on our way to Amalienborg Palace.

This is where Queen Margrethe II and her husband live.

Guards change with royal fanfare at noon only when the queen is in residence. She was not here so there was not much to watch as they changed position.

We toured through the Amalienborg Palace Museum, which offers the chance to see how the royals live. Since it was included in the Copenhagen Card, we went in for a look.

Booties were required at one point

When we finished touring Amalienborg Palace area, we headed toward the canal for a nice view of the castle and the Marble Church behind it.

On the water’s edge there was a hotdog stand. Eating hotdogs in Copenhagen is as popular as eating hotdogs on the street in NYC. We gave it a try.

Then we headed toward Christianshavn, which is across the harbor from the old town. Our first stop is at Our Savior’s Church (Vor Freisers Kirke).

This is of special interest to me as my great-grandmother was baptized here and her family members married here.

There is a unique spiral spire with an outdoor staircase winding up to its top; 400 steps with the last 150 all outside.

Of course we climbed up the spire. The views of the city were wonderful.

I took a photo of the very last step. It was one person at a time for the last dozen steps.

Step number 400

Looking up at the dome from the very top step

The neighborhood below is where my Danish relatives lived. I have census records from 1850 that give street addresses. They are all within a couple blocks of the church.

The neighborhood my ancestors lived in.

We hoped to go inside the church, but the sign on the door said it was closed to siteseers due to a wedding that afternoon.

So, instead we headed toward the streets that were listed on the census and found several of them. Many of the buildings looked newer than 1850, but on the corner of Sofiegade and Prinsessegade there was a building that looked old. This could be were my great-great grandparents lived. At least I would like to think so.

Nobody home

Next we crossed over the canal and returned to Christianborg Palace where we had walked by yesterday so we could tour the Castle ruins. Beneath the current buildings are the scant remains of the first fortress built in the 12^th century and ruins from the 14^th century Copenhagen Castle.

The medieval ruins

This was actually the secret royal toilet

A limestone relief from the 12th century

We walked by the boat stop for a canal tour. We thought it would take us direct to the Nyhavn stop right by our hotel and save us a bit of walking. Instead, this boat took a different route and we had another one hour canal tour, dropping us right back where we started.

The Little Mermaid statue was very crowded with tourists
each wanting their photo next to the mermaid.

Replica of Michaelangelo's David statue

Amalienborg Palace and Marble Church

Kayakers on the canal

The "Black Diamond" building

Again, it was a nice ride on the canals with views of many of the buildings we had seen today.

After a nice dinner in a restaurant near our hotel we walked down The Stroget to Tivoli to check it out. Story is that Walt Disney visited Tivoli and was inspired by it to create Disneyland. We did a walk through and looked at the beautiful gardens and some of the amusement rides. It’s a very popular spot for families on a nice warm weekend evening!