We arrived in Copenhagen early Friday morning and walked about 15 minutes from Copenhagen Central Station to our hotel. Unfortunately because it was only 8:45 am our room was not ready yet. We were able to drop off our bags though and then ventured into town.
We walked along the water for a bit and then in towards the center of town to get on a metro train to the National Aquarium. The aquarium was designed in the shape of a spiral to remind you of the ocean currents. It is broken into 3 sections, northern lakes and seas, tropical lakes and rivers, and the ocean. There are lots of touch pools and frequent “storytimes” where employees talk about the animals and feed them.
After the aquarium, we took the metro back into the city center and then walked along Stroget which is the longest pedestrian street in Europe. We made our way to Somods Bolcher, a candy store where you can see them making their hard candy. We got some rhubarb candy to try in the store and bought some other flavors to take home.
As we continued walking back to our hotel, we passed Christiansborg Palace, which we plan to come back and tour another day.
Saturday we started the day with a breakfast buffet in our hotel where we finally joined up with our group of SMC alumni. We then headed out for a 3 hour walking tour of the nearby area. We stopped at Magstraede which is a street commonly used in films to represent Denmark.
Nyhavn is another iconic location due to its multicolored buildings and sailboats. Its position on the canal was ideal for shipping because it leads right to Kongens Nytorv, where lots of commerce is located.
Next we saw the opera house, Det Kongelige Theater. Interestingly, the famous Sydney Opera House was designed by a danish man and our tour guide through Denmark was an Australian man!
The last stop on the tour was Amalienborg, which is the palace where the queen lives, though she was not in residence at this time. Around the central courtyard are 4 identical palaces (at least on the outside) which were built originally to house nobility, but when the king’s main palace burnt down, the nobility were removed and the royal family moved in. The changing of the guard happened while we were there, but because the queen was not currently in residence, there was no marching band or very much fanfare.
After the tour we headed over to see the little mermaid statue. Our tour guide had warned us that it was the second most disappointing landmark in the world, but we still felt it was worth seeing.
After the statue, we took a break to have some lunch and then split off for various afternoon activities. Mom and I ended up joining the other two mother & daughter pairs for a tour through Christiansborg Palace. The palace is currently used primarily for parliament but also houses special events and is still home to 13 royal horses.
You can also tour the ruins underneath the palace which are from previous palaces that got destroyed by fires.
This chandelier over the long dining table was originally from Norway. The Danish purchased it from Norway when Norway modernized their palace with electricity. Since then, Denmark has wired the chandelier for electricity and Norway has created replicas of the chandeliers for their 50th anniversary celebration.
There used to be over 200 royal horses in these stables but now are only 13 due to the decline in use of horse drawn carriage as transportation.
These tapestries were given to the queen in 2000 and tell the story of Denmark from its creation to the present day.
The kitchen is no longer used - when events are held at the palace the food is cooked in Amaliensborg (the queen’s official residence) and driven over to Christiansborg.
In the evening, the group reconvened for dinner with authentic danish food. There was pickled herring, curry herring, fried herring, salmon, crunchy pork, chicken salad, danish potatoes, cheese dessert, and wine.
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