Rosenborg Castle

Debbie and I spent our last day in Copenhagen visiting our favorite attraction:  Rosenborg Castle. The castle was built during the Renaissance period and was the royal family's "summer country home"  in 1606. Wouldn't you love to have a summer getaway place that looked like this???

The Rosenborg Castle Gardens were the oldest in the country, and were designed in the Renaissance style during the reign of King Christian IV.  A moat separates the gardens from the castle.

Inside were ornate features, and I especially loved the painted ceilings that were framed by embellished carvings.

 A notable attraction at the castle is the "throne room," which has the coronation chair guarded by life-sized silver lions. The latter were absolutely beautiful -- and heavy. They were solid silver!

 In the Long Hall that served as the Royal Reception Room, Denmark's coat of arms were on the ceiling.

The castle had a museum in the lower levels that housed royal antiques such as armor, weapons, saddles... 

...but my favorite part of the tour was the royal blings n' things!

 

This cameo serving dish was lovely.

Don't you find this golden chalice of the palace utterly chilling in a blingey way?

And then Debbie and I were off to the Hans Christian Andersen's Museum....

Farvel (Danish: Good-bye), Rosenborg Castle - YOU ROCKED!

Laverne and Shirley in Copenhagen

 Saturday morning came with the arrival of my BFF Debbie, who had just flown a transatlantic flight to meet me. Debbie and I go waaaay back. Try 25 years! In the last couple of years, we began the tradition of doing an annual reunion at some exotic locale. Last year, she came to visit me in Cairo. This year we did the Baltic cruise. We began dubbing these madcap adventures as the Laverne and Shirley trips. LOL.

 

Me, Deb and Hans Christian Andersen!

  

Hop On Hop Off Bus



Without even stopping to take a breather, Deb insisted that we began our exploration of the city. She was determined to catch up to my 24 hour head start! We got a 2-day pass for the Hop On Hop Off City Sightseeing bus, and started seeing Copenhagen's major attractions. It was the best way to get around the city, because a Hop On Hop Off bus came around every 15 min.

One of the things we had to do was to see the changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace at noon. Amalienborg Palace was the royal monarchy's winter palace, and it also served as the center hub for paliament, as government buildings shared the courtyard square with the royal family.

Afterwards, Debbie and I headed to the harbor  to get our bearings on where we were to board our cruise ship the next day. While there we saw the site of where the Little Mermaid statue used to be (the statue was on loan to China until Oct), and we also saw this beautiful angel statue looking out to the harbor. It was erected after WWII in honor of all the Danish sailors that died at sea during the war.

Next we explored Nyhavn St, which was a "rainbow row" of waterfront shops and eateries, as well as a busy thoroughfare for canal boat tours. Debbie and I especially liked the front of this building as it purposely attempted to grow a floral front.There were so many bicycles in Denmark! It reminded us so much of Amsterdam. Scandanavians were definite proponents of this mode of transportation. Then we discovered "The Stroget" (which means "street" in Danish), the longest pedestrian walk in Europe, and is THE shopping zone of Copenhagen. Throngs of tourists crowded around street performers, and milled around the shops and cafes' found abundantly there.Not too far away from The Stroget was a Saturday flea market we discovered. Bonus! It had a variety of odds n' ends that interested me, particularly these antique Danish tiles.We finished out the day with a fantastic dinner show at the Musik Hall that was premiering "SMILE," a rock medley of musicals such as Caberet, Hair, etc. It was very entertaining, and we were pleased with the day's adventures! We didn't have to board the ship until 6pm the next day, so we had another fun day in Copenhagen. So, stay tune! 

Little Mermaid at Tivoli Gardens

 The highlight of my evening was visiting Tivoli Gardens, or rather "Tivoli," as it was commonly referred to by the locals. Tivoli is the second oldest amusement park in the world. It opened on August 15, 1843 and offers something for all ages with its amusement rides, 42 restaurants, concert halls and theaters for performance arts venues. 

 





This year Tivoli featured a special visitor: Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid statue!

The Little Mermaid statue is Denmark's most visited site. Go figure that it would be on loan to China's Shanghai Expo while I was visiting! Ugh. It normally sits on Copenhagen's harbor, but while the statue was out of the country, a replica of it was appropriately placed in the fairy tale village of Tivoli. 

I always thought Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid fairy tale was so sad! It was interesting visiting Denmark, and having a sense of realism uncloud the fairy tale dust. As I walked around the places that Ariel could have walked when she came looking for her prince, it gave me a sense of connection to the story. 




Just a swingin'.


The Demon.



Caught a ballet performance at the Pantomime Theatre. The peacock's feathers were a mechanical curtain and it opened slowly to reveal a dimly lit stage behind it.  The ballet troupe performed Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and it was fantastical!



 I thought this fountain was magical at night!

     

Pagoda Restaurant.

Middle Eastern Restaurant.

There were so many restaurants to choose from  for the international palette. To my delight I discovered a Wagamama there! Wags is a ramen noodle bar that is VERY popular in Europe. I first whetted my appetite for it in Amsterdam, and was EXCITED to find another one in Copenhagen!

Behold the Noodle Dream. Yummy spicy beef n' ramen. Mnnnnn... what a way to end my first day in Copenhagen!

First Day In Copenhagen

Labor Day weekend saw me on a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark for the advent of my Baltic Cruise. Copenhagen was Denmark's capital and largest city, and I was excited to explore it!  There was a metro station at the airport that I took to the central station in Copenhagen that was only a block from my hotel.  And thus, my adventures began...


Near the central station, all these Mercedes taxis were lined up. Considered luxury cars in the U.S., it still amuses me when I see Mercedes as taxis abroad. I wonder if I'll ever see a fleet of BMW taxis? LOL.


I stayed at the Grand Hotel which was a 5 min. walk from the metro station, and close to several attractions! It was only a few blocks from the Imax Tycho Brahe Planetarium, so I headed there immediately.

I truly loved all the interactive areas where I could push buttons and see planets twirl, look out a window of a simulated space capsule, and look at a model of Mar's robotic rover. I didn't catch an Imax show, but I'm glad I stopped by.

Afterwards, I walked around and admired some of the buildings in the vicinity. I thought this particular building was very interesting. I loved how traffic went under the middle building, and how the sides jutted out in 3-D fashion.

The Palads was a multi-theater cinema house that was brightly painted to compensate for the extensive graffiti damages it once had. And lemme tell ya, there was a lot of colorful paint! LOL.

I loved the twisty steeple on this building.

The central plaza was packed with throngs of people and busy advertisements.

American fast food eateries dominated the plaza as visitors got their choice of McDonald's, Burger King and KFC.

Below is the Town Hall, which has a golden statue of Archbishop Absalon fixated on the building. Archbishop Absalon was a key figure in Denmark's territorial expansion. He was the foremost Danish politician and churchman in the second half of the 12th century.

I thought these gargoyles at the Town Hall's base were too cute.

However, the highlight of my first day's visit was Tivoli Gardens. So, stay tune for my next post!