Copenhagen, Denmark rose to the top of the travel list for 2015 because Jenn had a work conference there in April 2015. So Ryan tagged along for a week’s vacation following the conference.
Day 1: We kicked off the vacation with a trip to Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli transports you back in time to what amusement parks were like a half-century ago. Mixed in with the modern, though smaller versions, roller coasters were beautiful gardens and stage performers. We acted like we were kids again and ran from ride to ride, laughed freely, and didn’t want the evening to end. It was a magical way to spend a few hours.
Day 2: The next day we hit the historic sites of Copenhagen. We started with Rosenborg Castle (the Danish word for Castle is “Slot”) was built in the early 17th century by one of their most important kings, King Christian IV and is surrounded by a lovely park. We stayed at a decent hotel nearby, so every day we walked through this park on our way to the train station. I wish my daily commute was always this nice! The highlights of Rosenborg is the treasury, where the crown jewels are kept, and the Knights’ Hall with the coronation thrones and three life-size silver lions standing guard.
Next we walked through the botanical Gardens (free), and visited the National Art Gallery for Denmark (Statens museum for Kunst, also free!), then on to Amalienborg Palace. Amalienborg is made up of four identical buildings are where the Queen and her husband (the Prince Consort) live; while in one of the other four palaces, her son, the Crown Prince and his wife live. Several floors of one of the palaces have been turned into a museum of the more modern royal family history.
There is an impressive changing of the guards which varies depending on who is currently in residence. We just happened to catch it as we were leaving the museum. More information can be found out here about the changing of the guards and the palace: http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/amalienborg-palace-gdk492887
On our walk back to our hotel we stopped in at Fredrik’s Church, aka: the Marble church. This church is quite an impressive sight peeking out from the buildings and an easy walk from Amalienborg. Construction of this church was started in 1749 but after the architect died in 1754 construction slowed eventually to a standstill, the sight was looted of most of the marble; it wasn’t until the 1870s when a new plan and financier was approved. By then, due to the financial constraints, the plan for the church to be made out of marble was discarded and today the final church is constructed of almost entirely of limestone-however, it is still known as the “marble church.”
Day 3: For our third day of vacation, we were ready to tackle the Danish train system. From what we could tell, the system seemed very efficient and we had chosen our hotel due to its close proximity to one of the main metro/train stations. Today we were off to the town of Hillerod which is north of Copenhagen and home of Frederiksborg Slot. This castle was built in the 17t century by King Christian IV (same King who built Rosenborg Castle). Today, Fredericksborg castle is the museum of national history. So while Amalienborg was a museum of recent history (focusing on past ~100 years), Frederiksborg castle covers the past 500 years with emphasis on the 1500-1800s. It is easy to step inside this castle and feel like you’ve stepped back in time. The gardens surrounding this castle were also gorgeous but unfortunately the day we visited it rained as we left the castle and we ended up pretty soaked getting back to the train!
On our way back to Copenhagen, we stopped off and went to the National Aquarium, The Blue Planet. We love aquariums (because of our love of snorkeling!) and this was a very good aquarium. This is the largest aquarium in northern Europe and has a very large ocean tank which is mesmerizing. They also had a very impressive sea horse tank-I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an exhibit with this many sea horses! (Boy, for creatures that move so slowly, they sure are hard to get a picture of!) We also got some awesome photos of their octopus!
We got back to Copenhagen, the rain had cleared, and we managed to catch the last Harbor tour of the day! We were both starving but with the weather touch and go, we didn’t want to miss this chance to take the tour in the sunshine! From the tour boat, we were able to see the beautiful architecture of Copenhagen. It is truly a beautiful city.
Day 4: Vikings! No trip to Scandinavia would be complete without some Vikings. So on day 4 of our vacation we headed out to Roskilde to learn about Vikings and see real Viking ships! First we went to the Roskilde museum. Then we headed to the Viking Ship museum. This museum has the remains of 5 real Viking ships which were deliberately sunk around 1000 years ago to form a natural blockade in the Roskilde fjorde to protect Roskilde from enemy attacks. These ships were excavated, preserved and rebuilt in the 60’s. The museum also has a working boatyard where they build and sail Viking ships.
Also in Roskilde was a lovely Cathedral which is the primary burial site for Danish monarchs since the 15th century. Inside the Cathedral is a clock where on the hour St. George slays the dragon, we were lucky enough to be there to catch the moment when the hero saved the day!
Day 5: This vacation just keeps getting better! Today we are going to visit Kronborg Slot in Helsingor (aka Elsinore). I know, I know…another castle? But this isn’t just any castle-this is the castle that Shakespeare’s Hamlet is based on. I am a HUGE Shakespeare fan (shout out to Mr. Coulter’s high school English!).
This castle sits at the most northern tip of this region of Denmark (Zealand) and used to protect and control this important waterway. In the picture below, that’s Sweden you can see across the water!
They offered a Hamlet re-enactment tour, where a tour guide in the guise of Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend, walks you through the play scene by scene as it unfolds in the actual castle. This brings the play to life in a way that I wish every high school student who hates reading Shakespeare could experience.
In the casemates (where the guns were stored when Kronborg was a fortress), there sits a plaster statue of Holger the Dane. The story goes that all throughout Europe there are Gods, that when Europe is in real trouble, these Gods will wake and defend the land. Holger is waiting for time when Denmark needs him to wake and rise up and save the day.
To end the day, we stopped at the Amber museum and ogled the many beautiful pieces of amber. We learned that there are different types of amber throughout the world and that much of the world’s amber comes from the Baltic regions. Amber floats, therefore it can be found washing up on Scandinavian shores. (This reminded us of the green “jade” that locals would go beach-combing for in New Zealand.) The museum is the upstairs of a store-which of course sells amber jewelry and caught my eye!
Days 6 & 7: We decided for the last couple days of our vacation, it would be nice to leave the Copenhagen area and see another part of the country. So we took the train to Nyborg in central Denmark on an island called Funen. Here we stayed in at Julesburg Slot (another castle!) which was converted to a B&B. We were about 2 miles out from town without a car so we had a lovely walk to and from town each day. Both the town of Nyborg and the walk through the woods and pastures each day made us feel like we were in a fairy tale. You could see Hans Christen Anderson being inspired to write his famous stories in settings such as these.
We were in Nyborg for the 70th anniversary of VE day (Victory in Europe after WWII) and were able to observe the villages’ commemoration of those who led the resistance in Denmark.
Overall: We were surprised by the charm of Denmark. Denmark thoroughly won us over. The weather was a bit on the damp and chilly but the people were lovely and the setting was like stepping back into a children’s fairy tale.