Copenhagen, Denmark

Our cruise stop was in Copenhagen, Denmark and what a beautiful place.

Our favorite spot during our whirlwind tour of the city centre was Nyhavn which reminded us a lot of Amsterdam with the style of buildings and brightly painted colors.

The canal was lined up with tall masted boats and loads of people in the cafes lined up along the water.

Of course, a trip to Copenhagen isn't complete without seeing the infamous Little Mermaid. The interesting thing is that this delicate little statue was currently on display in Shanghai, China so they set up this huge TV screen up just above her normal resting place with a live feed of her displayed in China. The kids didn't quite understand the whole concept (neither did we really) but it was pretty cool. The statue was actually commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg Brewery. He loved the "Little Mermaid" play so much that he wanted a sculpture of the main actress made, but when she wouldn't pose nude for it the sculptor used Carl's wife as the model.

Honestly though, Kevin quite enjoyed the "new" Little Mermaid on display just outside the port. She's really not quite little and very well endowed.

On our way to the entrance of the Kastellet, we stopped to admire the Gefion Fountain. It depicts the story of how Copenhagen was created by the Norse goddess, Gefjun. The Swedish king gave her permission to plow up as much land as she could in one day and one night the to use as she wished. So to maximize her time she turned her four sons into oxen in order to plow up as much land as she could. The got enough land to create the island of Zealand which is what most of Copenhagen exists on today.

The Kastellet was a massive fortification built to defend the Danish capital. The ramparts built in a star shape which allowed all walls to be fired upon by at least one other wall. This allowed not only the soldiers to fight off enemies from the top but they could be supported by other soldiers from another wall. Today the site serves mainly as a public park and historic site and is home to a church, a windmill and military housing. On this particular day there was a massive ECCO walk organized so along with hundreds of cruise goers there were 1000's of locals congregating in the courtyards. The original windmill was built in 1847, but replaced twice. This one is Dutch style and still fully functional and tested every year on October 28th apparently.

They are very particular about protecting the site as these little signs are all over the place. We assumed they said "Keep of the Grass" which is a hard enough concept for a 2 year old to understand when he is told in English because our little Harry just wanted to run off all over the place.

Outside the Danish Freedom museum, was a Danish produced armored car, which was put together covertly during the last days of the German occupation and helped to persuade the last German soldiers to surrender. Looks a bit scary to me...

Next we walked up towards the Amalienborg Castle where the Queen lives during the winter season. Soldiers of the Danish Army serve as protection and security for the Queen so they are posted throughout the plaza. Each day at noon there is a changing of the guard, but each guard has only a two hour shift. As part of each inspection the officer in charge is commissioned to check the red cloak hanging in the guard house. Though it is meant to wear when it's cold or raining, but in the past some guards used it to hide their girlfriends behind it. It's supposedly doesn't happen any more but it's still tradition to look.

It was amazing walking along the pier into town. We loved all the big boats along the way.

After walking along the pier a bit we made our way to Nyhavn which is a 17th century waterfront constructed by King Christian V to create a gateway from the sea to the inner city. It was dug out by war prisoners from the Dano-Swedish War...hmmmm. The area's past had a very infamous reputation for beer, sailors and prostitution and today is still a popular place to sit and have a drink and walk about with one as well. Hans Christian Anderson lived here from almost 18 years of his life....sure he got lots of interesting inspiration.

At the end of the Nyhavn is an area called Kongens Nytorv which displays a large ship's ancho to commemorate Danish soldiers who were lost in WWII.

Next destination was the Stroget which is said to be Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street. With mostly high street shopping stores there were some other interesting little bits to it like the Guinness Book of World Records museum. I took an opportunity to size myself up to the world's tallest man at over 7 feet tall.

Down a little ways was the oldest square in Copenhagen called Gammeltorv (Old Market) which dates back to the 12th century. It features a really neat fountain called Caritas Well. The figure was originally carved in wood but later cast in bronze. The figures depict the three theological virtures of love and symbolized by a pregnant mother and her children. Kevin didn't think this was all to interesting until I pointed out that the woman sprays water from her breasts while the little boy "pees" in the fountain.

We ate at a cafe with outdoor seating which was really nice. The tables had white paper on top for the kids to color on and we had some of the most amazing food. I LOVED my hamburger and Addison quite enjoyed eating up all of Kevin's fish...funny how our picky little eater will try new things when she's absolutely starving.

At the end of the Stroget is Town Hall Square and again we ran into another big shin dig going on there as well. It looked to be a big street football (soccer) competition. There were boys and girls of all ages playing in what looked like cages and I felt like we were at some street 2-on-2 basketball deal but with soccer. It made the square come alive though and it was so cool to be there filled with thousands of people.

Across the road was the Tivoli Park which is said to be Walt Disney's inspiration to build the Magic Kingdom. We didn't go inside the park but we could see all the big rides and it looked like fun.

Staring into the park as well was the huge statue of Hans Christian Andersen.

Facing in the Town Hall Square was this interesting building which touted the local Carlsberg brew, but I loved how they made the left side corner of the building into a thermometer and it was a whopping 12 C outside (about 55 F).

You know a place has to have great food when you can order 11 different kinds of sausages from a street vendor that look like this. I love the hotdogs that look like a Twinky-dog on the bottom.

Did you know that the Oldest Glove Factory in the World was in Copenhagen.

And did you know that 7-Eleven was in Copenhagen as well??? Yep, right there in the corner store on the big square.

In the afternoon we strolled down to Rosenberg Castle and the amazing gardens that surround it. It is home to the Danish crown jewels and is a commanding Dutch Renaissance style building.

We really loved the garden/park. We found some really interesting things in it that were so unique. It's not often you see people spreading out a blanket for a picnic next to grass covered furniture. Also they had some really fun kids play equipment that was so bright and colorful and used lots of recycled materials. Addison had a blast.

Before we headed back to the boat, we stopped at one of the little places in the Nyhavn to sit and relax and take it all in. All the chairs had blankets on them to cover up with so Addie snuggled in while Harry slept in the push chair.

We got the bill and gasped when we saw what a beer and Coke cost...81.00Krone!!! But then we looked below and they had price in Euros (only 10.80 Euros).

A quick but great day in Copenhagen.