Copenhagen, Part II

The last time I posted, it was Monday morning and I was getting ready to embark on my last day in Copenhagen.  I had originally planned to have a leisurely morning of sleeping in late and enjoying the hotel breakfast, but my inner alarm clock was not going to let that happen.  Awake, showered, and fed by 9:30, I quickly finished my blog post which I had started the previous night and checked out of my hotel.  It was a perfect morning with a clear blue sky, so I was excited to be on my way.


I didn't really have any set plans for the day, but I quickly realized there was a great attraction just a five minute walk from my hotel.  The Copenhagen city hall is located right on the square next to Tivoli.  It's free to walk around inside and it's a beautiful building.  Lots of windows keep the huge center room bright.  It was cool to walk around the building, but the best part is the clock tower.  A few of only 20 Danish kroner allows you to walk up the more than 300 steps (many of which are spiral staircases!) to the top of the clock tower.  It was super windy up there, but a fantastic few of the city.  Plus, I even asked a nice man to take my photo!  Finally some proof that I've been to Denmark!

Photo of city hall from my first day in Copenhagen.

Inside.  I love the Danish flags everywhere!

View from the top! And nice clear sky.

No laughing at my hair -- it was windy!

After checking out the city from above, I decided it was time to move onward.  Strolling through the streets, I ended up on the little island that holds Christiansborg Palace.  Here are the offices of the Danish Prime Minister, the Danish Parliament, and the Danish Supreme Court.  The queen also uses the space as Royal Reception Rooms.  Basically all branches of the government make use of this huge building.

The front of Christiansborg Palace.

When I first arrived, the queen was actually meeting with some people in the reception rooms, so the majority of the palace was closed.  However, I could still go down into the ruins.  Apparently over the last hundreds of years, multiple buildings have been built on this same site, including the first and second Christiansborg Palaces (the current one is the third).  It seems that the site has been plagued by fires.  Hopefully the current building will remain standing for a while.  So I explored the ruins for a bit (and enjoyed the cool air of being underground).  However, I didn't take any photos because it was pretty dark.  Plus I figured no one would want to see a pile of stones that were a part of the first palace's foundation.  Not exactly thrilling stuff.  Still, all of the plaques also had information in English (unlike the Geology Museum that I visited on Sunday), so it was a really informative exhibit.


Wandering out the back of Christiansborg Palace, I found myself near one of the many canals of Copenhagen.  Figuring I had nothing else planned for the day, I took another harbor cruise (seriously, the Copenhagen Card is the best thing ever!).  It was the same company that I took the cruise with the previous day, but because we were leaving from a different spot in the city, the tour was slightly different.  Even though most of it was the same information (and even though it was rather windy), it was enjoyable to rest a best and get a different view of the city.  

Photo from my harbor cruise.  The new Royal Danish Playhouse.

By the time the tour was finished, the queen was done with her meeting and the Royal Reception Rooms were open to the public!  I quickly headed inside for fear that she would close them again.  Man what a gorgeous building!  Each room was decorated so nicely (including one that had a painting of ducks!) and the views of the courtyard and the surrounding city were quite nice.  Though I wasn't supposed to take pictures, I did snap a quick photo of the thrones.  

Thrones.  Not nearly as fancy as the thrones that kings and queens of the past used (pictures in my last post from Rosenborg).

After getting my fill of royalty for the second day in a row, I wanted to visit the Hans Christian Andersen museum.  At first I couldn't find it and then the sky opened up on me (the weather changes so fast here!), so I made my way to a coffee shop and enjoyed a muffin and cold drink.  I ended up staying there a while reading and listening to all the chatter around me.  Eventually I realized that I can be lazy in a coffee shop anyway, so I headed back out to search for the museum again.  Finding it right next to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum (no need to visit since I'm sure it has all the exact some stuff as the one in Myrtle Beach), I headed inside and spent the next hour reading a selection of his short stories.  I love how the ones that became really popular (ex: The Little Mermaid) are not really the happy stories that Disney portrayed them as.  In Andersen's version, the little mermaid has her tongue cut out, not just her voice taken away.  It's funny how the originals are changed to make them more family friendly.

Statue of Hans Christian Andersen from the museum.

Once I finished up with the museum it was after six and I didn't really have much left to do.  I plan on catching the metro to the airport around 7:30 or 8 for my 10 pm flight.  I sat outside for a while, but people were smoking everywhere and a drunk dude sat down next to me.  Deciding I had had my fill of Copenhagen, I hopped on the metro a little ahead of schedule and arrived at the airport super early for my flight.  Since I had plenty of time to wander around, I now feel like an expert on the Copenhagen airport.  But I arrived home safely right after midnight (and it was still light out!).  It's funny that I've only been in Bergen for five or six weeks, but it felt like returning home.  I guess that's a good thing considering I've still got a month and a half left here.


Anyway, that was my Copenhagen adventure!  I'd say it was a great experience and I've love to go back to the city sometime.  Right now, though, I'm content with Bergen.  I like the smaller city feel and the surrounding mountains.  Copenhagen definitely didn't have the nature aspect that Bergen offers.  My next update will be about all that I've neglected to say over the past few weeks.  Somehow I always do a great job procrastinating with this blog -- it's good practice for when I want to put off all my assignments during senior year! :)


Oh and I think this is a fun way to end this post.  Legos are pretty popular here, and there are plenty of places that sell them.  The biggest and best location for buying them is the official Lego store on Stroget, the pedestrian street in the middle of downtown.  You can probably buy every kind of Lego you would ever want here, but my favorite part was several life-sized Lego figures and an entire wall made of Legos that depicted downtown Copenhagen!

Legos!