The alarm woke us up at 7.30am sharp, ready for another big day. We attacked breakfast along with another bus load of Chinese tour parties - man they love their smoked salmon! We decided to carry our bags with us for the day as we hadn't packed that much (Hamish hadn't packed much of anything to be honest) (Again Lou distracted me packing!) as it was going to be easier logistically carrying our stuff.
Hamish had his heart set on hiring one of these Copenhagen free bikes for the day. Now Lou is not the most coordinated person on a bike and having seen the pace of other cyclists and traffic, and the fact that they drove on the other side of the road, she was not that happy about it. But because the Bandits are a team, we hired the bikes and set off.
Our first destination was the Round Tower, which was built as an astronomical observatory in 1637, and is meant to have a great view of the city. Unfortunately as we were too speedy on the bikes we were there way before opening time. So we made the call to give it a miss. Next stop was the Amalienborg Palace, which is the winter home of the Danish royal family. It consists of four identical palace façades around an octagonal courtyard and in the centre of the square is a monumental equestrian statue of Amalienborg's founder, King Frederick V.
The palace was originally built for four noble families; however, when Christiansborg Palace burnt down in 1794, the royal family bought the palaces and moved in. The palaces are now known as Christian VII's Palace, Christian VIII's Palace, Frederick VIII's Palace, and Christian IX's Palace. They were not very original with names back then.
Across the road is the huge Fredericks Church, also known as the Marble Church. It was finally finished in 1894 (after being started in 1740) and has the largest church dome in Scandinavia with a span of 31m.
Our next port of call was the suburb of Christianshavn. From what Lou had read previously, it was meant to be some sort of hippy commune that didn't have to follow Danish law (because of the Christiania Law of 1989). Apparently drugs are a way of life, and they all do yoga and protest against the man. All the tourist things she had read said that cameras were not allowed and police as a rule didn't go into the area.
So we were a little apprehensive when we dropped our bikes off here (thank God). So we just decided to wander casually around and see what was up. Apart from a few more drunk people on the street we couldn't see much that was different. On our way we came across a church that had an awesome steeple on the top that looked a kids slide that go round and round. So we thought why not, so we paid to go up the bell tower, which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip!
The church was the Church of our Saviour and was built in 1639, and it's key feature is the black and golden spire reaching a height of 90 metres and the external staircase turns four times anticlockwise around it. The spire is topped by a vase-like structure, carrying a gilded globe with a 4-meter-tall figure, carrying a banner. It has an infamous reputation for being the ugliest sculpture in Copenhagen but is intentionally made with exaggerated proportions because it is only meant to be seen from long distances.
So we started the climb, and man it was a long way. We didn’t think that they would actually let people climb up the staircase on the outside, but they did. It was a very scary experience and our calf muscles are suffering because of it. We don't think NZ health and safety would let people climb to the top. We got a great view of the city and the wind turbines, and it was much higher up than the Round Tower so we were pretty happy with that.
Next we were onto Christiansborg Palace, which is on its own little island, separated by canals. This is where all the main Royal buildings are as well as the Parliament and Prime Minister's offices and the Supreme Court, and they were pretty impressive to be honest. We wandered round and found these gardens which were really nice, and they even thought of the little ducklings in the pond (note to Dave, you should do this).
Then we went in the Royal Reception rooms which were awesome. They were in such good condition, quite possibly because the palace had to be rebuilt twice due to fire and the latest version was complete in 1924. The rooms were very ornate and richly decorated, and had great colour schemes which is more than I can say for a lot of other Royal things we had seen. We took a few sneaky snapshots as well. You got the feeling that the Danish people were quite proud of their Royal history and have a good amount of popularity. They also have the romantic story of the next heir – Crown Prince Frederik marrying Australian marketing consultant Mary Donaldson after he met her at the Sydney Olympics. They have had a heap of kids, and following tradition they have had to name their sons either Christian or Frederik.
Lunch was on the agenda next, after seeing the old Stock Exchange building with it's crazy spire, shaped as the tails of four dragons twined together. We were hoping to find something cheap but filling and we came across Riz Raz,a place that did a random buffet of breakfast and lunch foods. Never one to give up a buffet we tucked in. Fair to say we (read Lou) ate a lot, there was yum stuff like cheeses and salads and pasta and then crepes and fruit for dessert. We staggered out of there and wandered back to the tourist information place in search of the address of the Lego shop.
Needless to say that the Information centre was not informative - "sorry there is no lego shop". We found this odd, but we went to the main shopping area anyway to have a look. Well, we found the Lego shop, and it looked awesome, but it was closed which was a bummer. But we did find a gem of a shop dedicated to Danish design, and we picked up a great memento of our trip to Copenhagen.
And before our little legs could give way, we made our way to the world renowned Tivoli Amusement Park and gardens. This was taking amusement parks to a whole new level, it is the size of a city block and is the second oldest amusement park in the world (first opened in 1843). It has heaps of rides, and stages and restaurants and shops and pretty gardens all in the one place. We started our adventure watching an outdoor ballet pantomime performance (yes even Hamish watched) which was a great rest in the sun. We didn't pay to go on any rides but we had a good time watching it all happen.
Now we were actually exhausted so we exited on to Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard (sweet road name) and got the metro to the airport where we hung out until our late night flight. We finally made it to bed about midnight, pretty content that we had done Copenhagen.
Highlight: The view from the top of the Church, the cool clock we bought and the Royal rooms.
Lowlight: We are getting old, our legs get so sore these days.
Interesting Fact: There is a long-lived urban legend stating that the architect of the Church of our Saviour killed himself by jumping from the top of the spire, when he realised that the spiral turns the wrong way - anticlockwise - around. There is not a grain of truth in the myth though, since Thurah died in his bed seven years after the spire was completed, but it's a cool story.
Hamish had his heart set on hiring one of these Copenhagen free bikes for the day. Now Lou is not the most coordinated person on a bike and having seen the pace of other cyclists and traffic, and the fact that they drove on the other side of the road, she was not that happy about it. But because the Bandits are a team, we hired the bikes and set off.
Our first destination was the Round Tower, which was built as an astronomical observatory in 1637, and is meant to have a great view of the city. Unfortunately as we were too speedy on the bikes we were there way before opening time. So we made the call to give it a miss. Next stop was the Amalienborg Palace, which is the winter home of the Danish royal family. It consists of four identical palace façades around an octagonal courtyard and in the centre of the square is a monumental equestrian statue of Amalienborg's founder, King Frederick V.
The palace was originally built for four noble families; however, when Christiansborg Palace burnt down in 1794, the royal family bought the palaces and moved in. The palaces are now known as Christian VII's Palace, Christian VIII's Palace, Frederick VIII's Palace, and Christian IX's Palace. They were not very original with names back then.
 |
| Hamish posing with his bike |
Our next port of call was the suburb of Christianshavn. From what Lou had read previously, it was meant to be some sort of hippy commune that didn't have to follow Danish law (because of the Christiania Law of 1989). Apparently drugs are a way of life, and they all do yoga and protest against the man. All the tourist things she had read said that cameras were not allowed and police as a rule didn't go into the area.
So we were a little apprehensive when we dropped our bikes off here (thank God). So we just decided to wander casually around and see what was up. Apart from a few more drunk people on the street we couldn't see much that was different. On our way we came across a church that had an awesome steeple on the top that looked a kids slide that go round and round. So we thought why not, so we paid to go up the bell tower, which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip!
The church was the Church of our Saviour and was built in 1639, and it's key feature is the black and golden spire reaching a height of 90 metres and the external staircase turns four times anticlockwise around it. The spire is topped by a vase-like structure, carrying a gilded globe with a 4-meter-tall figure, carrying a banner. It has an infamous reputation for being the ugliest sculpture in Copenhagen but is intentionally made with exaggerated proportions because it is only meant to be seen from long distances.
So we started the climb, and man it was a long way. We didn’t think that they would actually let people climb up the staircase on the outside, but they did. It was a very scary experience and our calf muscles are suffering because of it. We don't think NZ health and safety would let people climb to the top. We got a great view of the city and the wind turbines, and it was much higher up than the Round Tower so we were pretty happy with that.
Next we were onto Christiansborg Palace, which is on its own little island, separated by canals. This is where all the main Royal buildings are as well as the Parliament and Prime Minister's offices and the Supreme Court, and they were pretty impressive to be honest. We wandered round and found these gardens which were really nice, and they even thought of the little ducklings in the pond (note to Dave, you should do this).
Then we went in the Royal Reception rooms which were awesome. They were in such good condition, quite possibly because the palace had to be rebuilt twice due to fire and the latest version was complete in 1924. The rooms were very ornate and richly decorated, and had great colour schemes which is more than I can say for a lot of other Royal things we had seen. We took a few sneaky snapshots as well. You got the feeling that the Danish people were quite proud of their Royal history and have a good amount of popularity. They also have the romantic story of the next heir – Crown Prince Frederik marrying Australian marketing consultant Mary Donaldson after he met her at the Sydney Olympics. They have had a heap of kids, and following tradition they have had to name their sons either Christian or Frederik.
Needless to say that the Information centre was not informative - "sorry there is no lego shop". We found this odd, but we went to the main shopping area anyway to have a look. Well, we found the Lego shop, and it looked awesome, but it was closed which was a bummer. But we did find a gem of a shop dedicated to Danish design, and we picked up a great memento of our trip to Copenhagen.
And before our little legs could give way, we made our way to the world renowned Tivoli Amusement Park and gardens. This was taking amusement parks to a whole new level, it is the size of a city block and is the second oldest amusement park in the world (first opened in 1843). It has heaps of rides, and stages and restaurants and shops and pretty gardens all in the one place. We started our adventure watching an outdoor ballet pantomime performance (yes even Hamish watched) which was a great rest in the sun. We didn't pay to go on any rides but we had a good time watching it all happen.
Now we were actually exhausted so we exited on to Hans Christian Anderson Boulevard (sweet road name) and got the metro to the airport where we hung out until our late night flight. We finally made it to bed about midnight, pretty content that we had done Copenhagen.
Highlight: The view from the top of the Church, the cool clock we bought and the Royal rooms.
Lowlight: We are getting old, our legs get so sore these days.
Interesting Fact: There is a long-lived urban legend stating that the architect of the Church of our Saviour killed himself by jumping from the top of the spire, when he realised that the spiral turns the wrong way - anticlockwise - around. There is not a grain of truth in the myth though, since Thurah died in his bed seven years after the spire was completed, but it's a cool story.
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