Well, they booted us off the ship nice and early. We carried our own luggage off, everyone else had to wait in holding areas to get theirs. We decided to skip the taxis and make our own way downtown, it was SO easy! Right from the ship just follow the blue painted line right through the maze that is the terminal, and the blue line continues along the sidewalk until you get to the train station 10-15 minutes later. We got off at the Central Station and walked 5 minutes to our hotel. It was too early to check in, so we left our luggage in their office and went exploring for the day.
The first thing we did was take an hour long canal cruise through the city, in an open boat with the sun beating down on us. It was crazy hot today. Maybe that's why there was a guy sitting on his front step wearing nothing but his coffee cup as we sailed by. The bridges are really low, like St. Petersburg, and one corner was too tight for the boat.
Next we walked through Christiansborg Church which is attached to the palace. The church was burnt down in 1992 by some drunk teens shooting flare guns off one of the bridges. They turned themselves in and were given a small fine, but it cost millions to rebuild the church.
We walked through the Christiansborg ruins, which is basically the basement of the present palace because they keep building layer after layer on top of the old foundations. The first palace was built by Bishop Absalon, who founded Copenhagen in 1157 and was its first king. Presently Denmark has a queen, Queen Margarethe II. We also walked through the palace Reception Rooms. Very grand, but we're getting used to it now, we've been through so many palaces on this trip.
This city should be called the city of spires. They are everywhere you look, and every one of them is unique and beautiful. We walked past the ancient stock exchange whose spire is made of 4 dragons' tails intertwined with each other.
We made our way through Christianshavn, the hippie pot and hash smoking section of town that the government keeps trying to get rid of. Our mission was to visit the Church of our Saviour. Inside was a huge organ and beautiful music. We climbed the tower to the top of the spire, which was a narrow old wooden staircase with the final one third of it winding its way on the outside of the tower.
We made our way back along the canals with only a few wrong turns, and visited Glyptotek, a museum with lots of french artists (Monet, Gaughin, Rodin) and even some Picasso and Van Gogh. We walked through rooms and rooms of ancient heads off statues. Where are the bodies? There was a central concert hall area lined with 2000 year old statues.
We checked in at the hotel and we have a nice large room compared to the cruise ship. What will we do with all this space? And we're on the top floor, yippee! No noisy neighbours above us! The ones above us on the cruise ship were horrible, we basically had to sleep on their schedule or not sleep at all.
We walked through the Stroget, which is a pedestrian street shopping area, and made our way to the Round Tower. This was an astronomical tower built 350 years ago that has an indoor brick ramp winding up, up, up to the top. The ramp is about 5 meters wide. Peter the Great rode up this ramp 300 years ago on his horse, with his wife Catherine following him in a chariot. Too funny.
We found a bus to take us back near the hotel, which includes a buffet dinner in the price. But their idea of buffet is different than ours. They had bowls of servings already laid out, and only one choice. Luckily it was gluten-free, at least tonight. We found out that a glass of water with dinner cost $6, and we were told not to bring our own water bottle in with us. But we outsmarted them - we discovered that tea and coffee came free with the meal!
After supper we had a leisurely evening at Tivoli. Tivoli is an amusement park in the middle of the city, 5 minutes away from our hotel. It is 160 years old, takes up 25-30 acres, and receives 5-6 million visitors a year. This park is an interesting mix of flower gardens, games, and rides. Really intense rides. We splurged for one ride, which cost us $15 each. It was the Flying Star, a chair swing ride that goes up and down at the same time (like Drop Zone) and goes really high. Frankie loved it, Anton was glad when it was over, and the guy behind us puked big time. Before we got on we were told to remove all loose items, including our cameras, and most people took off their shoes, so we followed suit. It was pretty neat flying through the air with bare feet. Afterwards, no one was allowed to leave the ride until everyone had their belongings. That discouraged theft. It worked.
We spent a few hours just wandering around, what lovely flowers everywhere. We splurged on a fruit drink where he took fresh fruit and juiced it right there for us. Any mix you wanted. We had to pay $1 for the cup, but there were machines throughout the park that gave you your $1 back if you deposited the cup, so we did ours and someone else's too.
The best part of the night was the lazor light show at 9:45, we had the perfect view standing center of the bridge overlooking a lake. It was an AMAZING show! They used light, water, smoke, and fire. All set to music. The lazors were wide, like sheets, and you felt like you were enveloped in them. It was the coolest thing we've ever seen, WAY better than fireworks!
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