Sunday, 29 August 2021

Danish Delight, Exploring Copenhagen



Copenhagen is a vibrant city. Generally its a walkable venue except for the fact that there are still many cobblestone sidewalks and squares but cobblestone is cool. There are numerous, beautiful big parks and green spaces. Each park runs along a canal, surrounds a small lake or borders the waterfront. There is a considerable amount of tasteful public art all over the place. It is also a safe city. The biggest danger is getting hit by a bike and bikes are plentiful. Bicyclists have dedicated lanes which are sometimes jammed with two-wheeled traffic and the pedestrian has to stay alert. 

Married to a marathoner, Gym never hops a cab on a vacation, especially if the destination is less than 8 kilometers from the starting point. But Gym wouldn't have it any other way because you can really get a feel for a new place by walking it. You would miss so much by cabbing past it. You will also never travel down some of the narrow roads in the historic centers of old cities in a cab, cabs avoid them.

Our intrepid travelers put the the integrity of their shoes to the test and pounded out about 24 km in the 2 full days they had in the capital. They had places to go and people to observe. They catalogued the characteristics of hundreds of Danes on these hikes and visited the following landmarks:

  • Almost every inch of the Tivoli Gardens was explored by Gym and Mrs. Gym - they had free access to this theme park directly from their hotel;
    Tivoli Main Entrance but the
    Nimb Hotel guests enter from the hotel

    Boss of Tivoli geese

    Boss of Gym

    A pirate ship in Tivoli Gardens

    the lake reminded Gym of Disneyland

    lots of cool fountains in the park's green areas

  • City Hall Square and the massive City Hall - an impressive structure and great landmark;


    City Hall from the square


  • Ostedsparken Park with its beautiful water feature, footbridge and statue of Hans Christian Andersen (the second favorite ranked green space);Ostedsparken
    looking towards the lake in Ostedsparken

    An excellent monument to H.C. Andersen in the park

  • Christiansborg Palace - the seat of the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister's Office, Danish Supreme Court, as well as party rooms for the Danish monarch, the Royal Stables and Royal Chapel;



    Christiansborg Palace


    On the way to Christiansborg Palace, there was an open-water
    swimming race in the canal


  • King's New Square - D'Angleterre Hotel faced the square. It was Gym's second choice of hotels;


    Not far from King's New Square, the boss poses
    at a very picturesque spot,

    King's New Square

  • Amalienborg - 4 royal palaces facing each other across a square, guarded by Danish Royal Guards. One is currently the residence of the Queen and another is the residence of the Crown Prince and his family. He is married to an Australian commoner that he met in a pub in Sydney and they have 4 kids;
    In this shot you can see 2 of the four palaces in 
    the square. The mounted Frederik V statue graces
    the middle of the square


  • At the corner of one each palace are the Danish Guards

  • Gefion Fountain - dating from 1908, an impressive bronze of the Norse goddess Gefion who lifted Zealand out of the sea with her sons that she had transformed into four strong oxen; 
    The Boss took this one


  • Kastelett - a star-shaped 17th century fortress with ramparts. The area around the fort is a great green space today used by joggers and bikers;
    It doesn't look like much but this shows one of the
    5 points of this elaborate fortress. A moat surrounds the entire
    structure.

    In this pic you can see where a drawbridge crosses the moat 
    and you get a bonus shot of the boss





  • The Little Mermaid - a very small bronze installed on a seaside boulder which has become the most famous sculpture in Denmark. It is synonymous with Copenhagen and forever immortalizes the mermaid from Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale. It was very crowded when we were there in spite of the pandemic and the rain that day;
    This is what everyone that comes to Copenhagen 
    goes to take a picture of


  • The King's Garden (Congens Have) - The favorite park with neatly trimmed trees framing a central pathway, in all a well manicured green-space. 


    Nicely trimmed and shaped trees in the King's Garden

  • Rosenborg Castle - This palace houses the crown jewels.


    If you look close you can see a wedding party at the front door



So our heroes walked a lot and saw a lot. They didn't take any tours but they know what they saw and they saw enough to be impressed. They also got a whole bunch of steps in on the Garmin.

Gym and his companion checked out of the Nimb Hotel on August 29, 2021 and were very sad. It is such a cool hotel.  As the author finishes this post they are temporarily leaving Denmark to nip into Germany and visit Berlin. They will return to Denmark to wrap up their observations on the Danes in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

We will be back in Denmark on the 31st of August at which time Gym will summarize his finding on the Danish people.























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