Copenhagen, Denmark

 Copenhagen                                                                        May 17,18,19

Three days.  The longest stop on our entire voyage.  They chose a very nice place for such a long stop. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and it's largest city Copenhagen is a very interesting place with lots of things to do and lots of things to see. 

Day one saw us on a tour to Tivoli Gardens, the third oldest still operating amusement park in the world, and a canal tour.  We were picked up at the end of the new pier, basically the end of the world.  All the land for the new pier is reclaimed.  It is coming from the excavations of their subway system, and probably from dredging as well.  It is not finished except for the cruise ship dock which is long, and the terminal buildings for each docking point.  It is a massive project.  The bus took us into town.  It took about 30 minutes to get to the town center.

Our first stop was actually at the royal houses where the queen of Denmark actually lives.  The flags were not up which means nobody was home, but we did get to watch the changing of the guard before moving on to Tivoli.

Queen's Residence

Changing of the guard

Tivoli is a spectacular color display with blooming flowers everywhere.  Tivoli is a scaled-down, more flowery Disney.  Since it is Spring we can’t tell if the flowers are like this all summer long, or if they are particularly brilliant at this time of year.  Maybe we will have to come back at a later time to find out.  We decided not to try any of the rides.  We weren’t motivated enough to figure out how to buy a single ride ticket.  The wooden coaster has been in use since 1914 making it one of the oldest running wooden coasters in the world.  We did not actually see it run.  The rides are up to date and the park is bigger than you initially think.  It is a lovely place to spend an afternoon.

The little robot lawnmower has a bunny tail and ears!! Works similar to a Roomba

The second portion of our tour took us out on the canal system.  Seeing a city from canals gives you a different perspective.  The guide on the boat (not the captain) was new and struggled a bit with the narration.  Everyone we have met in Norway and Denmark speaks fabulous English, so it was more about the script, not the language.  It is early season and no telling how much they have been running with Covid.  It was a beautiful day and there were only a few seats that were open to the sky, so we grabbed them as fast as we could. We spent about an hour tooling around, watching the canal activity, seeing the various communities and buildings.  The final stop was at the famed Little Mermaid statue.  It is situated on a rock just off shore.  After the mermaid we went back to the ship to relax.

Garbage incinerator/power station

Little Mermaid

Wait, what? Another opera house?

Day two found us on the provided shuttle into the city center.  Apparently shuttles to city centers are a regular part of the world cruise, but with Covid you can’t count on them being available.  We don’t find out about them until the day  before we arrive in a port so hoping for a shuttle is not always a good plan for visiting a port.  When you are going to be in town for several days you have time to plan once you find out about the shuttle’s availability.  It takes 30 minutes or so to get into Copenhagen from the pier at the end of the world. 

Arriving in town we started by trying to orient ourselves.  Trying is the operative word.  Streets change names often in European cities making it difficult to figure out where you are on a map.  Once you get it figured out it is not too bad.  We stopped in as we passed the cathedral and saw another ornate Catholic church.  

From there we walked about a mile to get to the Glyptotek Museum which was suggested by our guide from the previous day.  It was a good choice for us as it contains a lot of sculpture which we really enjoy.   They had a large display of Rodin pieces which are really fabulous.  It seems Danish artists did a lot with sculpture in the 1800’s as there were several rooms dedicated to them.  They had ancient Greek and Roman as well, and then they had a floor with the famous impressionists, Pissaro, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and others.  We spent several hours which seems to be about as much museum as we can enjoy at one time before returning to the shuttle and the ship.

The Thinker by Rodin

We wanted to have some time to rest up and get ready for our first ATW “event”.  The much talked about but yet to be experienced over the top events exclusively designed for the ATW crew.  They send you an invitation and you have to RSVP so you can receive tickets.  We knew it was going to be a late night, lasting till at least 10:30, and you know how Jen melts at about 9:00 and how I am getting to the point where I don’t last that much longer.  Our first ATW event was held in “The Blue Planet” which is the rather new aquarium.  It has won awards for its design but we were too close to get a decent picture. Den Blå Planet | National Aquarium of Denmark | Copenhagen (visitcopenhagen.com)

We went into a large hall where we were given complimentary Champaign and munchies and were treated to a talk and slide show on architecture in Denmark. From there we walked through the aquarium to the largest tank.  One of the old timers had suggested we grab a table early and since we were passing by tables we put things on the table closest to the massive tank which contains 4 million gallons, has a glass wall two stories high, and lots of fish.  Hammerhead sharks are really unusual when seeing them in person.  There is a stadium-like viewing area in front of the tank and we were invited to sit for a short presentation and then a visit from none other than—you guessed it—maybe not—the little mermaid.  They turned on music and a college age-ish girl with long red hair dropped into the massive tank and did mermaid-like things underwater.  The first dive was quite extended making me wonder if she was using some sort of breathing apparatus.  No bubbles were coming out and it turns out the mermaid is an expert free diver meaning someone who dives without equipment.  After the first time underwater the ensuing four or five dives seemed to be more possible in their actual duration.  From there we went to our reserved table and a lovely dinner with a live jazz ensemble playing during the meal.  We were on the end with a nice view of the large tank, the band, and access to moving air which people in the middle did not seem to experience much of.  I guess they were pretty warm towards the center of the tables.  We did not get home until after 11 so I’m glad we had prepared ourselves.

What to do on the third day in a port?  Make sure you look at the shuttle schedule since it has changed since yesterday.  Luckily, we did.  The first shuttle today left at 8:30. Recognizing that nothing would be open at that hour, we opted to take the first shuttle anyway and spent our first hour walking to some areas we failed to get to on the first two days.  We took in the famous area called “New Port” which has buildings dating from the mid 1600’s.  

The bicycler to car ratio is strong. 

Please note the name New was attached because these buildings are not as old as the ones in the old port.  We then found another sculpture museum, this one dedicated to the work of a single sculptor, Thorvaldsens.  The museum opened in 1848.  He lived in Italy for most of his life after schooling in Denmark so most of the statues had to be shipped from Italy.  

While buying the tickets we learned that they also included entry to two other museums.  Free stuff so we traipsed on down the street and went to the Museum of Copenhagen as well.  Do we try to make the next shuttle or spend another 45 minutes in town?  These are the sort of mind bending decisions we have to make almost every day.  We decided to go for the next shuttle.  We were passing city hall which has a special world clock which was created in 1955.  It marks many things, and one gear will make its first full rotation after 25,000 years.  Not sure what will be around at that time.  We dashed in to see the clock then hustled to the bus stop with a full thirty seconds to spare. 

This would be fun to climb to the top of...

Front of world clock

Back of world clock

(One wonders if it was created in 1955, does it need to be wound daily to maintain the 25,000 days? What happens if someone sleeps in? All questions the editor has...)

Three very full and wonderful days in Copenhagen.