Wonderful Copenhagen

We woke to a beautiful day in Copenhagen with not a cloud in the sky, and had a breakfast of pancakes and coffee sitting outside at the Europa Restaurant in Hojbro Platz. And then we walked around this lovely city, out to the Little Mermaid Statue and then to the Kastellet. The Mermaid is very pretty and I can see why she is so popular with crowds of tourists; we also paid our respects before walking further out towards the outer harbour where the cruise ships dock. At this point we heard a 21 gun salute coming from the naval base across the water, we found out later that it was in honour of the 82nd birthday of Prince Henrik, the husband of Queen Margrethe of Denmark. We went into the grounds of the Kastellet, which is a star shaped fortress with buildings inside it including barracks and a church - it reminded me a lot of Fort George in Scotland. A wedding was about to take place in the church and the wedding guests all filed in but there was no sign of the bride. Suddenly she appeared, all by herself, running across the courtyard towards the church with the train of her wedding dress slung over her arm! I wonder if the bride arriving alone is a Danish tradition. We went for a walk around the ramparts which had stunning views of the moat and the city, then had lunch in a small restaurant called Borgerkroen Kokken, which had a very Royal theme, with lots of pictures of the Danish Royal family on the walls. It was in the Nyboder district which has narrow streets of old terraced houses built to house officers of the Danish navy. The houses are painted a distinctive warm yellow colour which looked very attractive in the sunshine. There was a very lively crowd of elderly revellers in the restaurant who were consuming many large jugs of beer - the waitress told us "This is going to be a long afternoon!"

Then we walked on to Kongens Have park which was full of families having picnics and playing with frisbees. Within the park is Rosenberg Slot, a tiny Renaissance castle which was built as a summerhouse for the King in 1606. We popped in for a look round and went to the see the Crown Jewels in the basement. 

After a wee rest at the hotel and dinner, we spent the evening back at the Tivoli Gardens. This was partly because we can get in free with our Copenhagen cards, partly because the Gardens are very near our hotel, and partly because they have a genuinely friendly and pleasant atmosphere with plenty to see in the strangely small but cleverly laid out grounds. Allegedly Walt Disney visited the Tivoli Gardens in the early 1950s and said "Aha this is what a theme park should look like!" We strolled around, had a coffee, and ended up watching the excellent Late Night Tivoli Orchestra at the open air theatre, who performed a series of well known songs from Bowie (Life on Mars) to Happy (Pharrell Williams). What a great way to spend a Saturday evening.

I should mention that our Copenhagen cards have turned out to be tremendous value for money - all transport is included in the greater Copenhagen area, as is entry to many attractions, and even the canal tour. They were about £20 per day and have been well worth it.