5/21 -- Explore Copenhagen, Day 2

I was relieved to find out today that the local way to say Copenhagen is as I thought, with an 'ah' on the a, not the long a as I was informed. Apparently, people unfamiliar with the Gernmanic languages say it the way it looks in English,  not the way the residents say it.

Today, we got to use our Copenhagen Card a bunch of times. We went to the Marble Church, the Amalienborg Castle and park, the Design Museum Denmark, the Amber Museum, the Round Tower, and Tivoli Gardens. We also found the building that Hans Christian Anderson lived in when he had his first fairy tale published and walked along the main pedestrian shopping street twice, visiting a favorite store, Flying Tiger as well as peeking into a Lego Store (both originated in Denmark).

Nothing on our Copenhagen Card list that we could visit, given our other commitments, opened until 10am, so we had sort of a lazy morning. The Marble Church and the Castle are both near the hotel, so we started there. The Marble Church is not only constructed with grey marble, it is also round, so interesting to look at.

The Castle has several buildings and ZERO signage to show where the museum was so we followed the crowd, which was watching the changing of the guard. We walked to the adjoining park across the street, before coming back to give it another shot. We walked nearly an entire circuit, until we saw another line AND an open door and found the entrance. It showcases a lot of photos of the royal family and the rooms where folks lived, furnished as  they had been while in use. One office area of an earlier king was essentially enshrined on his death. One of the kings had 6 kids and 4 of them married into other European royal families. When a prince wanted to marry the youngest sister of the current queen, he asked for her parents' permission and was asked to step  into the next room, which was an adjoining bathroom, while the parents discussed his offer. They accepted it and let him back out of the bathroom.

Central Statue which we had originally seen
from a block away centered in the columns
in the background.

Looking back at the Marble Church

Part of the Changing of the Guard process

Very modern opera building directly across the canal from
the Castle and park.

Decorations on the roof.

The Royal Family was given traditional
Greenland dress when they visited. The
current queen is the girl on the right.

A model of the castle complex. The Crown Prince and his
wife live there, at least sometimes.

There were lots of collections of stuff,
including this weapons display.

That didn't take long so we went down the block to the Design Museum, which had a special Bauhaus presentation. This was a school of design, established in 1919, which stood the current ideas of design on its head and encouraged the designers to combine arts and crafts with traditional architecture to create a cohesive whole. The result was very modern-looking furniture with clean lines. When I went to the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, one of my favorite pavilions was the exhibit of Danish Modern furniture, which was the natural outgrowth of this school. The furniture looked very familiar, but I was taken by the ceramic bird display below. They were life-size. Apparently, back then it was quite tricky to fire such  large pieces successfully, so these are really specially. The initial ones were all white, but later ones had color.

Above and below: Ceramic birds in a huge wooden cage

 

This was an example of an older design type/

The we headed off to find the Hans Christian Anderson's home at the time his first fairytale was published, but it started to rain pretty hard, so we hurried back to the hotel and took a short break. We joined the group for a traditional Danish lunch, which would help me  lose weight: pickled herring, salted salmon, shrimp (no cocktail sauce), a sort of potato-y chicken salad with lots of sauce, a small square of a brie-like cheese with an oblong radish on top, and my favorite: sliced beef with pickles and sauce. 

Then it was back to sightseeing. We found the Anderson house, near the restaurant, went to the small Amber Musuem nearby.

I fpund the contrast of old and older interesting. The colored
paint is called chalk paint and is much brighter than modern
building colors.

Jim at Hans Christian Anderson's house. We
looked for the plaque and couldn't see it til we
came back the next day and Jim looked up. It
is partially visible in the upper  left corner here.

Interesting boat on the New Harbor

The buildings along the harbor reminded
me of the Amsterdam canal homes.

We saw two of these -- they were originally
phone booths, and have been turned to a
variety of other uses. The 2 we saw were
coffee/snack stops.

Then we headed to the Round Tower. It adjoins a church and has a ramp almost all the way to the top plus 2 normal staircases and a 2-story circular staircase. The reward was a 360 degree view of the city and we were able to find several of the places we had been.

I loved the elaborate railing.

Yet another view of the power plant/ski slope

Steeples and the round building in the far distance.

You really get the sense of this as a really old place.

The Marble Church

The ramp up to the top.

 Back at the hotel, we  rested until it was time to walk to Tivoli Gardens with Veera and another couple. this is primarily an amusement park with lots of fun and scary looking rides (think about a tilt-a-whirl where your car also rocks back and forward so you are nearly upside down while spinning around). Veera treated us to some creative Danish licorice -- 3 of the 4 samples had a filling. The best was one with a filling that reminded me of a Milky Way, but all of them I could live without. Tivoli also has a LOT of beautiful gardens, and tons of restaurants. The others were hungrier than we were and interested in a brewery, so we walked back to the hotel,  picking up some fun stuff for all the little grandkids and a pair of very fun $5 reading glasses for me -- SO much cheaper and more attractive than at home!

Legos come from Denmark and they are everywhere. This
multi-part dragon was at a Lego store on the way to Tivoli.

This stork fountain won a competition
to be placed here and was special to
midwives in the past.

Another fountain with various sources of
water. One comes from the little boy....

This is the 2nd place statue called Dragon
Fountain (although the bull appears to be
winning) and is in the city hall square.

There are many different traditions represented here --
including a Chinese pavilion

Veera suggested that the peacock's tail might have been
trimmed by a lawn mower.

This is the extra special tilt-a-whirl that goes upside down.

As Jim and I were leaving, the lights started to come on.
It is supposed to be quite magical after dark.

Our other challenge tonight was to repack for our overnight ferry trip tomorrow, Our primary bags will go into the hold and we won't see them for about 24 hours, so we had to pack a separate bag with a change of clothes, etc. That actually took  less time than I thought it would, so now I can relax with a glass of wine as I write this.