DAY 3
July 16, 2022 (Copenhagen)
Day two begins with mouth-watering buffet breakfast in the hotel lobby at 7am.
Cheese, meat, cereal, eggs, bacon, pastries, juices, coffee are just some of the items that were devoured.
The fill-up will be needed as we venture into the city on a 3 hour tour to see various monuments, buildings and locations with our local tour guide – Maribella.
As we headed out on the tour around 9am we saw many important landmarks. The first stop was the Little Mermaid Statue inspired by Hans Christian Anderson.
The copper sculpted statue sits in the water and many had to run to take their picture in front of it.
We were told that we MUST have our picture with the mermaid as proof that we were in Copenhagen.
From here we went to visit the Palace of the Queen and the Royal Family.
As we entered the grounds where the Royal Palaces were, we noticed there were no gates, no security guards and no wall.
The compound was open to the public all of the time, except for cars and large buses that could not drive onto the premises.
However, there were guards that stood watch over the 4 buildings where the Queen and her family lived.
We got a chance at 10am to see a small changing of the guard that happens every two hours. We were told the queen and her family were presently on holiday somewhere around the world.
Next stop was the Parliament building. All parliamentarians were currently on holiday until October 2022, but we were allowed onto the grounds to see the gardens out back which were filled with lots of red and white roses and other flowers.
BOAT RIDE ON THE CANAL!
After a quick lunch at McDonalds (don’t ask – I ended up not knowing what to order and said a cheeseburger combo and ended up with 2 cheeseburgers, large fries and large coke…), we were all set to go on a boat ride on the famous Copenhagen Canal.
Our hour-long tour took us through the many canals that separated the many various small islands that make up Copenhagen. The guide would speak 3-4 sentences in English, then in Danish (yes Danish not Dutch – that’s Amsterdam…)
We had to watch our heads many times as we passed over numerous bridges which at times were literally inches away from the tops of our heads.
Of course, despite the guide making sure to tell people NOT to touch the bridge as we passed under, there was always one….(not in our group though)
We got to see various buildings including the Opera House where Red Bull was sponsoring a Cliff Diving experience with expert divers from 30-40 meters high off the roof of the building, as well as old navy ships, and views of various churches and the Royal Palace from the boat.
DID SOMEONE MENTION SHOPPING?
Of course no day would be complete with out the chance to explore the shops in the area. After the boat ride, we had almost 3 hours to seek out the buys in the area.
After splitting up, myself, Mrs. Deane, Andrew, Camden, Olivia and Berkley found the street with all of the shops.
It was only 2km long so we decided to go as far as we could without getting tired. We saw shops like H&M, Zara, Apple Store, Foot Locker and more with multiple souvenir shops along the way.
It would be in the souvenir shop where I learned the word Hygge. Someone though that almost sounded like my last name “higgy” and so I should buy the shirt with the slogan on it.
Of course I gave in and bought it and will be wearing it tomorrow.
And it was onto the Metro underground to get from the boat ride to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Dinner tonight would be a place that sold lots of meat, in large trays for the entire table to share, eaten on a rustic tray.
It was no coincidence the name of the place referenced the word ‘pig’.
Another ride back on the train took us home for the night.
Some of us snuck out to get some ice cream and had a whale of time trying to figure out which credit card worked to pay for our ice cream…but that’s another story for another time.
Tomorrow is TIVOLI Gardens….
