Thursday, October 6th:
Today we woke up in Denmark! The land of (one of) my dad's ancestors!
Peder Nielsen was born in Krollerup (254 km west of Copenhagen and 59 km southwest of Aarhus [our next port]) in 1813. He converted to the LDS church and immigrated to the United States. He gave his life savings ($600 in gold coins) to the church to help pay for the glass windows for the St George Tabernacle (he was saving up to add on to his two room adobe home).
I think Peder was looking over us today because today was the FIRST day on this trip (day 11) that we didn't have any rain! It was very windy, but we'll take it!
We could see the Middelgrunden wind farm from our cabin.
[Dad checking out the windmills]
As we were getting off the ship I noticed that our balcony is the only one with "wood planks" on the ceiling. Fancy 🤷♀️
We went on a "Wonderful Copenhagen" coach tour, which included seeing the first tiny house made using a 3D printer in Europe, the Little Mermaid Statue, the Marble Church, City Hall, the Opera House, Christiansborg Palace, Rosenborg Castle, and so much more!
On the way to the city our tour guide told us Hans Christian Andersen's version of The Little Mermaid. I remember watching the cartoon version at my grandparents house in Canada when I was a kid. It's definitely not as happy as the Disney version.
Our first stop was the Little Mermaid Statue. There were so many buses and people around that our bus had to park a little further away from the statue. As we were getting off the coach a nice older lady named Marge said that she would stay on the coach with Theo, so we could all go see the statue. Aww! She was a special ed teacher, so she is comfortable watching him.
From the statue we could see the famous CopenHill power plant and recreational facility. This large facility is a combined heat and power waste-to-energy plant that has a dry ski run, hiking trails, and climbing walls.
Here are some up close pictures from the internet:
Denmark hopes to significantly reduce their carbon footprint by 2025.
We all got back on the bus and we continued our scenic driving tour.
Spire on top of the 17th century Stock Exchange Building. It is 56 meters high and consists of four dragon tails twisted together!
17th century Church of Our Saviour - You can climb to the top on the external spiral staircase. It was not advised today because of the wind!
We then arrived at the Opera House. This Neo-futuristic building was constructed in 2004 and cost 2.5 billion DKK ($370,000,000 US)! The building is beautiful and you can get a great view of the Marble Church and Amalienborg (homes of the Danish royal family).
[The large brown square building is The Playhouse]
[View of the Marble Church and Amalienborg]
We then drove over to the City Hall for a quick potty break.
Josh stayed on the bus with Theo. He does so well sitting in his carseat on these long excursions, but sometimes he needs a break.
[Art Center flying the Ukraine flag]
Our final stop was the beautiful Christiansborg Palace. This building is the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. According to our tour guide this is the only building in the world that houses all of the branches of government in a single location.
The first two Christiansborg Palace's burned down (they were made of wood), so this one was constructed out of stone and was completed in 1928. The roof and spire are made of bronze and will be turning green in about 30-40 years. Our tour guide told us we all need to come back then and see the new roof and spire!
[Papa watching videos with Theo]
[A fancy old phone booth in Kings Square]
After our coach tour (which mostly took place on the bus), my mom and I went back into the city and walked around. We took the shuttle bus back to the Little Mermaid statue. From there we walked through the The Citadel, which is a star-shaped 17th century fortress. This fortress is surrounded by a moat and huge earthen berms.
We left the Citadel and headed towards the King's New Square.
[Marble Church - actually made out of limestone 🙊]
Once we reached the King's New Square we headed to Nyhavn, which is a canal district lined by brightly colored houses and a lot of restaurants. Here we got fresh churros with chocolates and peanuts. They were so good!
On our way back to the ship we came across the Amalienborg, which is the home of the Danish Royal Family! Remember we could see it from the Opera House? This large courtyard is surrounded by four huge palaces. I'm pretty sure someone from the royal family was there because one of the flags on top of one of the palaces was raised and the Royal Life Guards were marching around.
[Pano of a square - it kinda works]
[Statue of King Frederick V]
[Raised flag]
[Royal Life Guards - pretty similar to the British Foot Guards with their bearskin caps]
[View of the Amalienborg with the Marble Church in the background]
We then walked along the waterfront back towards the Citadel where we caught the shuttle bus back to the MS Rotterdam.
[Opera House]
[St Alban's Church and Gefion Fountain]
I LOVE Copenhagen! What an amazing city! The city is gorgeous, the spires are tall, and the people are kind. This is the only thing about cruises that I really don't like - if you like a port you still have to leave. It's a tease. Hopefully we will be able to come back!
After we got back to the ship we participated in sports trivia and Beatles music trivia. Which we rocked!
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