We started out this morning with Britt (our tour director for the Denmark portion of this journey) giving us all a pass that is good for any type of public transportation (bus, train, subway, and ferry) for the next 3 days. So we walked to the nearest bus stop and climbed aboard.
That is Britt on the right.
We didn’t have to go far before getting off the bus close to the parliament building. First I want to mention the bike paths. Copenhagen has an extensive bike network and is one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. Separate bike ways are laid out between the sidewalks and streets. There are some 260 miles of pathways accommodating almost 50% of the city’s population for travel to work, school, and general transportation.
This is the front of Christiansborg Palace which serves as the home of the Danish Parliament (also known as Folketinget), the Prime Minister’s office, and the Supreme Court. The first building was built on this spot in 1167 but there have been a few new ones built since then due to fires. The current one was built between 1907 and 1928.
I found the side entrance facade very interesting with men shown in various stages of misery. Guess the architect made a subtle suggestion as to what it is like serving in the government.
The pole on top of the building has 3 crowns.
Across from the parliament building is the Danish Stock Exchange building. It was built in the 17th century by King Christian IV between 1619 and 1640.
The Spiral on top are the tails of 4 dragons twined together.
This is the Royal Library which is one of the largest in the world. They supposedly have a copy of every Danish publication from the 17th century to today. Over 35.4 million articles.
In the library garden is a statue of Soren Kierkegaard who is considered to be the first existentialist philosopher and a Danish poet.
A garden area with a statue of the Thinker.
A statue of a troll.
This is Frederik’s Marble Church built between 1749 and 1894. It has the largest church dome in Scandinavia at 31 meters (101 feet).
The Royal Palace (Amalienborg) has 4 identical facades around an octagonal courtyard. The flag flying over the building indicates that a member of the Royal family is present.
The monument in the center of the courtyard is of King Frederick V. The Palace was completed in 1760.
We got to see the changing of the guard at noon.
This is the Angel War Memorial for the fallen Danish sailors of WWI. Denmark was neutral during WWI but had a lot of sailors killed due to mines out in the waters close to their borders.
The famous Little Mermaid statue from1913 by Edward Erickson based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. It is believed that the face of the statue is of Erikson’s ballet lover and the body is that of his wife.
Copenhagen was a fortified city and these are some of the earth berms that ringed the city.
We then proceeded to the train station to go back into downtown. The transportation system was really easy to use.
As you can see there were lots of bicycles around town.
It is truly an exciting time to be here with many Christmas markets set up to browse. There are booths with locally made crafts and items along with special foods and drinks
It is really special at night when all the lights are displayed.
In Denmark a traditional symbol for Christmas is the heart. I like that much better than our Santas.
One of the big hotels downtown has an Advent Calander displayed on the front. They revealed the first one last night but I haven’t seen what it was yet. Will check it out tomorrow.
This is the hotel were I am staying during my visit here. It’s located on one of the canals and is an old warehouse that has been converted.
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