vendredi, mai 20, 2016

Copenhagen getaway

During the Easter school holidays, Seb and I visited Copenhagen for four days while the boys went to stay with their grandparents.
For the first time, we stayed at an AirBnb apartment. We booked a walking tour to start off our visit. During our stay, the weather was gloomy and rain was frequent. We took the walking tour under the rain. You can see the grey sky from the photos taken. Though the 3 hours tour was free, big tips were recommended. Our guide was funny so he deserved the big tip.

Below is the Christiansborg Palace tower. At 106 metres, it is the highest tower in Copenhagen. The visit to the top by elevator is free. We went on an early morning to avoid the long queue. The 360 degrees view of the city was splendid.
The royal stables are on the grounds of Christiansborg Palace. We saw this horseman with his white horse standing beside the statue in almost the same position.  Interesting.
 Below is the Amalienborg Palace where the royal family lives in. The guide told us of the fairy tale story of how the Danish prince Frederik met his wife in a pub in Australia. All girls take note. You never know when you will meet your prince charming.
As Copenhagen was small, we mostly walked. Once we took the underground subway back as we were tired from a day's walk. The single trip ticket cost 3€. This was more expensive than Paris' metro ticket. A 24 hours ticket is cheaper if one plans to take 4 trips. Everything else was just as expensive and comparable with Paris.

In Copenhagen, the cycling culture is just as strong as in Netherlands given that the city is rather flat. There were big cycling lanes meant for cyclists. It was a common sight to see these cargo bicycles with young children in them. They looked more like pram bikes to me.
The photo below is the Rosenborg Castle. On a sunny day, this place with its park would be great for a picnic.
If you have watched the movie 'The Danish Girl', you would recognise this row of houses. There were several of them. They looked like houses for factory workers many decades ago. We were along our way to visit the little mermaid when we chanced upon this.
She was indeed a LITTLE mermaid. There were many tourists trying to take a photo with her. She is one of the most popular fairy tale written Hans Christian Anderson.
We strolled along the sea front and the park. Cherry blossoms were aplenty.
Below is Nyhavn. It reminded me of Singapore's Boat Quay and France's Honfleur. People were seen sitting on public benches drinking beer. We were told it was encouraged to drink in public as it was cheaper buying beer from supermarket than having it in a pub. Drinking beer is so common as this is the country of Carlsberg.
Below is Our Savior's Church. The organ dated from 1698 and is one of the most photographed music instruments in the world. It is magnificient and grand. Too bad no one was playing when we visited.



We gave Tivoli park a miss. It is one of the oldest amusement park on earth. Despite the rain, there were people taking the daring rides. If the boys were with us, we would definitely visit it. 

We visited the National Museum twice. It was free and the exhibitions were interesting. We spent 2.5 hours there the first time and the next day, we spent an hour. There are too many things to see and there are english explanation.