COPENHAGEN

As promised we now find ourselves in Denmark. For those who don't know we really have no plan for this trip, we're just making it up as we go along, never planning any more than two or three days in advance. On that note if any of our readers have ideas for places to go or things to see, suggestions are welcome.

So Denmark, well just Copenhagen really. We arrived late at night thanks to the German railways - despite their reputation of being one of the most efficient rail networks in the world we have not been on a single German train that has run on time. We missed our connection in Hamburg so had to wait there for an hour or so for the next train - and lost out first class seats in the process. Anyway, that's our review of Deutsche Bahn (for our Amadeus readers) and now on to the good bits.

Day one was spent more or less on a self guided walk / wander around the city. Town Hall, Tivoli Gardens, Stroget, Nyhavn, Playhouse, Opera House, the harbour and the Little Mermaid (apparently famous from the Carlsberg ads??).

Lur Blowers Statue - apparently the two guys on top will sound a note from their instruments if a virgin ever passes. Though standing on the column since 1914 they've led a life of disconcerting silence...

A life size statue of the world's largest man at the Guiness Book of Records Museum

Nyhavn

For all you foodies out there - this is restaurant Noma; named Restaurant of the Year 2011. We're on a budget trip so alas we didn't get to dine there.

The Opera House. A gift to Denmark from the Møller Foundation (The family being the founders of the Maersk shipping company) at a cost of approx 500 million US dollars!

Cathy playing with snakey.

Cathy and the Little Mermaid (the Mermaid is the one on the rock)

That evening we headed to a friend's house for dinner. Thanks Kim & Winnie. They served up a wonderful meal, a good two or three bottles of wine and some good pointers for our tourist endeavours over the following days in & around Copenhagen plus some tips for possible places to go in Sweden, Norway and Russia.

Over the following days we managed to get around to see & do quite a few things.

We went to the Viking Museum in Roskilde - more or less an outer suburb of Chpenhagen. The museum and the concept behind it is quite inspirational. In the 1950's or thereabouts five former Viking boats were discovered on the floor of Roskilde Fjord. Then in 1962 they built a coffer wall around the shipwreck and carried out an archaeological excavation to extract the thousands of remaining pieces of the boats. It then took a further 25 years to record, conserve and stabilise the timber pieces before re-constructing them inside the purpose built museum building.

Nice jugs!

Viking ship, or what's left of it

As you can see there's not a whole lot left of the original boats but enough to get a good idea of their original form, size, etc. An intriguing fact is that they are able to date when and locate where the boats were built just by examining the rings of the timber! They are all 900 - 1,000 years old.

As mentioned it took 25 years to reconstruct the original boats, if that's not inspirational enough, a bunch of dedicated souls then set out to build a replica of one of the long boats and sail it from Roskilde to Dublin, Ireland and back again. Sounds like complete misery being out at sea for weeks at a time with no shelter from the elements but I take my hat off to them if just for their sheer determination!

They are still building replica boats and have I believe finished replicas of all five of the Roskilde boats. There is a workshop / boat building yard where they continue to build replica boats using all of the traditional methods and tools. No power tools!

One of the replicas

Adrian at the bow of the replica long boat that was sailed to Dublin & back

The boat yard with a new boat under construction

We visited Frederiksborg Castle. A nice Castle on a similar scale, proportion wise, to Versailles in Paris but without all the in-your-face opulence. Quite a refreshing change from some of the swathes of gilding, marble and velvet in churches and palaces, etc we've previously seen in Western Europe.

Adrian on a pedestal in front of Frederiksborg Castle

The courtyard at Frederiksborg

Adrian meets another big fella - do we see a theme starting here...?

You too can be king if only you try hard enough

The passage to the "Audience Room"; where you used to go to have an audience with the King.

No Adrian isn't playing hide & seek - he's actually measuring the bed and commenting on how short these Royal peoples are

Some astronomy / navigational thingy. They had quite a few of these which I guess is why they ended up travelling so far in their time.

The grandest room in the Castle - the Knight's Hall

We stumbled across a portrait of Australia's very own Disco Queen

Kronborg Castle was next on the agenda which was allegedly the castle that inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet. As such it is now more commonly referred to as "Hamlet's Castle" or "Elsinore" which was the location named in Shakespeare's original play. Hamlet has been a recurring theme at the castle with multiple recitals of the play being performed there over the last 200 or so years. The castle was a military barracks for a number of years so most of its original charms has been lost but since the military moved out they have re-installed some of the original tapestries and restored some of the rooms back to their original configuration albeit without all of the original decoration.

The great room at Kronborg - apparently the largest room in Europe in its time

There was a massive underground maze beneath the castle where the King's forces could hide out in the event of an attack.

DUCK'S ARSE! Well it's a signet actually but it makes me laugh all the same every it.

Anyway, enough about castles. We also went on a Segway tour of central Copenhagen. What's a Segway? Well I'm glad you asked to quote "the internet" a Segway is "a self-balancing personal transportation device with two wheels; can operate in any level pedestrian environment". Anyway we first saw these being used as a mode of transport for tours in Antibes and have seen them just about everywhere else since. So we decided to give them a go. It's a great way to get around and a novel alternative to your everyday walking tour but with a tour price of 500 Danish Kronor per person (80 euros / AUD $111) we'll put it in the novelty category and won't be repeating it too often.

The tour itself took us around to see quite a bit of Copenhagen; the little mermaid, changing of the Royal Guard, Royal Palace Amelienborg, Nyhavn, opera house, Christiansborg Palace, Langelinie, City Lakes & much more. Some of these we had seen previously, some we hadn't. The only drawback being that we didn't get much of a chance to stop and take photos along the way; but it all came with a very cheery and often funny commentary from Seamus, our Irish guide. If ever you are in Copenhagen we wouldn't hesitate to recommend that you go on one of his tours (he owns the company).www.toursCPH.com

The changing of the Royal Guard. They are in fact real soldiers with live ammunition. Apparently the only military regiment to resist the Nazis when they invaded Denmark in WWII