Exploring Copenhagen

 Saturday

14 September 

Day 76

20 to go

We are getting pretty good at waking at 7.30am. It had been a pretty stuffy night in the room, so the quilt was barely needed. We threw open some windows as soon as we could, letting the cool outside air in. 

After finishing off the morning routine, we were off exploring, with my list of must dos for Saturday. Our first destination was Grabrodretorv, a colourful square that was once used by University students, though is no longer. The cobbled square is surrounded by colourful buildings and a cafe or two. 

As we began to leave the square for the Christiansborg Palace, we were passed by a very regal looking horse and cart. We filtered through the lanes, before reaching the shopping street we had walked yesterday, returning to the Stork Fountain. Needing to change money, we walked back down the road to an exchange. Next door was a duck shop, so I ducked in, while Paul dealt with the change over. The duck shops have been very prevalent in the Nordic countries, having noticed them since Estonia. They have thousands of ducks!

With Danish Kroners, in the wallet, we returned to the Stork Fountain and then on to the palace. The palace is now used for political purposes. It houses parliament, the PMs office and the Supreme Court. We didn’t bother paying to go inside, opting to just wander around the the grounds. We did see the horse paddocks, with some men riding the white horses. 

When we left through one entrance, we were bombarded with distinguished people riding bicycles. There must have been a couple of hundred. It was a great sight. 

We returned to the palace grounds, checking out the rose garden and fountain of the Royal Library. There were even koi in the pond. As we exited here, we had reached the canal and were ready for our next stop, Our Saviours Church. 

We admired the various views along the canals, it was a beautiful day to be on the water. We then navigated a little further, seeing the twisting spire of the church, long before we reached the base. I was intending on walking the 400 steps to the top, as we could see other tourists doing, but it was booked out, which was disappointing. We had to be satisfied with our view from below. 

We then moved on to Christiania Freetown. This is a hippie free state that came to be in 1971. You can’t buy land here, you have to be given it and you can basically do as you please, as long as you aren’t hurting others. It is a colourful commune, with plenty of graffiti art to admire and plenty of interesting plants.

We stopped in briefly at a cafe, for a morning tea snack, hot chocolate and a pastry, before entering the streets of the community. We wandered about aimlessly, admiring the art and buildings, many dilapidated. We stopped at a brewery, using hemp seeds in their brews. We then just enjoyed then aimless wander. It certainly was a cruise place with plenty of tourist dollars keeping them afloat. 

We enjoyed a kebab in a large outdoor food court, taking in views around us and then returned for one more beer at the brewery, before leaving for the EU border once more. Our next stop was the circle bridge. We passed by the Our Saviour church, still busy and followed through the streets until we reached a canal that we could follow beside and enjoy the action of the boaties on the water and the scenery of coloured buildings. 

We crossed the circle bridge, scene better from above and then returned over the main canal via Lille Langebro, to our side. We made for the direction of the hotel, but moving all over when different things piqued our interest; like the sculpture Dantes plads, the fine art museum facade, Tivoli Garden, the beautiful flowers along the side of the City Hall building and the Hans Christian Andersen statue. 

We stopped in at a supermarket for breakfast cereal and returned to the apartment for 2.30pm, happy with our day out and glad to be back for the hotel’s block party.