Copenhagen - Dane of My Existence (June 15)

We arrived today in Copenhagen, Denmark and took a four-hour tour of the city. The city was quite clean and tidy and like Oslo, is a country where the official religion is Protestantism (Lutheran). After a nice hour-long boat tour, which passed attractions such as the opera house, a statue of a powerful Bishop and the world’s “best restaurant” (In order to eat at this restaurant, you must make reservations at least six months before your arrival), we spent the rest of our time walking through the charming city.



We had a wonderful tour guide (Claus – a computer consultant/tour guide who told us the true story of the origin of the term, “blue-tooth”). We passed churches, statues of world war two heroes and were told of Denmark’s resistance to the Nazis. We were then taken past a large army barracks and camp. Altogether, it was quite fun, we even got pastries (danish)! (Jesse)

This morning we docked in Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. Our tour today actually consisted of a boat ride through the canals, and a walking tour of parts of the city. We began the excursion by boarding the small boat that took us through the canals for about an hour. Along the way we saw the city’s fantastic new opera house, the house of Hans Christian Anderson (No. 67) and the place where the famous Little Mermaid statue usually sits in the harbor (it’s currently on display in China).

Once we exited the boat, we began our walking tour of the city. We walked along the original defenses of Copenhagen, and visited the military headquarters and barracks, which were constructed several centuries ago but are still used today. One of the most impressive parts of the trip was seeing the royal palace of the Danish monarchs. It is four buildings that are arranged to form a huge, open, public courtyard in the middle (picture). In fact, we arrived at the palace just in time to see the changing of the royal guard, which was fascinating.



Copenhagen was yet another fabulous stop on our Northern itinerary. It contained so much history and in my opinion it is a must-see location. Okay well I gotta run. Berlin is tomorrow, and I’ll let you all know how that goes! Bye! (Jacob)