Copenhagem - Malmo - Gothenberg

We spent the morning in Copenhagen in an area called Kastellet a star shaped military fortress and ramparts with St Albans Church and fountain and the nearby Little Mermaid.

Picked up our hire car and the adventure of driving on the wrong side of the road begins! Stopped in Malmo for lunch at a really nice square and had a wander around the buildings then we left for Gothenberg.

We went out for some drinks and met some locals who were very friendly and a cocktails maker who was very good! Had a great night. Had a look around Gothenberg in the morning, saw the remnants of the fortress next to the moat which is now used for more pleasurable pursuits and walked the original cobblestone roads. Headed off for the long drive to Stockholm.

Day 3 in Copenhagen

We caught train from just around the corner from where we stayed at Enghave Station and went to see the Round Tower and the Trinity Church. The foundation stone was laid in 1637 and the Round Tower was completed in 1642 with the church being consecrated in 1656. During a fire in 1728 some damage was done to the building but not as much as others close by. Restorations were completed in 1731 in a Gothic-Baroque style.

The Round Tower was a long winding ramp then stairs to the top (35m tall) where we had some great views of Copenhagen. It was built as an astronomical observatory for stargazing and used by astronomers in the late 1760s to draw a more accurate map of the kingdom. The tower is Denmark’s zero point. The Trinity Church was beautiful with lots of white and gold adornments. From there we headed down to Rosenborg Castle and walked around the beautiful grounds where many locals were sunbathing. The history of the Castle goes back to 1606-1607, when the King (Christian IV) in a newly laid out park - The King's Garden, had a summerhouse built. Rosenborg was used as a Royal residence until around 1710, when Christian IV's great grandson, Frederik IV, gave it up in favour of other, more up-to-date, summer residences. Rosenborg Castle instead became the setting for the Royal collections. We spent about 2 hours there looking at the collections, the tapestries in particular were amazing, early forms of propaganda of course showing the brave King riding/sailing off into danger and saving Denmark from the Swedish invaders. The castle also houses the Treasury which is why there were armed guards on duty!

The Marble Church also called Frederik’s Church Frederick's Church has the largest church dome in Scandinavia with a span of 31m. The dome rests on 12 columns. The foundation stone was set by king Frederick V on October 31, 1749, but the construction was slowed by budget cuts and the death of the architect in 1754. In 1770, the original plans for the church were abandoned. The church was left incomplete and, in spite of several initiatives to complete it, stood as a ruin for nearly 150 years. The church was finally opened to the public on August 19, 1894. Due to financial restrictions, the original plans for the church to be built almost entirely from marble were discarded, and instead construction was to be done with limestone. It is an amazing church and photos do not come anywhere close to representing how incredible the building is, totally blown away,

We took the train over to Christiania a small island suburb, very hippie and quite run down in comparison to the rest of Copenhagen but it did have an interesting Baroque Church with a corkscrew spire, unfortunately we were a bit late to get in.

Copenhagen Day 2

Headed out for breakfast about 9/9:30, thinking we were a bit late for the breakfast menu we found that we were a bit early with the cooked breakfast not available until 10. We had some nice coffee and muesli with yogurt and headed off to find a European adaptor for our charger which we’d forgotten to bring. This was just meant to be a short trip out to get the adaptor, some groceries and head back to the apartment to plan the rest of the day….again we got distracted, all part of the fun of being on holiday. We went up to the Carlsberg Brewery elephants and the old buildings which we so ornate, so lovely to see such variety, then we saw a huge open space/park that we had a wander in, then I have no idea where we went but we passed a few nice churches, some shops (not the grocery shop we were headed for mind) and then walked alongside a train line for a few kms. This was at the back end of a very posh part of town and the houses that backed on to the train line were enormous! Again after spotting the Carlsberg brewery we headed that way. Had a bit of a look around there and then found the grocery shop (after a bit of help from more friendly people) and headed back to the apartment. Some observations so far… bikes are everywhere! Separate lanes for them on most roads, rarely a lycra clad cyclist in sight but everyone seems to ride as if they are on a mission! No starting stopping tourist pace, so we decided to walk…lots as it beats getting killed on bikes, they already get frustrated with us when we get in their way. They also have a multitude of ways to carry toddlers from the little trailers at the back and seats on the back to seats attached to the ‘boy bar’ and huge box type looking arrangements at the front which I’ve seen up to four toddlers in. Second observation, they LOVE the sun! People don’t sit inside coffee shops if it is sunny outside, they sit on the steps, they sit on some benches or they just stand outside and drink their coffee. Anywhere there is a pavement with some sun someone brings out a chair and takes up residence, the people working in the little shops stand outside in the sun, not to tout for business but they don’t stay inside. Huge centre islands have been turned into picnic areas and they are crowded! They have also added basketball and soccer courts on the islands with mesh surrounds, every piece of land that might get some sun! We headed out to Christiansborg Palace, there was no tours running this week as the Queen’s sister is having a party on Saturday so it is closed for cleaning. We did have a look at the courtyards though and also underneath at the many layers of ruins. This current palace is the third with this name built on this site, the two previous palaces burnt in 1794 and 1884. The tower on top of the palace is the highest in Copenhagen at 106m. The King’s Gate section is from the second palace. Underneath we went on a self guided tour of the ruins of the two building previously on this site, Bishop Absalon’s Castle and Copenhagen Castle, from about 800 years ago. Started walking down to picturesque Nyhavn or New Harbour, it is just as lovely as the postcards. 17th century townhouses and wooden boats run the length of the canal. This has been the entertainment district for a very long time. Again people perched on every piece of sunlight available. We had dinner at Nyhavn 37 which was really nice and then a cruise along some of the canals. Some of the bridges over the canal were really low and if the tide is high sometimes the tour needs to go another way. We saw many waterfront buildings including the new opera house and also the statue of the little mermaid. We strolled home along Stroget, the longest pedestrian mall in Europe apparently, about 2km. It was about 10pm by this time so window shopping only. Fell into bed around midnight, then up again at 5am because its so light!

Copenhagen Day 1

After a long flight we made it to Copenhagen around 2:30 pm. We decided to get a taxi to our accommodation, a room in a little apartment in Enghave on the outskirts of the main part of Copenhagen. This is our first airbnb accommodation where we have rented a private room in someones home instead of a complete apartment/unit etc and our lovely host Kristin was waiting for us which was great. Not so great was the 9 flights of stairs to her apartment…with 2 x twenty kilo suitcases…oh well at least we only need to do that once! After a quick freshen up we headed out to explore the local area and took a few photos of the lovely buildings we found on our way, we wandered down to the Tivoli Gardens and decided to come back when we had more time. We had dinner at Café Obelisk and met a nice Swedish man called Andeas who was in Copenhagen for business, he’s a travel agent and gave us his phone number in case we needed to call him when we were in Stockholm to help with anything, how friendly is that? Where we are staying is very close to the Carlsberg Brewery and there are large buildings and monuments with Carlsberg all over them that can be seen from some distance, this proved very useful to find our way home as we got a little distracted and wandered down somewhere that led to somewhere else…. Faced the stairs in the apartment bravely and fell into bed exhausted at about 5am Perth time.