Saturday, June 2, 2012

Copenhagen, Denmark–Part 1

 

First, Debbie, the last comment you made was the only one we have seen.  So whatever you did differently this time is the right way.  I think you can view the comments and see if yours is there.  Thanks for making them.  They are really great to get.

Now on to Copenhagen.  We were there for 2 nights, so we wore ourselves out totally.  Today we are in Warnemunde, Germany and we may not leave the ship.  We are both very tired and I want to get this blog out today, if possible.  The weather is everything today.  It is sunny, rainy, hailing and cloudy, but most of all it is cold.  We packed expecting this to be spring, even here going north.  So we do not have heavy clothes.  We just layer up.  Yesterday and the day before were not that cold, but the wind was awful.  Today the wind is also blowing hard.  Another excuse to rest. 

Our original plan for this trip was to use the 30 day cruise as a rest for the adventure part of our trip, when we get off in Amsterdam.  We you know about the best laid plans.  So today we rest.  Now on to our travels in Copenhagen.

We awoke at 5am because the captain said we would be passing Elsinore Castle about then.  We were able to sort of see some of it.  Here is the best picture we got.  By the way, Elsinore Castle is the one that Shakespeare used in Hamlet.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAEven blurry it’s pretty cool.

 

Our ship docked very near the statue of Hans Christian Anderson’s “Little Mermaid” statue.  Actually he had nothing to do with it, but it is based on his story.  He is an icon to this city.

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While walking we ended up at the Queen’s Palace in time for the changing of the guard.  We waited with other people for whatever would happen next.  No one seemed to know what it would be like.  Like the pomp of Buckingham Palace or not.  Well not is the right description.  It was interesting though.  While we watched the old guard be replaced by the new ones, we were being watched by two policemen.  The one near us spoke English perfectly, amongst many other languages were heard him speak.  He was asking everyone where they were from.  I had made my way to the front of the crowd, since I could not see anything from the back.  I was sitting on the ground, so as not to block anyone else’s view.  I told him were from Colorado.  In a little while he was back and asked, teasingly, if anyone was going to take me away.  Even later he said I needed to move back or he would have to take me to jail.  Since the wind was howling and I was very cold, I asked if it was warmer in jail, and he said it didn’t matter because the food was terrible.  It was a fun exchange, and no I did not go to jail.

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The guard changing was short and sweet, but the boys were young and cute.

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While we were walking around we bumped into a “country” called Christiania.  They think of themselves as sovereign.  We followed some people up two flights of stairs to see what was there.  It turned out to be a presentation on the sovereignty of Christiania, but all in Dutch.  They did not allow pictures to be taken there.  Probably since pot was sold and smoked openly and it is illegal in Copenhagen now.

100_6024 (1024x791)   100_6026 (1024x768)Kind of blurry. Hope you get the idea.

We thought that Michael Angelo’s statue of David was in Florence.  Well it is, but a copy is here.  Who knew?

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We learned that a king, I forget which one, promised a sorceress that she could have as her own all the land that she could till in one day.  So she turned her giant sons into oxen and plowed a huge amount of land.  This fountain tell of that story.

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There are a lot of fountains here.  This is the best.

 

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