Copenhagen, what a magnificent city! The picturesque canals lined with colorful wooden houses and small sailboats, the countless palaces and castles, the delicious pastries, and plentiful beer. Copenhagen was the home of fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen and there are many monuments and statues throughout the city in reverence to his creativity. Most notable of these is the Little Mermaid statue perched on the coast of the canal.
On our way to the royal residence, we stopped at the Gefion Fountain depicted four oxen driven by the Norse goddess, Gefion. As the legend goes, the Swedish king offered the goddess as much land as she was able to plough in one day and one night. She then transformed her four sons into four oxen to plough the land that now forms the island where Copenhagen resides.
We then visited the royal residence before strolling down Nyhavn, the quintessential postcard street of Copenhagen. Before our next stop, we nabbed some typical Danish pastries at Mormor’s.
In the afternoon, we toured the Christiansborg Palace. The original castle was constructed in 1167 with various successive castles and palaces built in the same location since. It was the official residence of the Danish kings and then became the seat of parliament. The grandest room was the Great Hall where artist Bjorn Norgaard gifted the Queen 17 tapestries depicting Danish history.
We then headed to Tivoli Gardens for a few hours. Tivoli Gardens was built in 1843 and was the very first amusement park. It was said to be the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Disney World. What made this visit even more special was that Whitney’s father visited Tivoli Gardens with his family sixty years ago.
We ended our fantastic day in Copenhagen with a jazz cruise along the canals. We watched the sunset with glasses of champagne and tunes of the 20’s, a perfect serenade to send us off from Denmark to Germany.
