Copenhagen in December

We arrived in Copenhagen on Friday afternoon and it was already dark (it was only 3:30pm as well!!). We organised ourselves and found the right train to catch into the city centre, and then it was only a short walk, maybe 5 minutes, to get to our hotel. We stayed in a place called the CabInn, which was set up to be like a ship!! It was really odd because nothing about it was ship like except the actual rooms, which were exactly like cabins on a ship would be i.e. tiny!! they were comfortable though which was the main thing, and they were very central so we could walk to everything we wanted to see.

The first night we walked down the Stogart, which is the longest pedestrian shopping mall in the world. It was all lite up with lights which made it look gorgeous. lots of shops were open so we wandered into some of them, mostly to get out of the cold rather than to shop!

We grabbed dinner at a gorgeous little diner, which we though served Italian, but then found out that it was actually a combination of Italian and Mexican which was their specialty!! an odd combo, but it was super yummy!! It was also really warm which made everything taste even better!!

We walked up to Kongens Nytorv which is like a big square and it had a big Xmas tree in the middle of it. there was an outdoor ice skating rink as well with lots of people skating. we saw one girl do a massive stack, i think she was about 10 or so, but then she just lay there in the ice wailing and crying. her mum was right there, but she wouldn't move until someone else, with no skates on, actually picked her up and moved her off the ice. she must have been freezing, but she was so stubborn!! she didn't appear to be hurt though and was up and cruising around again in no time!

By this time we had almost frozen because it was totally dark and only around 5 degrees!! we found a big department store and headed straight for it! it was so so expensive, we both found lots of things we wanted to buy, but everything is much more expensive here than in Australia and even the UK, so we decided only to get things we couldn't get anywhere else i.e. not much!! We walked around inside until we had thawed out then headed back to our hotel to decide what to do tomorrow and to catch up on all the latest danish TV!!

The next day, Saturday, was really our only day of daylight when we could get to all the Copenhagen sights so we were very well organised! We started the day by walking along the canal up to the Knippelsbro bridge, which was supposed to be lavished in copper, but it was more like it was lavished in oxidised copper as the whole thing had turned green with time!! Over the bridge we headed into Christianshavn (which is an island of Copenhagen) and to the Vor Frelsers Kirke which is a big church with a spiral staircase up the outside of the top spire which is a big lookout. It is unfortunately closed for renovations!

We then headed into Christiania which is a free state within Copenhagen governed by its inhabitants, around 1000 people. it has no taxes or rent, but they sell HEAPS of drugs there so there are lots of riot police around all the time!! It was like of like a commune, talk about seeing how the other half live!!

Next stop was the University library which holds an old cannonball as well as remnants of what that cannonball was shot into, ironically a book entitled "the Defender of Peace"!! This was closed for the holiday season!

Vor Frue Kirke was next on the list, this is the church were Mary Donaldson and the Prince got married! it was really pretty and also completely different to the UK churches i have seen. Lots of white-cream walls and also many life size figures of saints, but not really ornate like the English ones are.

We then headed to Rundetarn, which is another lookout - we were determined to see the city from a lookout at some point, and luckily for us this one was open!! There is a big spiral walkway which leads up the tower then the last part is stairs which got quite narrow by the top! The view from the lookout was excellent! you could see so much and i never noticed until then that Copenhagen has so many churches!! i could see spires shooting up all over the city!! We also got some great photos from up here.

We grabbed a late lunch at a restaurant along the Stogart which was the best potato soup i have ever had!! i don't know what they put in it, other than potato obviously, but it was soooo good!!

By this time it was getting dark so we walked through the Kongens Have which are the gardens which surround Rosenburg Slot - an old castle which was built as a summer home for King Christian IV and it where the crown jewels are kept. It has a moat and guards which parade up and back with big guns!! This was also closed so we didn't get to see the sparkle of the jewels this visit!!

After all the walking and sight-seeing we had done we were both tired, not helped by the fact that it felt like about 9pm, when in fact it was only around 4pm!! we walked back through the city and just took in the atmosphere before heading back to our hotel.

The next day we went into Rådhuspladsen, which is the central square of Copenhagen and is situated along the Stogart. It is very open as it sees more foot traffic than anywhere else in the city, so there are not barricades or anything around it to make it difficult to cross through. There is a big statue of Hans Christian Andersen which is a bit of a landmark in this city (they love that guy!!) there is also a large column which has a statue on the top of 2 vikings which is supposed to be quite imposing, but i didn't think it was!! The Rådhus, which is the city hall, faces out into the Square. It is an amazing building and i have taken loads of photos of it, from all different angles. We also found a really nice garden type thing in the middle of the building which we took shots of as well. I'm teaching Dave to use the camera so we have lots of repeated shots!!

Then on the 24th of December we got up and headed to catch the train to Roskilde where we met Heidi who stayed at Dave's parents farm for almost 12 months back when Dave was about 12!! His whole family have been over to visit and she has been awesome by kindly taking us all in!! She has just announced that dinner is ready so i will fill you in on our time here in the next few days, xxx