Back to Copenhagen, Part One

This year, we spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Copenhagen.  Last year, even though Darren had the time off, he was starting a new job so we just enjoyed some activities around Zurich.  Darren had wanted to go to Copenhagen again to see the things that we missed, so we decided the long weekend was a good opportunity to go.  We were especially excited to see the city during the Christmas season and it didn't disappoint.  We had a great time and in typical Darren and Amanda fashion, we walked all over and crammed in lots and lots of things.

We arrived in Copenhagen in the late morning, but after finding our hotel and dropping off our bags, we weren't in the downtown area until the afternoon.  We first stopped to get some lunch in the shopping area at a sandwich shop that I liked the last time we were here, but in only a few short months, it was gone.  We ate at another sandwich shop was just around the corner, but it wasn't as good.  I wonder what happened to the other store.  After lunch, we walked around the shopping area to see the Christmas window displays.

The shopping area in Copenhagen, decorated for Christmas

A Christmas display from a department store

Another pretty window display at the Illum department store

 We bought these great city passes called the Copenhagen Card, which gives you access to a lot of the major attractions and unlimited public transportation travel for a flat rate.  With all the things we saw in three days, we more than made back the money we spent buying the card.  We recommend this card to anyone traveling to Copenhagen.  Our first stop using the Copenhagen Card was to Christiansborg Palace, which as Darren talked about last time, houses all three branches of the Danish government.

Cute waterway and buildings on the way to Christiansborg

Outside part of Christiansborg

Able to goof off around the palace because all the attractions were empty during this off-season

You can tour two different places at Christiansborg.  There are the old ruins of previous palaces and some of the rooms in the current palace that are still used for state functions.  We first went into the catacombs to see the ruins of past Christiansborgs.  This poor palace has burned down several times.  A castle was first built here in the 12th century and marked the founding of Copenhagen.  Since then, there have been several castles and palaces built on the same site.  The current Christiansborg Palace was finished in the early 20th century.  The catacombs feature the foundations of the previous structures.

An example of an early Christiansborg Castle

The foundations of Christiansborg Castle

The catacombs were mildly interesting, but mostly introduced us to the Danish favoring of low lighting.  Several castles and even one art gallery suffered greatly from lack of lighting.  I guess they are trying to minimize damage from lights.  Anyways, after we left the ruins, we took a guided tour of some of the rooms in Christiansborg Palace.  Most of the rooms are still used today for functions involving the royal family.  Pictures were not allowed, so I will just have to tell you about the things that we saw.  The palace has a special exhibit up right now revolving around the dessert part of royal dinners from older times all the way to today.  One room had a great long table elaborately decorated as it would have been back in the day and it showed how the desserts were served on beautiful and elaborate serving dishes.  Another room displayed the china that the royal family still uses for their parties.  They even had a display in one room that talked about how ice cream was made before the invention of freezers. Our tour guide explained that having ice cream at your dinner meant you were very wealthy because you had to have a special pantry just to store ice that was made in the winter to make and keep ice cream cold.  Who knew such a simple and every day treat we enjoy today used to be such a luxury!

The back of Christiansborg Palace after our tour, it's only about 4 o'clock when this was taken

 After the tour, we stopped in this small museum next to the palace for just a bit because it was almost closing time.  The Thorvaldsens Museum, which was the first museum building in Denmark, features sculptures and plaster models from the famous Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen.  As you might remember from before, Thorvaldsen sculpted the Christus statue.

Having some fun in the totally empty museum

A plaster model of the Christus statue used to make the real thing

The museum was only mildly interesting, but it was free with our pass, so we felt it was worth it to at least go inside and look.  We left the museum when it was closing at 5 pm and were sad by how dark it was, but happy that the shopping street decorations were lit up.  I will always be glad to live in the Northern Hemisphere when the most depressing time of year, climate-wise, is combined with the happiest time of year, Christmas.  We walked down some different shopping streets to enjoy the lights and see some stores that I did not get to go into last time like the Lego store.

Copenhagen's shopping streets decorated beautifully for Christmas

After that, we had dinner at a restaurant along the waterfront street called Nyhavn where Darren tried a traditional Danish meal of three different kinds of herring on bread.  It was good of him to try it, but I don't think he will be ordering it again. ;)  After that, we headed back to our hotel room to sleep.  The next morning, after some delicious Danish pastries at Lagkagehuset, we went to the Danish Resistance Museum, which chronicles living in Denmark during WWII.  It was a great museum to help understand what it was like living under German occupation and how Danish people formed a resistance as the war went on.

Items like these, which showed support for the Allies, were banned during the occupation

Darren with an armored vehicle that was used to attack the Germans towards the end of the war

After the museum, we went to see two more castles before lunch.  We went to Amalienborg Palace again, but this time we went into part of the palace to see some rooms with royal family used to use.  We mainly were allowed to see old sitting rooms and offices of previous rulers.

Part of Amalienborg Palace

The study of one of the kings in the 20th century

An even older study featured a dead polar bear, head and all

We walked from the more modern Amalienborg to the older Rosenborg castle.  This castle was where the royal family lived during the 17th century and where the crown jewels are now kept.  I just looked up this castle and came across this lovely page that relates to my previous observation.  Apparently, I'm not the only one who is puzzled by all the low lighting.  Anyways, in addition to touring the basement where the crown jewels are kept, you can also walk around the upper floors to see the castle's rooms.

The old castle is situated in a lovely garden with cute houses all around

Me in front of Rosenborg Castle

An old room filled with tons of paintings, which were even on the doors

The bathroom walls decorated with hundreds of beautiful danish porcelain, only the best for the king

Old thrones with the famous Danish lion statues

The basement houses the Rosenborg wine, which is still served at royal dinners, but apparently tastes awful

My favorite crown, which is decorated so intricately

Some more beautiful jewels worth millions

We ate a late lunch at this adorable homey cafe called Mormors, which is near Amalienborg Palace.  The name Mormor means mother's mother in Danish, which is what Darren and his siblings called their Danish grandmother.  So it was cute to go in there.  We saw some more amazing things after lunch, including our favorite part of the trip, but I will save that for the next post!