CANALS, CASTLES, AND CARNIVAL RIDES
- Joelle McDonald
- Jul 10, 2022
- 13 min read
Run • Boat Tour • Christiansborg Palace • Murder Mystery Packet Pick-Up • Lunch • Tivoli Gardens
Our first full day in Copenhagen! Yesterday we didn’t give ourselves the restful afternoon we had intended, but we nevertheless hit the ground running this morning.
I literally do, getting up at 7:00 (5 AM in Iceland) to run before our sightseeing plans for the day. Yesterday I got myself lost on my long run (accidentally adding a mile), so to get a better mental map of my surroundings I run in the direction I was lost in yesterday. This route ends up taking me to some of Copenhagen’s most prominent landmarks and sights, but this early in the day there were absolutely no people (tourists at least, there were many locals biking to work). Early morning is one of the best times to sight see if you, like us, don’t like crowds in your pictures. I run along the canal to Nyhavn (map point 2). Yesterday we had to wrestle through mobs of tourists to get any photos here, and we had no chance of one without people. Today I have the entire canal to myself. Only one or two restaurant staff are outside, maintaining their patios. I continue running through St. Anne Place, taking a lap along the road to see the building I heard loudly chiming the time. I don’t know what it is, there is no name outside or marking for tourists, but I pause anyway to watch the birds circle the bell.
Next I stumble into one of Copenhagen’s most famous buildings, and with only one other tourist there, it’s importance feels magnified. It is the Amelienborg Palace (map point 3), home to Denmark’s current royal family. There is no crying baby or fallen ice cream to suggest anyone but the royal family and their guards may enter.
For a moment I question wether I should be there, especially in my sweaty, 6 year-old running clothes. I pause my watch and walk out of respect for the buildings around me, which clearly wasn’t necessary once I saw locals biking through the Palace’s plaza on their morning commute. Nevertheless, I am glad I do because the guards, dressed similarly to Buckingham Palace guards but in blue, begin to change position. I whip out my phone to record them, having to maneuver around only one other camera-clad tourist. He clearly wanted to avoid the crowds too. The guards are young and their well rehearsed movements around the plaza don’t make much sense to me, but I do recognize a changing of the guard.
I return to our apartment (without using Google Maps!) and prepare for Hannah and I’s grand plans for the day.
Canal Tour by Boat
--- Map Point 4 ---
Our Copenhagen Cards get us into many tours and attractions without payment, one of which is a canal tour. The dock is just a two minute walk from our very well located Airbnb so we arrive early. After securing our tickets, we have 25 minutes before the boat leaves. Just enough time to walk to the bakery I passed on my run and get a croissant. Yum!
The boat tour is led by one guide speaking in both English and Dutch. We pass many of Copenhagen’s most famous landmarks, efficiently checking a lot off our list.
The Old Stock Exchange Building (topped with a spire of four entwined dragon tales. This was uncommon at the time of building because dragons were seen as evil in the West, but it was also said that if you put a dragon on a building it would prevent a fire. It’s anything but scientific; however, that is the only building in the whole area that never burned… Maybe we should put a dragon on our home just in case it’s a real thing.)
Nyhavn
Amelienborg Palace
The Cannon Boat Buildings
The Opera House (being prepared for Red Bull Cliff Diving)
The Little Mermaid Statue (the “little” is accurate. It’s very small.)
The Waiting Pavilions the royal family uses before boarding their yacht
Multiple Ship Museums (One boat was responsible for the “Whoops Missile Incident,” where a soldier pressed the wrong button and accidentally fired a missile. It hit an area of Denmark filled with summer homes, obliterating four and damaging well over 100. It was ruled entirely accidental, but one of the houses destroyed belong to his mother-in-law. Coincidence?)
The Blox (Danish architecture headquarters, not designed by Danish architects)
The Black Diamond (a beautifully built library)
Christianshaven (the King built this to look like Amsterdam and attract wealthy Dutch merchants, so they would pay taxes here. It didn’t work out, a bummer for the King since he had 23 children, countless wars, and many construction endeavors to fund)
The royal stables (more on that later)
We thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many sights in one hour without having to move an inch, especially after driving at least an hour between most individual attractions in Iceland. It was also sunnier than many of our days in Iceland.
Christiansborg Palace
--- Map Point 5 ---
We disembark our boat and walk over a bridge, and just like that, we are at our next stop: Christiansborg Palace. It is so close to our apartment that I have run past and on it multiple times without actually knowing what it was. Christiansborg is a large, relatively new building with two sides: one where parliament is housed and the other where there is a 100 room royal apartment and many grand rooms suited to official royal activities. There are four different areas to explore here, all included with our Copenhagen Cards: the Ruins, the Royal Reception Rooms, the Kitchen, and the Royal Stable.
The Ruins:
We begin in the ruins of Bishop Absalon’s castle, which stood from 1167 to 1369. The current castle (and the 5 between - there were a lot of fires) were built above the original castle’s foundations. Walking in, there is a poster with some sort of cartoon monster on it. I assume it is an aggressively premature advertisement for a Halloween event in the ruins; however upon descending the stairs into the cool, dark room below I see a monster made of something like paper maché lit by a spotlight. According to the sign below it, we will be seeing 11 more, all meant to represent a destructive emotion. The exhibit’s goal—to help children better understand and regulate their emotions—is noble, but the setting is odd. Each monster has a large informational sign below discussing the emotion and its effects, and if you look really hard there is a tiny block of font that says “About the ruins.” Hannah and I decide that each exhibit on its own would be great, but we have a really hard time following both exhibits at the same time. All my brain was clearly able to distinguish from all the information it was receiving was the ruins of the old toilet system and the joy monster (according to the sign, being overjoyed is a bad thing. I’m not 100% on board with that one). Finally overwhelmed and accepting the fact that we aren’t absorbing much, we decide to resurface and head to the next area (for a moment we could not find the exit, fearing we may not resurface).
The Royal Reception Rooms:
The grandest part of the Palace! Once we scan our Copenhagen Cards we are pointed to massive bins with bright blue shoes covers in them. The floors are apparently too sensitive for measly non-royals to walk, but the queen is missing out on these rocking accessories. With bright blue feet we begin to climb the Queen’s staircase, the entrance to the exhibit. On the way up we are stopped by an older man with a quiet voice, timidly speaking to us through his Danish accent. He is a tour guide and his tour in Danish is supposed to start any minute, but no Danes are here. He offers to give us the same tour in English, something he doesn’t have much practice doing. Hannah and I enthusiastically agree. A few others join our group and the palace-walk begins.
This palace was rebuilt (for the sixth time) in 1907, so it is probably the newest castle Hannah and I have ever been in. It is stunning. Unlike many castles we have toured, this one is built with large rooms and lots of natural light, something reflective of its modernity I suppose. Every room is ornately decorated and every room is unique. The Dining Room, we learn, has never actually been used because its acoustics are bad and its table too wide for comfortable conversation. That seems like something the architect and interior designer would have considered, and how hard is it really to replace the table? Nevertheless today it is mostly used as a base for serving food at large parties in the nearby Great Room since the kitchen is too far away to be practical. Honestly, you’d think they would consider these things.
Both Hannah and my favorite room by far is the Queen’s Library. Walking in I immediately think of Belle, my favorite Disney princess as a kid (fellow bookworm representation). It is white, but ornately decorated in blue and gold. Light streams in from the windows onto the royal blue chairs and couches gracefully scattered along the walls. Two chandeliers add to the ambience by mixing with natural light. The wall is lined with glass bookcases on two levels, with a small walkway surrounding the room to make the top level accessible. The books each look important, though—frankly—boring.
Finally we move along (I think the guide let us look at the library longer than the tour normally does) and enter the largest room: The Great Hall. Black and white checkered tiles contrast the bright tapestries on the wall. I have never seen such bright and interesting tapestries, and I have seen many in my life. Apparently they are new, from 2011. I wonder if the other dull tapestries I’ve seen were once so colorful, but I suppose I can’t go back in time to look. The tapestries took 10 years to make and depict the history of Denmark, though not chronologically (thanks modernism). The most interesting to me depicts the 20th century: WWI, WWII, the Holocaust, The fall of the Berlin Wall, modern transportation, and Donald Duck (yes, you read that right). This room hosts many of the Danish monarchy’s most prestigious festivities. A balcony at the end of the room is home to the orchestra during these events, but most of the time it leads directly into the Prime Minister’s office.
As the tour ends, we take one last look at the Throne Room (thrones haven’t been used here since the 18th century) then descend via the King’s Staircase.
The Kitchen:
We walk out of the Reception Rooms’ entrance, take a right, walk about 50 feet, then take another right and walk another 20 feet to the Kitchen Entrance. I’ll give it to the kitchen staff, its a hike from the Great Room and would only be longer carrying a tray of 100+ desserts. The Royal kitchen is virtually empty when we arrive. It is one large room, half underground lined on every surface with copper cookware. The pinkish-gold reflection of the window’s light off the cookware makes the room feel warm. Apparently copper cookware is no longer used by the royal kitchen, so it is a historic collection. There are fish skillets, frying pans, ladles, completely flat disks with handles that Hannah and I can’t identify, and perhaps most impressively, a stockpot that is probably about half the size of a bathtub.
The Stables:
Here I am conflicted: the Horses are currently on their summer vacation. I really wanted to see a royal horse in the flesh, but I am glad that they are getting some time on grass. I don’t think they see any for most the year. Hannah and I, both disappointed we will only be able to see the museum exhibit and empty stables, enter the building anyway. The first thing we see are two very realistic models of favorite horses of kings past. Those are models, right? I really hope they aren’t taxidermy (which has always seemed pretty creepy to me). Against my better judgement I ask the stable’s ticket person. I can confirm, they are indeed stuffed and very old. Once we leave the room with the creepy horses (one had cloudy white eyes), we are in the stables. The royal family once had over 200, but due to budget cuts it is now 1/10 that size. That seems like more than enough to me. The floor is 100% cobblestone, which doesn’t seem very nice for horses, but at least they each have a big stall to themselves. The name of each horse is hung above its stall, a cute touch, though most of the stalls aren’t in use.
Through the stables is one more room, home to an exhibition of countless royal carriages. Many of them have been used somewhat recently according to the signs below them. It must be quite tedious to update those signs every time the royal family takes a carriage to a parade. Having seen enough of Christiansborg, we pull up our next stop on Google Maps.
Murder Mystery Packet Pick-Up
--- Map Point 6 ---
Just a few minutes of walking brings us to where Google Maps says we need to be to pick up the murder mystery puzzle included with our Copenhagen Cards. Each mystery is based around a specific tourist attraction (and based on a true story, yikes). Our Copenhagen Card booklet says to pick it up in the “Arms Gallery in the Basement” on this street. I figure this is some sort of old weapons museum, but looking up from the GPS we see an actual weapons store. Three people are inside. The first is completing a transaction. We see the handgun he is buying sitting on the counter and both of our eyes go big. Denmark is a country with incredibly low crime and gun violence, but guns mean something different to us than they probably do to most Danes. I sat through a long gun-in-the-building lockdown in high school (ultimately they didn’t find any gun), a school bomb-threat evacuation, and have seen countless lives lost to guns on TV each week. Every time I see a gun my stomach tightens so seeing someone casually carry one out of the store, in a shopping bag no less, is uncomfortable. I am sure the same thing happens at home, likely much more often and with much bigger weapons, but I don’t see it. Once the gun purchase is over, two of the men in the store exit, leaving only one other customer, who buys a grenade. I try to imagine what he needs a grenade for (hopefully a collection or to teach a class, not personal use).
Finally it is just us and the owner immediately switches from Danish to English. I guess he could easily tell that we are tourists. We ask about the murder mystery packs and he shows us the English options. We settle on Amelienborg (the Queen’s Palace that I ran to earlier) and The Round Tower (an astronomical observatory built in the 1600s), then gladly exit the shop.
Lunch
--- Map Point 1 ---
Food here is really expensive. Or, to clarify, the labor that goes into preparing food is expensive. The grocery stores we have been to offer really inexpensive food compared to what we get at home, but eating out can easily be $30 per person. With this in mind, we plan our day so after our busy morning and early afternoon of sight seeing we return to our apartment to cook lunch (fajitas, a refreshing change from rehydrated meals) and rest up for a few hours. I highly recommend the early morning touring to lunch/nap to evening touring schedule when traveling.
I do our laundry so we finally have clean clothes while Hannah cooks. Trust me, our clothes from Iceland have wanted us to wash them for at least a week. Fed and in the process of being well clothes, we each pass out for an hour. Hannah tells me I had better get moving so we can make it to our last stop of the day. I blearily stare back. I really just want to keep sleeping, but with just 97 hours to see Copenhagen there is no rest for the weary.
Tivoli Gardens
--- Map Point 7 ---
Tivoli is one of Copenhagen’s most popular attractions, and for good reason. It is an amusement park and garden, complete with 46 dining options. We could take the metro to get there, but we opt to walk. It’s good for the legs and we won’t have to figure out the evening lines in the metro (our main motivator). Once we arrive and navigate the ticket system, we use our Copenhagen Cards to enter the park. Immediately we are impressed. Everywhere we look there is something exciting: playful plants, a fountain that bubbles instead of flows, restaurants after restaurant, rides in the skyline ahead, and fellow park-goers moving from place to place.
There is so much going on that we don’t know where to go or what to do first. Not ready to do any rides, we go for a garden stroll. There is a sense of wonder in the air here, which might have something to do with the real castle visible just outside the walls of Tivoli. All of Copenhagen is so fun, warm, and interesting that our ability to suspend disbelief in this constructed world of whimsy fantasy is amplified.
Fancy sun catchers dangle above us as we walk around a lake, which couples with the sound of little kids giggling on the smaller rides out here. We make our way back toward the main rides, where bright flashing lights call for our attention. We walk many laps through the park, getting the good type of lost multiple times until, eventually, we have walked through the entire thing. We were eying rides that looked fun as we meandered, so once we finish and find a quiet place I buy tickets for two rides on the Tivoli app. Unfortunately only entry is covered by the Copenhagen Card and rides are $8 to $12 a person, so we don’t feel like doing more than two is worthwhile.
Our first ride is the park’s original wooden rollercoaster, creatively named “The Roller Coaster.” Hannah and I score the front row and buckle in. The ride is full of ups and downs, some in the pitch black. The whole time we are laughing and screaming. We had so so much fun in Middle-of-Nowhere, Iceland but being back in some civilization has its perks. After, we look at the picture they took of us during the ride. The bar on the front of the coaster car is blocking most of our faces but they are funny: my eyes are squinted shut and Hannah’s are wide.
Thrumming from the ride, we do another lap before going to the next. We are going to do The Star Flyer, swings that go far above the Copenhagen skyline, and we want the sun to get closer to setting so we get a cotton-candy sky. When we do go we discover that we timed it perfectly. The sun is an intense gold, partially hidden by a lonely skyscraper. It casts a pinkish-gold hue over the entire city below us. It is thrilling to get a view of the city from this high up, even after climbing the church tower yesterday. The air is chilly and the wind is chillier, but nothing dulls the beauty around us or the joy within us.
Done with our rides, we find a café to sit in until 10:10 (22:10 if you want us to be more regionally accurate). There is a light show at the lake we walked around earlier at 10:30 that we want to see before heading home. We arrive at the lake about 20 minutes early, a good thing because the bridge we will watch from is already beginning to fill with eager park goers. We pick a clear spot by the fish food machine and people watch until the show begins. Many people come, put a coin in the machine next to us, and turn to retrieve food for the truly massive Coy fish in the lake below us. Seriously. They look like lake monsters. They were bigger than the ducks in the water. Clearly a lot of people feed the fish.
The light show begins with a release of fog, lasers projecting onto it. For eight minutes a spectacle of colorful fountain streams, shooting lights, geometric layers, and occasional bursts of fire unfolds before us, punctuated with occasional screams from the freefall tower ride a few meters away. It was well worth the wait.
Exhausted from an incredibly first-full-day here in Copenhagen, we make our way back to our apartment, observing how empty the streets are for a city at just 10:45pm. From what we have seen, Copenhagen bustles during the day and is incredibly quiet in the early morning and late evening. Sweet Dreams!
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