Copenhagen Day 1

So today was our first full day in Copenhagen. A late-ish start saw us out the door about 9am headed for the train station - a u turn a little down the street to make sure we had jackets, because although it was sunny the breeze had a chill! Second time out Jacob forgot his hat and then I left mine on the train - lucky it was only 20C today…. hat shopping sometime soon!! As it turns out my left arm got a little pink and my face…We headed into the city and got off at Osterport and headed to the Kastellet - from here its a story in pictures!

The gardens and canal/s that surround the Kastellet

Memorial Statue at entrance to Kastellet

Entrance

Parade/Drill Ground - amazing how easy they are to identify when you' ve spent time on one!

View from the wall - Kastellet is in the shape of a star - the octagonal grey wall is a memorial wall.

The cannons atop the wall were a hit!

View from the wall back across the buildings of Kastellet - which is still a working military establishment.

from the wall, showing the bridge entrance opposite to where we entered.

View from the wall of the wind turbines along this section of the coast.

The Little Mermaid - apparently the feminists (and others) don't like her - she has been beheaded (twice), painted, they plotted to blow her up……. mind you - you can still get close enough to her to touch her if you wanted - no security, no fence…..

This is the Esplanade - we walked pretty much its entire length today

St Alban's Anglican Church and the Gefion Fountain - which is a scene of Gefion from Norse Mythology - how she drove her plough pulled by her 4 sons who she had turned into oxen - through the water to create the island Zealand (where Copenhagen lies). This is not the one related to "New" Zealand - apparently that one is in The Netherlands!

Along the Esplanade were a lot of interesting things including scale models of a few Maersk ships - this is one of they container ships.

This guy appears everywhere! He was on the Esplanade too!

This was across the channel/canal (not quite sure what you call it body of water).  I think it is the home of the Danish Opera. It reminded me of Sally Field's headgear in the Flying Nun….

Quite a few ships on the Esplanade - this Danish Naval Vessel, a Navigator,  some function boats and a Sailing ship - excuse me, a PIRATE ship according to Jacob!

Fountain in the Amaliehaven gardens, looking towards Ameliesborg Palace and the Marble Church.

We arrived at Ameliesborg Palace to find a crowd of people standing around. As the clock struck 12 out marched the Guard - for the changing of the Guard! What good timing!!

Close order drill

Ameliesborg Palace and square

I lost track of how many guys on horses we saw as statues today - seems to be very popular. Anyway, this King (Frederick/Christian??!!) was a drunk who left everything to some fantastic public servant because he was too sozzled to  rule or ride a horse - he died young of what would apparently now be called "lifestyle choices".

One of the buildings is a museum and unlike other places I've been to these people don't mind if you photograph anything! The museum has the studies and sitting rooms of a number of the Kings/Queens on display as it looked in their rule - this was an armoury display in one of the studies - again either Frederick or Christian (the Kings are all named one or the other) - the one who was on the throne during WW2.

50th Wedding Anniversary present for the Parents in law of Europe - 4 of their 6 children ended up as ruling Kings or Queens  (Denmark, Greece, England, Russia)

Leather wall paper in one of the studies - it was gold in colour.

This is a reception room in that Palace - the room is used for official function held in Copenhagen by the Queen's sister or her second son Joachim.

This Palace is home to Queen Margarethe

And this is the Palace that is home to Crown Prince Frederick, Princess Mary and their 4 kids - not bad for a girl from Tasmania! 

The Marble Church - which was designed and then took another 200 year and multiple changes for it to be built. 

The Dome has the Apostles painted on it.

Further down the Esplanade walk you get to Nyhavn which was the "New Harbour"…… the shipping/sailors quarter with establishments for drinking, tattoos, girls etc….. it is now filled with cafes! This particular place is the Hans Christian Andersson Cafe - in the house where he lived.

Nyhavn Canal

The buildings on either side of the canal are brightly painted.

Further down from Nyhavn you reach the 'Financial Area' - this is the Financial Centre

and the building behind the boys with the green roof is the Stock Exchange. The other building on the left is a church.

The stock exchange sits on 'Castle Island' along with Christiansborg Palace - this is the main tower of the Palace. Most of the buildings are now either museums or are used for official functions. This photo is taken from the inner courtyard.

The old Armoury is the Armoury Museum. We happened to be walking past and found that there was a F16 that you could climb up and sit in - so the boys did!

Pilot Jacob - wanting to know where the fire controls for the machine guns and missiles are…...

I had endured hours of whinging by this stage - I'm hungry, tired, sore feet, don't want to go there…… at least there were no complaints in here 

Upstairs held a collection of items from the 1500s through to modern times - not just weaponry and armour

drawings and maps from the drawers, including these uniform designs 

and scale models of weapons, wagons, vehicles…..

After the Armoury we walked past Tivoli gardens and on to central station. Bicycles are everywhere - bike lanes exist on every road and motorists have to give way. This was some of the bikes parked outside central station and not a single one of them was locked up…...