Our Magical "Fjords, Vikings and Castles" Norway Cruise - June 2015 - w/ pics - Completed!

Day 10 – Copenhagen (Continued) – Marble Church & Rosenborg Slot

After the ceremony, we decided we needed to eat. The concierge at The Admiral had made a recommendation of a place near Rosenborg Slot, which was our next destination. But, since we were passing right in front of the Marble Church on our way, we took a side trip and went inside. It was on DD’s list to see the inside of a church in Europe. It was beautiful. Check!

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Walking through Copenhagen, you don’t see any gas stations on the corners like in the States. Here’s a typical Copenhagen gas station.

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Unfortunately, by the time we walked all the way to the restaurant, they were not open for lunch. In fact, a lot of restaurants are not open for lunch in Copenhagen. We proceeded towards Rosenborg hoping to find food at The Kings Garden. The restaurant at the garden was full, but they told us that Rosenborg had a café, so we headed there.

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We all had grilled sandwiches and sodas on the castle grounds. Some of us even had ice cream afterwards.

Unfortunately, Rosenborg is not handicap accessible so our neighbors could not go on the tour. They headed back to the hotel. However, DNDDC, DcousinC and DsisterJ joined us on a tour of the castle. Another check off DD’s list, go inside a castle. Check!

We bought our tickets and rented lockers to put our backpacks into. The rental fee was 20 DKK, but you go it back when you retrieved your belongings.

To call this castle opulent would be an understatement. The castle was built by Christian IV and evidently he loved building castles. I call this the bust room.

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The castle is full of these ornately decorated secretaries and cabinets.

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They had rooms dedicated to porcelain and glass. There were so many of the most ornate clocks I’d ever seen, I stopped counting.

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This was one of my favorite rooms.

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Here is the throne room. There are thrones on either end. The ceiling is phenomenally ornate.

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These silver lions protect the thrones of the king and queen.

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The crowning glory of this particular castle, however, is what’s in the treasury below. The Crown Jewels!! Oooooh, more shiny and glittery things!!!

Weaponry.

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The armor. Notice the elephants.

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Amber is plentiful in this part of the world. Copenhagen even boasts an Amber Museum. These are all made of amber.

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I believe this is scrimshaw.

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And of course, it's all about the bling!!!! Ahh, it’s good to be Queen.

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And, of course, the crowning glory!

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The guards take guarding the treasury seriously. No ornamental uniforms here.

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We then headed out of The Kings Garden.

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Continued in next post.
 
Continued.

We were all tired so we headed back towards The Admiral. DNDDC hailed a taxi for DCousinC, whom we wore out, and she headed back to her hotel for the night. We stopped in a bakery and get some delicious cinnamon rolls.

We also passed what I could call a “party bike.” It must be strange to pedal forward yet be going sideways.


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When we got back to the hotel, we got into our room on the 6th floor. Totally by coincidence, our neighbors had the room right next to ours.


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We had a family suite. The sofa opened up to a bed. There were stairs to a loft where you had a queen size bed and a TV. Unfortunately, I got a picture of everything but the loft. Honestly, the stairs scared me to death and I went up and down as little as absolutely necessary.


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We had no air-conditioning in our room, but 2 windows opened to let fresh air in and it was quite pleasant overnight. The one window had a very wide sill and DD loved to sit here and watch the world go by.


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Before dinner, while the girls played a board game with DNDDM in the room, the “adults” went out to the hotel bar and sat outside under the umbrellas. We noticed all the outdoor seating areas had big umbrellas. They also all had blankets on chairs at each table. It was very nice to sit out and relax before dinner.

We had dinner reservations tonight at Zeleste. It was on a side street just off Nyhavn. We sat outside on their covered patio. Every once in awhile the rain would break through the tarp and splash over the rain gutter. Fortunately, we weren't sitting under them. :umbrella:


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It was raining by this time, but we stayed dry. Overall, everybody liked their food.

We walked back to the hotel around 9:00 PM. We were ready to call it a night.

Unfortunately, Inky had not come to turn down our beds, leave chocolates or leave a towel animal. I guess we're back in the real world again. :(

Next: Vikings and Castles
 
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Day 11: Copenhagen – Vikings & Castles

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Today’s Plan: Private 9 hour tour to Roskilde and Zealand area to see Roskilde Cathedral, the Viking Museum, Frederiksborg Slot, and Kronborg Slot.

The hotel had a breakfast buffet which offered your traditional Danish breakfast. They offered meats, cheeses, fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, cereals, etc. After breakfast we went back outside as a small masted ship had appeared overnight and docked in front of the hotel.

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Our tour driver and guide met us in the lobby at 8:45 AM. We had a mini tour bus just for the 9 of us. It was wonderful, we each got our own row. Jens was our guide and Jon was our driver. They were both extremely nice and knowledgeable about the area.

After picking up DcousinC and DsisterJ at the Radisson Blu, we were off.

The first place we went by was the Carlsberg Elephant Gate. This time we rode under it. I’m glad I had seen it the week before.

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Back before Hitler, the swastika sign meant “well-being” and was used in a positive way. Jacob Carlsberg used it on their beer bottles until 1940 and displayed on the elephants on The Elephant Gate. When Hitler came to power, he “stole” the swastika sign and it forever became a sign of evil. Recently, the Carlsberg family actually tried to get the sign back, but failed.

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We drove up the only hill in Copenhagen. According to Jon, if you go up the hill you are going on holiday, since that road leads to the summer vacation spots beyond Copenhagen. We were on our way to Roskilde. We passed several farms along the way. Such pretty countryside.

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Our first stop in Roskilde was the Cathedral. This is the Cathedral where almost all of the Danish monarchs are buried. Unfortunately, they were holding a service so we couldn’t go inside the church. The church is huge.

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We did see the tomb of Frederik IX (the Queen’s father). Since he was an avid outdoorsman, he was asked to be buried outside the cathedral overlooking the harbor. It seems that all the Danish male monarchs were either named Christian or Frederik.

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We then walked through a nice little park area to the Viking Museum. Looking back towards the cathedral.

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An authentic thatched roof.

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Craftsman at this museum still make and repair Viking ships the original way with the same kind of tools used by the Vikings. They even have hands on demonstrations. You can even try your hand at woodworking or rope making.

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A ship being worked on.

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You could pay to crew a Viking ship. We saw some people attempt to row a replica of one of the Viking ships recovered off shore out to sea.

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They eventually got the hang of it.

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We then toured the museum where the ships discovered were put together with the pieces recovered.

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Weaving sails.

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Next: Fredericksborg Slot
 
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We definitely need to go back to Copenhagen! Roskilde looks really good! (though that gate in the cathedral looks a bit spooky....)

Looking forward to some more :)
 


We definitely need to go back to Copenhagen! Roskilde looks really good! (though that gate in the cathedral looks a bit spooky....)

Looking forward to some more :)

Yes, it was really nice getting out of the urban area and into the countryside. It was beautiful.

About the door, I know, right? o_O But it was unique and interesting. I wish we could have gone inside (or even had time). But, like you said, hopefully another time.
 
Day 11: Copenhagen (Continued) – Vikings & Castles

After the Viking museum we hit the road again towards Frederiksborg Slot. The countryside was beautiful. We passed many farms.

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This was another one of Christian IV’s castles. It sits on an island in the middle of a lake. After a fire in 1859, it was rebuilt and turned into a museum in 1878. It is now the Museum of National History. It was very majestic.

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The Fountain of Neptune. It was windy and the fountain was turned on just when we all decided to stand in front for a picture. Fortunately, the wind was blowing behind us.

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The first thing we saw when we entered the castle was this hunting room. Actual antlers were affixed to the wall and ceilings as part of the relief sculptures.

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Our favorite part of the castle and one spared the most from fire was the chapel. It is quite ornate and awe inspiring. It is also still in use today.

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We toured several of the rooms. The ceilings were the best part of each room.

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The beds were short because the royals slept sitting up, afraid they would suffocate or choke to death if they lay down.

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This is a more modern bed.

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All throughout the castle you could see to the gardens outside.

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In honor of the queen’s 75th birthday, the museum was displaying different dresses she has worn in her life both as a princess and the queen.

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Jens had arranged lunch for us at the café at the castle.

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He recommended traditional Danish Smørebrod. They are basically openfaced sandwiches on dark rye bread with almost everything you could imagine on top. I had chicken salad which was quite tasty.

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Continued on next post.
 
Continued.

After lunch we headed towards the marvelous Frederiksborg Gardens.

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We ran across this feathered friend.

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They are your quintessential royal gardens with elaborately shaped bushes, beautiful flowers, walk ways lined with trees, statues and water fountains. And, of course, the incredible view of the castle itself. For some reason, it brought to mind, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.
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I loved the water lilies.

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What royal garden would be complete without a swan?

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After touring the magnificent gardens, we reboarded our van to continue our adventure. I wish we had more time to explore this beautiful place.

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Next: "To be, or not to be" - Kronborg Slot
 
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Day 11: Copenhagen (Continued) – Vikings & Castles

“To do, or not to do,” that was the question. :scratchin DD was really looking forward to seeing Kronborg, which was the castle used in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” It was getting late, so a tour wouldn’t be possible, but we just wanted to drive by and see it. Besides, it is the closest point to Sweden in Denmark and DD wanted to see Sweden too. Fortunately, we had time so we headed towards Elsinore.

On our way we drove by Fredensborg, which is the current royal summer home. One of the Prince’s lives there year round with his family. It was quite lovely.

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We arrived at Elsinore at around 4:45 PM.

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On the way to the castle we passed the new Maritime Museum of Denmark. It was built into the old dry docks next to Kronborg. It is a very unique structure. It is shaped like a ship.

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We passed a lovely pond with a family of swans.

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As we approached the castle, we saw this diagram.

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We arrived too late to get a tour of the castle, but Jens arranged for us to be able to go up to an overlook so we could see Sweden. The original castle wasn’t built so much for protection as it was for trade.

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And, there is Sweden. Check another thing off DD's list!

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Jon decided to show us where the rich people live. While driving back to town, DH and DNJ noticed a rare site for us out the window of the van. Jon pointed out a car with a carrier on back carrying 2 wild boars which had been hunted. Evidently it is quite popular to hunt wild boars in Denmark and Sweden.

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We drove by the marina.

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We also passed Karen Blixen’s home (she wrote “Out of Africa”)

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We passed by this gas station designed by famed Danish architect Arne Jacobsen in 1937. He was also known for designing the SAS Royal Hotel. One of the original rooms of his design is available to view at the hotel.

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We drove by the US Ambassador’s home. Notice the huge American flag.

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We made it back to our hotel at 6:00 PM. We had the most wonderful day exploring Sealand and the countryside outside of Copenhagen. It was definitely a day to remember! :worship: Thanks guys!

That night we ate at Fiat, an Italian restaurant recommended by the hotel. It was a bit farther than the Nyhavn. Service in Copenhagen, while good, was slower than what we were used to in the States. Unfortunately, I had a terrible headache :sick: that night and didn’t enjoy my meal very much. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, but not before stopping at an ice cream shop that we passed on the way to dinner.
Upon arriving back at the hotel, I crashed. :faint:

Next: Our final day in Copenhagen.
 
Day 12: Our Final Day in Copenhagen

Monday, June 15, 2015

Today’s Plan: Christiansborg & Tivoli Gardens

I woke up this morning feeling much better after a good night’s sleep. The first thing I did was check the website for Christiansborg Palace. I had really wanted to see the State rooms and tapestries but I wanted to verify opening hours and pricing. I was surprised to read that the palace would be closed today for a private event. :sad2: The Stables and Ruins would be open, however.

Remember our unofficial guide at the changing of the guards? Well, I remember him telling us that the Queen makes herself available on certain Mondays to those citizens who have received honors from her. I suppose today was one of those Mondays.

We went down to breakfast and we discussed a change of plans with our neighbors. We decided to go see the Amalienborg museum instead and then see the stables at Christiansborg. DNC being a big horse fan.

Fortunately, Amalienborg Palace is handicap accessible with elevators so we could all enjoy the museum. We had to get lockers here as well for our backpacks.

This palace was just as elaborately decorated if not a little lighter and brighter. The first thing we had to do is wear booties over our shoes to protect the floors. The throne room.

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I love crystal chandeliers! And, this palace was full of them.

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After Amalienborg, we headed back towards Nyhvn for some pictures.

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We walked by the Royal Danish Theater, which had a very ornate exterior.

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This is Copenhagen’s huge department store, Magasin du Nord.

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We then went to The Strøget. We passed this jewelry store displaying this cute mini gold minetrain with gemstones. Oooh, some more glittery things!

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We passed more guards on the march.

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If you recall, most of the stores had been closed when were here before the cruise, so we wanted to go back and hit the Disney Store and the Lego Store.

We went to the Disney store and purchased some Copenhagen Disney shirts. It was interesting to see all of our favorite Disney classics in Danish.

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After the Disney Store we went into the Lego Store. Not to buy anything, but to see all of the Lego creations. They had a wall mural that looked like a tapestry.

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They had also recreated Nyhavn entirely in Legos. So cool!

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After shopping we were hungry so we stopped at this vendor and had crepes. She made them right there in front of our eyes. They were good.

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More guards with a small band this time.

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We then split with our neighbors so we could do a bit of souvenir shopping.

After finishing our shopping we ran into our neighbors enjoying a refreshing drink at an outside bar before we headed towards Christiansborg. It wasn’t entirely what DD had wanted, but she had eating at an outside café on her list. Check!

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Here was our destination, Christiansborg.

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Next: Christiansborg
 
Can't believe we're already on the last day... Wonderful read and beautiful pictures :)

I'm starting to think that a weekend in Copenhagen wont be enough, need to plan maybe 3 or 4 days... So much to see in and around the town!!
 
WOW! Your pictures are stunning! I need to take some photography lessons from you. This makes me want to visit Norway for sure!!

Jodie
 
Can't believe we're already on the last day... Wonderful read and beautiful pictures :)

I'm starting to think that a weekend in Copenhagen wont be enough, need to plan maybe 3 or 4 days... So much to see in and around the town!!

I know. The time just flew. Most definitely, plan as much time as you can. There was still so much we didn't get to see.

WOW! Your pictures are stunning! I need to take some photography lessons from you. This makes me want to visit Norway for sure!!

Jodie

Thanks! :flower3: I don't know about that. You took some great pictures in your trip report for Canada & Alaska. I loved the pictures of the orcas from the ship. Definitely lucky there!

I work on the law of averages, I figure if I take enough pictures, there are bound to be a few good ones.! :rolleyes: I highly recommend Norway!
 
Day 12: Copenhagen (Continued) - Christiansborg

It took us a while, but we finally found the stables at Christiansborg to start our tour. Christiansborg is used by Parliament and the official Staterooms of the Queen. As stated before, the Staterooms were closed today. Or so we thought!

While we were waiting for everybody to gather (DcousinC and DsisterJ were meeting us), we heard the clerk behind the counter tell somebody that the Staterooms had just reopened and the Queen had left the palace. Score! We went and upgraded our stable tour to include the Staterooms.

Unfortunately, the horses had been moved out to pasture for the summer just before we got there, so we missed seeing the actual royal horses. But, we still got to see some amazing old carriages. They also had a display of favorite royal mounts through the years.

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DD had an allergic reaction to the hay, I guess, so we had to leave the stables shortly after arriving and waited outside for the others. The Riding grounds.

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Once regathered, we headed towards the Staterooms.

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Again, we had to wear booties over our shoes. The staircases in the hall were amazing.

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The chandeliers were even more spectacular.

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We then stepped into the library. I felt kind of like Belle seeing the Beast’s library for the first time. It was beautiful.

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The ceiling work was incredible.

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This staircase actually goes up to the Prime Minister’s offices.

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We went through one receiving room that was recently renovated. The wall and chair coverings were hand woven.

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We went through the formal dining room. The table is mahogany and made from wood salvaged from the Queen’s staircase in the second Christiansborg Palace after it burned. It was spared from flames. Unfortunately, the room is seldom used now.

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We then made it down to the Tapestries. The tapestries were commissioned in 1990 for the Queens 50th birthday as a gift from Danish businessmen. Bjørn Nøgaard created 17 tapestries depicting 1000 years of Danish history. It took 10 years to weave the tapestries and they were hung for the Queen’s 60th birthday. She transferred ownership to the Danish state. They are vividly colorful and modern.

Donald Duck even makes an appearance! Donald Duck was first published in Denmark in 1949.

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Others.

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A Venetian chandelier.

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The royal princes.

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The throne room. This room is still used for the Queen to receive ambassadors and heads of state. However, she no longer sits on the throne. The larger throne is actually for the queen, while the smaller throne is for the king.

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After the tour we went through the gift shop. I spotted this stunning portrait done of Queen Margrethe by Mikael Melbye. It depicts the queen with the 3 silver lions from Rosenborg. The lions represent the commonwealth between Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Denmark.

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It was finally time to head to Tivoli Gardens. But first, we had to find the statue Hans Christian Anderson. It is in front of City Hall across the street from Tivoli Gardens.

Next: Tivoli Gardens
 
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We then stepped into the library. I felt kind of like Belle seeing the Beast’s library for the first time. It was beautiful.

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That's EXACTLY what I thought when we visited the Castle and the library... Belle!! It was my favourite room there. And it was such a beautiful place!! Glad you got to see it at the end.

We only saw the Castle and not the stables, I see I have another reason to go back.... Plus I missed Donald in the tapestries!! I loved those, I wasn't really expecting anything like that, we spent quite some time admiring them (though obviously not enough since I missed my favourite duck :confused:)

Really looking forward to reading about Tivoli...
 
Day 12: Copenhagen (Continued) – Tivoli Gardens

We started making our way towards Tivoli Gardens. We found this interesting fountain where the girls enjoyed walking across the stepping stones.

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A canal tour coming under a bridge.

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We then walked by this restaurant. An interesting name for a restaurant in Copenhagen, I thought. It’s actually the name of one of our favorite John Wayne movies.

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We then found Hans Christian Andersen.

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We found Tivoli Gardens.

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We had purchased vouchers to the park when we took our canal cruise. We took our voucher to the ticket window and purchased a wrist band for DD so she could ride all the rides. I only wanted to ride one, so I bought a single ride ticket in Guest Services.

The park looked a little different from when I was there 24 years earlier. Certainly a lot more rides. However, the amphitheater and The Nimb did not change at all.

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The first ride we came across was The Roller Coaster. I can’t help but think that this was Walt Disney’s inspiration for The Matterhorn in Disneyland. It’s been at Tivoli since 1912. We were surprised to find that there was actually a guy as hand brakeman attached to the cars and they manually operate the breaks during the ride. DD loved it.

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We then did some more rides before stopping for dinner. Nothing fancy tonight. Just burgers and chocolate covered mini donuts. Yum!

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After burgers, we rode The Flying Trunk. Basically, it is a dark ride where you fly in a trunk (similar to Peter Pan’s ships) through the various fairy tales written by Hans Christian Anderson. It reminded us a lot of It’s a Small World.’

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The girls wanted to ride the Vintage Cars but it was temporarily broken down.

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We then headed over to The Dragon Boats. While the girls rode, I walked around to the lagoon.

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I remembered the duck houses from my previous trip. I’m sure they have been changed since then.

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This is definitely a new ride, looks like the old Maliboomer in Disneyland. No thank you!

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The girls went back and rode the Vintage Cars, which had reopened. Afterwards, we eventually made our way around to the gardens.

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It was time to bid farewell to DcousinC and DsisterJ as they had a very early flight the next morning and were calling it a night.

A nice view of the towers outside the park.

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We then walked around and enjoyed more the garden.

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The girls wanted to ride The Lighthouse. It is similar to Dumbo except pedal power makes the animals go up.

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We fed the birds and fish.

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How’s this for a chicken coop.

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The girls then rode the Carousel, which, by the way, was playing Disney music.

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Continued on next post.
 
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Continued.

By this time it was about 8:30 PM. Dneighbors wanted to enjoy some coffee and desserts while we went in search for souvenirs. Unfortunately, Tivoli is not your typical amusement park that sells everything and anything with their name on it. I couldn’t even find a simple Tivoli T-shirt.

It was time to say good bye to Tivoli as we walked out. It wasn’t even close to being dark, but it was twilight and the lights were just coming on.


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We headed back to our hotel after our search and let our neighbors enjoy some time to themselves. We walked back to the Strøget and Nyhavn.

City Hall.

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Upon returning to our hotel at about 9:15 PM, I decided to check-in for our flight home the next day. To my amazement, our flight was showing “cancelled.” :scared1: Now what???? :confused3

I immediately went down to the concierge desk. Kudos to David, the concierge at The Admiral. I told him my flight had been cancelled for the morning and he immediately starting calling the airport, the airline and anybody else he could think of. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get through to anybody! It was about 9:30 PM in Copenhagen, but early enough on the East Coast of the States. I guess there was some bad weather that weekend on the east coast. He finally called my travel agent for me, as I had no global phone service (that’s another story). Thank God for my travel agent. :worship: We waited to hear from him as we packed up for our flight home. After a couple agonizing hours, my TA called our hotel room and told us that we were rebooked on an 11 hour direct flight from Copenhagen to San Francisco on SAS and then connecting to Phoenix with USAir. Whew! Now I could sleep. :cloud9:

Since we originally booked our flight, I had been following SAS as they were in the process of refurbishing all of their transatlantic planes and totally replacing their interior. I was so hoping we would get one of the newly remodeled planes. Well, we didn’t. However, we found out later that the reason our flight was cancelled was because the plane was called in for its refurbishment! We missed it by that much! :rolleyes:

Next: We were what?
 
Day 13: Travel

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Our flight was scheduled for around 12:30 PM. We wanted to get to the airport early because we really didn’t know what our flight situation was. :worried: We had purposely scheduled our flights to Copenhagen so we could evenly split the time on each leg as much as possible. We had purchased Economy Plus airfare, but didn’t know if we would be flying Economy Plus home. DH is a big guy and doesn’t like being in tight spaces for long periods of time, especially airplane seats. :crowded:

We got up early and planned to leave the hotel around 9:00 AM. I found our neighbors at breakfast and told them we had a flight and that we were going to eat breakfast at the airport and would see them back at home (their flight was later that day).

We were able to get a taxi right outside the door and got to the airport rather quickly. Surprisingly, it was not busy at all on a Tuesday morning. We were able to walk right up to a check-in kiosk. We told one of the SAS clerks our situation and she informed us that our previous reservation number should work and we could check in with the kiosk. Lo and behold, it did work and we were given our boarding passes and luggage tags for our new flights. We then headed to another counter where we checked in our bags. As she was weighing our luggage she said “I see you’ve been upgraded to Business Class.” WHAT!!! OMG!!! :cool1:

I can tell you that I wasn’t really looking forward to flying 11 hours straight, but in Business Class, I could certainly make do! :thumbsup2

We were then directed to security. I guess SAS has their own security line because we were directed to a small area where we showed our boarding passes and were shown into a small area with a complete airport security set up with no line! That’s right, people, no line! So far, so good! :cool:

After security we went up some escalators to the gate area. We quickly found the SAS lounge. We scanned our boarding passes at the door and were let in. Cue the celestial music. AHHHHHHHHHHHH! :cloud9:

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This place was amazing. It had tons of seating spaces. It had a food bar with fresh fruit, meats, salad, cheese, crackers, etc. They also had juice, milk, water, wine and Carlsberg on draft! I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. There were also plenty of outlets available to charge our phones, tablets, etc. I’m not sure I mentioned it, but our converter didn’t really work very well in Copenhagen so I had to go back out to the terminal and purchase a new converter so we could fully charge our phones and tablets before our flight. Meanwhile, DD got “connected” with the free WiFi :music: and DH found a newspaper. I also went out and purchased some Danish pastries for breakfast as we had some Kroner we needed to use up. Finally, I was able to settle in and enjoy the peace and quiet of the SAS Lounge. :goodvibes

But, all good things must come to an end and we had to go catch our flight. We made one last stop in the Duty-Free store on our way to the gate to use up our Kroner and bought some Danish cookies to take home.

In Europe, when you reach your gate, you scan your boarding pass and passport and enter the seating area. Basically, once in, you can’t leave. They even have bathrooms at each gate. We weren’t there long before they started boarding us. As we were Business Class, we were one of the first ones boarded.

We found our seats right away. Since the seats are doubles, DH had to sit single behind us. However, there was a galley and bathroom in front of him. I could still look back and see him since he was on the aisle. We had an overhead bin all to ourselves and a closet in the aisle next to us. So, we had our own little private area. After we were seated, a flight attendant came around with a glass of champagne or orange juice. Sweet!

DD was thrilled to have a window seat for the way home. We also really liked the fact that we could recline and had a complete leg rest. Yes folks, this was going to be a nice 11 hour flight!

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Soon after departure we were served lunch. It was delicious. I loved the tiny bottle of balsamic dressing.

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After lunch, the lights were turned down low and several passengers laid out their seats and went to sleep. Not us! I was not going to sleep through this experience, so I read and watched a movie.

Our flight took us right over Stavanger, Iceland, Greenland and Canada.

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We were able to see a lot of ice from our window. We didn’t enter US air space until we hit Washington State.

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Let me just pause here and mention the bathroom. I cannot recall ever being in an airplane bathroom that had a window in it. The bathrooms for Business Class did! They were also bigger than the average airplane bathroom. It was also nice to actually be able to turn around and take a step inside the bathroom.

I have to tell you that the flight went by very quickly, it hardly seemed like we were on the plane for 11 hours. Of course, DH told us not to get used this way of flying. Bummer! :sad2:

Anyway, back to reality. We landed in San Francisco and had to go through Customs, which wasn’t too bad. They had the automated kiosks where you scan your passports and take a truly horrible picture and then wait in line to hand your passports to an agent. On the plane we filled out the requisite customs form. They asked for it after we retrieved our luggage. We had to schlep our luggage for about 10 minutes to a different terminal to recheck our luggage for our flight home. Since our luggage had already been checked through to Phoenix, we just need to print our boarding passes. We then made it to our gate where we waited for our flight. We were pretty tired by this time. Of course, we were sitting in coach on the USAir flight and once again we were separated. Fortunately, the flight was very quick and did not take as long as they said it would. :teleport: We were just glad to be home. Even if it was over 100 degrees! :sunny: My parents picked us up and dropped us at home where we immediately went to bed. It was about 8:30 PM MST time by then. It had been a very long day!

Well, that brings us to the end of our European adventure. I hope you enjoyed revisiting all of the sites we saw while in Denmark and Norway with me.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I hope this report can help those traveling to Norway next year with Disney to plan their trip.

By the way, if you ever have any doubts about using a TA, USE ONE, especially for Europe. We owe our TA big time. Evidently he was very instrumental in getting us bumped up to Business Class, let alone finding a flight for us to get home on. Yes, we have thanked him profusely!

Thanks for reading! :thanks:
 
I really enjoyed this! Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to write this report! So much great information!

If you could guess, how much Danish money would you say you used/per day? Also, for one port day in Norway, how much cash did you need?
 
I really enjoyed this! Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to write this report! So much great information!

If you could guess, how much Danish money would you say you used/per day? Also, for one port day in Norway, how much cash did you need?

Meeska, thanks for your kind words.

We took 2500 Danish Kroner and 3000 Norwegian Kroner with us. Except for Bergen, we ate on the ship for lunch at the ports. We used cash for incidentals. some souvenirs and tips for excursions but used credit cards for larger purchases. We came back with about 300 NOK and 250 DKK. I really couldn't tell you how much we spent per day. But be warned. Food is very expensive in Scandinavia.
 
Meeska, thanks for your kind words.

We took 2500 Danish Kroner and 3000 Norwegian Kroner with us. Except for Bergen, we ate on the ship for lunch at the ports. We used cash for incidentals. some souvenirs and tips for excursions but used credit cards for larger purchases. We came back with about 300 NOK and 250 DKK. I really couldn't tell you how much we spent per day. But be warned. Food is very expensive in Scandinavia.
That helps a lot! Thanks!
 

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