Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN

It wouldn’t be Denmark without LEGO 🙂

Copenhagen was a very interesting citytrip, because I didn’t have any expectations, nor did I really had prepared myself well for this trip. It was one of these Capital cities in Europe that I wanted to visit someday but never exactly knew when time would bring me there.
Copenhagen is a very easy to walk city, with the plan that I grabbed at the Copenhagen centre railway station I had enough. I stayed at the Best Western Hotel close to the Tivoli Amusement park and the Radhuspladsen (The City Hall Square).

The City Hall

Inside City Hall Danish Flags

H.C. Andersen Statue

The first day I have done the free walking tour, it started at 11am, it’s a 3 hour tour, you can leave anytime you want, you don’t have to stay untill the end, but I did since I had a good guide and afterwards I already knew some of the great spots without having to use my map anymore.
Some of the places I have visited were Nyhavn,Rosenborhg Castle, The Round Tower,The Freetown of Christiania and ofcourse the most famous symbol of Copenhagen, the Statue of the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid is a story for children by Hans Christian Anderson who also has a statue of himself just next to the City Hall. He wrote so many children stories, to name some :  The Princess and the pea and his famous one The Ugly duckling.
The Little Mermaid is not a big statue but just like the Manneken Piss in Brussels its world-famous and that’s why people want to see it.
I liked walking around the Rosenborg Castle which is in the middle of a nice Royal park belonging to the Danish Royal collection, just like the Royal Palaces at Amalienborg.
Close to the Rosenborg Castle, just a few streets away, you can find the Round Tower which is now an observation tower for a great view over the city.

Nyhavn

The Little Mermaid

Royal Palace Amalienborg

Rosenborg Park

Rosenborg Park Statue

The Round Tower

Inside the Round tower , that’s how it goes up, no stairs, just climbing a wall

View on Copenhagen shopping street  from the roof of the Round Tower

View on Copenhagen from the roof of the Round Tower

From Castle Island where the Christiansborg Castle stands and the stock exchange building I crossed the Knippelsbro bridge to another part of the city “Christianshavn where the Our saviors church stands with its amazing tower. It’s the church with the nicest tower hard to miss. Just 1 block further lays the freetown of Christiania which is an old hippy town , a self-declared republic, they sell weed here and since that is illegal you can’t take pictures, only a few at the entrance of this Freetown. Some nice graffiti is what I saw,  to bad that I have been constantly watched by some weirdos who wondered what the hell I lost over there and maybe waiting for me to break the rules of not taking pictures, to smash my camera to the ground like they did with some American tourists in the past (source tripadvisor).To be honest it’s not that special and to call this a country you must be really screwed up in your head. Been there done that, not much else to say about this place.

Crossing the Bridge into Christianshavn

The Our Savior Church in Christianshavn

This is the Christiania Flag Red with 3 yellow dots, only someone who must have smoked a lot of weed could have invented this flag.

Some of the graffiti

The 3rd and last night in Copenhagen I went to the Tivoli Amusement park, it was closed the first days but has been re-opened for the Christmas period. I was lucky it opened just the evening before I had to leave. Because it was the opening of the parks Winter season the place was crowded, people everywhere but it’s a must do when you are here, since it’s the second oldest theme park in the world (1843) and the most visited one in Scandinavia.
This park was also an inspiration to Walt Disney. He visited the park in the early 50’ies and a few years later in 1955 he opened his first Disneypark in Anaheim California ‘Disneyland’.
The oldest theme park in the world is Dyrehavsbakken (1583) about 10km north of Copenhagen near Klampenborg. Looks as the Danes were the founders of the theme parks something I didn’t know before going to Denmark.

Tivoli