Sailing Into Denmark
After our experience with the hop-on/hop-off bus in Helsinki, we decided to forego transportation today and went back to our original plan for a walking tour of Copenhagen. We decided to cut our planned tours of one of the palaces, figuring that after seeing the grandeur in Russia, these palaces would not be anything new. We hung out on our verandah after breakfast waiting for the ship to dock. The ship docked early and we went down to deck 3 to wait and then saw the staircase was not blocked, so we walked down to deck 2 and just like other days, people were already getting off. This was still surprising to us, having gotten used to Disney making announcements when it was clear to disembark.
Polar Bear And Marine Monument
We soon realized the largest part of our walking would be just getting off Langeline pier. It was a long walk to the Kastellet area. First we walked past a statue of a polar bear and her cubs, which Janie at first mistook for otters. The statue was apparently shot in the head by a German soldier during the Occupation. Alcohol was likely involved. Next was the Maritime Monument, a winged female figure representing Remembrance on a platform with the names of 101 Danish ships sunk during WWI and the sailors who died on them. The front of the podium shows a dramatic scene with a ship that is sinking after colliding with a naval mine. The relief on the left rear side shows Mars pointing with his sword towards an eagle that is attacking a gull as a symbol of the Great Powers' assault on the small, peaceful nation. On the right rear side is Mercury pointing towards three doves. The fourth relief depicts a fatherless family.
The Little Mermaid
Finally we reached the real reason for our walk, the Little Mermaid statue. This 100-year-old bronze and granite sculpture was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale about a mermaid who gives up everything to be united with a handsome prince on land.
Marie
We continued along the waterfront past the statue of Princess Marie of Orleans, a 19th century Danish princess and through the Kastellet area.
Kastellet
We continued along the outside of the Citadel area known as Kastellet on our way to the Gefion Fountain.
Gefion Fountain
According to an ancient legend, Gefion was the goddess who ploughed the island of Zeeland out of Sweden. The Swedish king Gylfe offered the goddess Gefion as much land as she was capable of ploughing within one day and one night. The statue depicts her heroic effort.
Churchillparken and St. Alban's
The statue sits in Churchillparken, a public park named to commemorate Winston Churchill and the British assistance in the liberation of Denmark. St. Alban's church and the Museum of Danish Resistance sits alongside the Gefion Fountain.
Amalienborg Palace
We left the waterfront behind and continued down the city streets of Copenhagen to Amalienborg Palace. Around the large cobblestoned square are four palaces, which serve as the homes of the Crown Prince and Queen and a museum. We took some photos of the "fuzzy dudes" guarding the palace and also caught a glimpse of the real guards in fatigues with semi-automatic machine guns. The "fuzzy dudes" are known officially as the Royal Life Guards (Den Kongelige Livgarde). We were too early for the daily changing of the guard ceremony. A statue of Frederick V, who died in 1766, on his horse stands in the center of the courtyard.
Frederik's Church
From the courtyard, we could see Frederik's Church, better known as the Marble Church. This Church with its copper green dome is one of the most impressive in the city. The foundation stone was laid in 1749 as part of a grand plan of making a new city district called Frederiksstaden.
Nyhavn
From Amalienborg, we continued across the city to the canals of Nyhavn. Originally a commercial port, the beautiful old houses have been renovated and restaurants dominate the old port. Hans Christian Andersen, lived in no. 20 when he wrote some of his most famous works. Having had a full breakfast on the ship, even though the smells of the danishes and other pastries tempted us, we resisted.
Strøget
Following the quaint streets of Nyhavn, we entered the bustling street of Strøget, one of Europe's longest pedestrian streets.
Danish Lego Store
We stopped quickly into a Danish Lego store and took in more delightful smells along the way to the Dragon Fountain at City Hall Square, featuring a bull in combat with a dragon. We don't know why they were fighting. We crossed the square where a small display of local firefighting and police equipment were on display and had to stop Rebecca from picking up a plastic fireman's hat.
Entrance To Tivoli Gardens
Finally we reached our destination for the day, Tivoli Gardens. The ladies decided they wanted to tackle the amusement rides, so they got all-day ride passes, while J. R. settled for just an entrance ticket. Tivoli is credited as inspiration for Walt Disney in creating Disneyland.
Walking Around Tivoli
The ladies began their day with The Roller Coaster, a 1914 wooden roller coaster that is one of the world's oldest and is still operated by a manual brakeman to slow the ride down the hills. J. R. wandered around while they were on the ride to look at some of the shops and gardens.
Tik Tak
Along his walk, J. R. saw a nearby spinning ride, the Tik Tak, that he recommended the ladies try next. He neglected to tell them that beside spinning in circles, the ride also flipped them upside-down.
Rose Gardens
We strolled through the rose gardens and posed for some photos as we made our way to the oriental land portion of the park.
The Flying Trunk
The plan next was to ride The Demon, a looping, 28 meter high roller coaster. But it was not open and despite several tries throughout the day, it would not be available to ride at all. Disappointed, Janie and Rebecca took a ride through The Flying Trunk, which was a Peter Pan-like ride through the world of Hans Christian Andersen, which they thought was cute.
The Monsoon
Janie and Rebecca wanted to go back and ride The Mine, a coaster-like ride with an interactive element, but it too was out of service. They chose to ride a rocket orbiter ride then we headed to the other side of the park. Rebecca braved The Golden Tower, a 63 meter-high free fall ride before talking her mother into The Monsoon, a lifting platform attraction. Becca then rode Fatamorgana by herself. On this ride, she was seated in a ring with her back towards the center and slung around while being propelled to 2.5 G-force as the floorless structure with the four arms rotates around the tower.
Tivoli Gardens
Following that, the ladies headed back to the Mine while J. R. found a Schiøtz Golden IPA at Woodhouse. Janie joined him after the ride for a pastry while Rebecca headed back to Fatamorgana and the Monsoon. After the beer was gone, Janie and J. R. toured the gardens, with Janie walking right past a relaxing peacock.
Tivoli Parade
We met back up with Rebecca and enjoyed some licorice and a Danish sausage as a parade passed by.
Exiting Tivoli
We exited Tivoli and headed across the street to the main train station.
Danish Rail
We encountered our first real transportation issue of the trip at the train station as the kiosks refused to accept either of our credit cards, saying "Incorrect currency". The machines also would not take the Danish money J. R. had with him. Janie went to stand in a ticket line while J. R. tried one more machine. This time, because he was in a hurry and had memorized the sequence after trying it four times in English, he just processed it using the Danish menus. The machine accepted Danish currency then and we had our tickets. Of course it turned out we didn't really need them as no one checked our tickets on our ride back.
We made a wrong turn coming out of the stop and had to walk a little longer than we desired back to the ship. We passed the Mermaid again and Rebecca bought a small mermaid statue with our leftover Danish coins. We reboarded the Reflection and went up to the buffet for a quick bite to each and then and returned to the Martini Bar where Becca enjoyed another virgin martini.
Back on the Reflection and Masque
Dinner was in the main dining room tonight, the last time for us in Opus as we had specialty dining booked for our final night. We had eaten too much at the buffet and weren't really hungry for dinner. J. R.'s beef brochette wasn't very good anyway and he wished he had ordered the butter chicken Janie had selected.
In the Grand Foyer at 10:15 was "Masque", billed as an interactive theme party with the production cast. The dancers came out in venetian costumes and performed a number, but there wasn't much interactive. They stuck around for one song after their performance and then hightailed it out of there before the dance floor got crowded.
J. R. and Janie danced for awhile at the Mega 80's party but this area really was not conducive to a dance party as there was too much pushing and shoving. Janie was ready to push on, but J. R. was tired so they headed to the Promenade for a nightcap and then bed.
