Baltic Sea Cruise: Port #1 Copenhagen, Denmark

Our day in Copenhagen was slightly tainted by the fact that it was raining almost the entire day.  I’ve never prayed for good weather and no rain as much as I have this past year….but when you pay for these expensive amazing trips where you see a city a day, you think that the weather should cooperate right?  Not always.  So we did what we could and made good use of our umbrellas.  We started at the Rosenborg Palace which is surrounded by the King’s garden which was pretty, but would have been delightful had it not been for the miserable rain.  The tour was great inside containing a Royal History of Denmark and the catacombs in the basement where the crown jewels reside. 



 
We ran in to these two gypsies and there kids and ended up touring with them….aka Annie and Rebecca my main gals here in Germany land.  Love these gals.


While exploring the city after the Palace, a couple of things became apparent:  everyone in Copenhagen owns rain boots see below, as well as a plastic water proof cover for their stroller to keep baby dry.  Also, that everyone owns a bike and rides it everywhere.  I literally have never seen so many bikes in one city.   
Next stop was to Church of our Lady:  Where we were able to see the Christus that the LDS church has duplicated and put in many temple visitor’s centers across the world.  It was stunning.  There were also all of these statues of each of the apostles.  Peter is holding the keys of the Priesthood. 
   
Legos apparently started in Denmark so we had to stop by the LEGO store on the famous STROGET (pedestrian shopping district, one of the largest in the world)

After wandering down the Stroget, we headed to the NYHAVEN district.  Its an older part of Copenhagen that is very colorful.  It would have looked cooler in better weather as shown in the photo stolen off the web below. 

Next stop was the Amalienborg Palace where the Danish Royal Family resides.  It is actually made up of four different buildings with an octagonal courtyard in the middle.  We happened to get there right at the changing of the guard ceremony so we stayed for it.  We only got yelled at once because Jake was shadowing one of the guards pretending to be just like him….THEY do not like you to get too close!

   
The Gefion Fountain was pretty cool to see:

And supposedly this fabulous statue is a famous icon of Copenhagen, commissioned by Carl Jacobsen (a Danish brewer), who presented it to the city in 1913. 

The Little Mermaid (Den lille Havfrue) is a fairytale written in 1836 and first published in 1837 by the danish author Hans Christian Andersen (H.C.Andersen). The story is about a young mermaid who is willing to give up everything to gain an immortal soul and the love of a prince.

 

And we are frozen and tired so it is back to the “Floating Hotel” cruise boat for us!