Day 92 [01 May 09] – Copenhagen

After breakfast at the hotel (which included instant noodles surprisingly), we decided to be a bit lazy today and get around via the “hop on hop off” tourist sightseeing bus instead of walking. The two day ticket which includes all three bus routes, with unlimited rides, priced at 150kr (S$40) is not exactly cheap, but makes economic sense given that a single trip on any route costs 120kr. The first bus route we would get on is the “mermaid” route, where we would get off at the Rosenborg Slot, the little mermaid statue and Amalienborg to walk around ahev have a look.

Rosenborg Slot is a 17th century castle built by Christian IV in the Dutch Renaissance style and stands at the edge of Kongens Have (King’s Gardens). In the castle, there are rooms with glorious marbled and painted ceilings, gilded mirrors, Dutch tapestries, and gold- and enemal- ware.

Rosenborg Slot.

Frederik III’s marble room.

Christian V’s room.

Christian VI’s room.

The thrones of the king (1655) and queen (1731) are guarded by three silver lions from 1670.

Just beside the castle in an ajoining basement is the Royal Treasury, home to the Danish crown jewels.

Crown of Christian V (1665 – 70).

Crown of Christian IV (1595) and the Queen’s crown (1731).

Other Danish crown regalia.

After getting back on the bus, 10 minutes later we alighted again, this time at the statue of the little mermaid. There were hundreds of people here this afternoon, so we decided to come here first thing tomorrow morning to get our pictures and avoid the crowds! The next stop on the bus tour wasAmalienborg Palace, home to the royal family since 1794. The palace consists of four austere mansions surrounding the central square and guarded by sentries.

Amalienborg Palace.

30 minutes later and we were back on the bus, headed back to the city centre, where we had a fast food lunch before getting on the “Christiania” route bus tour. This was not an extremely interesting route, as it covered the smaller sites in the city such as the black diamond, Christiansborg, Strøget, the free city (i.e. hippy colony) of Christiania, Holmen, Marriot hotel, Our Savious Church, the Old Copenhagen Stock Exchange etc etc. I did not feel like taking pictures as the bus was moving all the time.

Hope to wake up early tomorrow and repeat the “mermaid” route first, followed by the “Carlsberg” route bus tour, which stops at the Carlsberg brewery.

Today’s pictures here.