Scandinavia—September 9-October 6, 2024

 Copenhagen, September 9th to 14th

We flew out Sunday September 8th, and after a 1.5 hour layover in Rekyavik, landed in Copenhagen Monday at 1PM, caught a taxi to our hotel, and then tried to stay awake. We normally take an orientation walk to prepare for the next day, and despite the rain, that's what we did. 

With a paper map and Google walking directions on my phone, we headed to a coffee shop where we would meet our guide Monday morning for a 3 hour walking tour of the city center. We found Cafe Fiol without any trouble, but by that time, the rain had grown intense. We thought about waiting it out, but the weather forecast was for increasing rain so we walked the 1.5 miles back to our hotel. Luckily, we had rain jackets and umbrellas. That's the good news; the bad news is that we were soaked from our knees to our toes. Thankfully, we had a hair dryer in our room, so we were able to mostly dry out our shoes; the rest of our clothes we hung up in the bathroom. By the morning everything was dry (mostly).

Tuesday was our first full day and it was cool but sunny most of the day. After a fitful night, sleeping off and on (damn jet lag), we enjoyed some good coffee and pastries at a bakery down the street before meeting our guide for the City Center Walking Tour. 

In this post you'll see pictures of street scenes and shots from the Grand Canal Boat Tour we took later in the afternoon. Basically, it was a great first full day, and we managed 6.7 miles without even trying.

Brilliant signage. Follow the Exit path.

Hotel interior courtyard.

Dan Simon, tour guide & 25 year
resident, formerly from California.

Interior of Copenhagen Cathedral. We
were not impressed even though this
sculpture and the twelve apostles lining
the left and right sides were done by the
famous sculpture, Bertel Thorvaldsen
(1770-1844). Church of Our Lady seems
more like a gallery than a cathedral.

Buildings are built to the sidewalk or lane
with walkways to interior courtyards and
on to another parallel street. It's fun walking
and gawking into and through them.

Danish flag.

Hans Christian Andersen tour guide.

Converted phone booths dot squares throughout Copenhagen.

Click on picture and read the signs.

Inge Lehmann carving on obelisk outside University of
Copenhagen's administration building. All the other busts
portray famous men, of course.

Click on the picture to read about Inge Lehmann.

Goddess of Charity fountain (1608), the oldest
fountain in the city.

Round Tower, 1642, info.

Round Tower, 1642, video.

These brass inserts on streets assist blind residents
navigate Copenhagen's city center.

Gotta love the old city streets.

Many shops sport symbols that indicate what
you'll find inside.

Reliefs such as this beautify buildings throughout the city. Of
course, Denmark is known for design.

Trinity Church's organ. 

Clam shell carvings along the Trinity Church pews
reminded me of the shells Santiago de Compostela
pilgrims attach to their backpacks.

University of Copenhagen dorm (circa 1800's)

Future university dorm residents.

Cute carving outside university building entrance.

Later in the afternoon we took a 1 hour 45 minute cruise

through Copenhagen's harbor and canals. Our guide Peter 

was informative and funny.

 

National Theatre fronts the main canal.

Just a cool office building.

Torpedo apartments so named because this building
once housed submarines.

Graffitti is self-explanatory.

Opera House.

Typical public canal ferry.

Tug boat live-aboard.

Formerly cement silos converted to apartments in Nordhavn, 

recognized as a 5 minute neighborhood.

United Nations embassy. To visit you need your passport, because it's
considered independent from Denmark.

This office building is called The Toilet Roll.

Opera House from straight on.

These are the most expensive apartments in thecity. They start at
one million $'s and sit on a formerly paper recycling center.

More unexpected and cool art sprinkled along the canal.

One of the many pedestrian and bike bridges spanning the canal.

King's Yacht.

 

Passing under multiple low bridges was made more challenging by the high tide.