Farvel, København

With the Viking Tour wrapped up, I had two full days added on to my trip to explore Copenhagen. I've wanted to visit this city for a while, as it's well known for its livability and good urbanism. After breakfast at the hotel, I took the metro to drop my bags off at my final hotel of the trip, 71 Nyhavn. Kyle and I went for a little walking tour, starting in Nyhavn and crossing the bridge to Christiana, a weird hippie area. There's not anything in particular to do there, but it was interesting seeing the public art and colorful ramshackle buildings. From there we continued walking south, passing the Church of Our Saviour, which was closed for Sunday services, and the tower was closed due to high winds. We also walked by Christian's Church, which was also closed for Sunday services. Not the best timing, but I'd be back to this area later in the trip. As we walked toward the Lille Langebro pedestrian bridge, we saw a huge number of bicyclists and some music and tents set up. Turns out it was "Tour of Copenhagen," an event where 10km of roads were closed to cars and opened to bikes and people. After carefully navigating the bike-filled bridge, we walked through Slotsholmen, the island that houses Denmark's government. We briefly popped into the chapel, then met up with some friends from the coaster tour to take a canal boat tour.

The main train station, where we caught the metro.

My hotel! Great location.

Nyhavn is like a post card.

A mural in Chistiana.

Christiana is an interesting place.

A big troll - these are currently on display in Atlanta!

This tower has exterior stairs, so it was closed for high winds.

Lots of things to discover when walking around Copenhagen.

Another closed church. But hey, the outside is impressive!

The bicycle event.

An old crooked building.

Impressive statues and buildings at the parliament.

Quick peek in the simple but impressive chapel.

Another cool building, this time a theater.

Our hour-long canal tour was a good way to see the city. We even passed the famous little mermaid statue, and went through some impossibly narrow bridge tunnels with just inches to spare. The weather was odd, with alternating sun and heavy rain, so we appreciated the ponchos that were handed out on the boat. Following the boat tour, we grabbed a quick drink from 7-11 to hydrate (the 7-11s in Copenhagen are incredibly nice) and took the metro to our next stop, Rosenborg Castle. While waiting for our timed entry, we wandered the lovely gardens. The castle itself was neat, and the basement had a museum-like exhibit with the crown jewels.

View as we started our canal tour.

Lots of things to see on the boat tour.

Hordes of tourists taking their little mermaid pictures.

Not much clearance under the bridges!

Fanciest and cleanest 7-11s ever.

People in period dress in front of the castle.

The gardens were lovely.

This lion statue had a moveable tongue.

Me and Kyle at the castle.

The inside of the castle was lavish.

Denmark's royal crown.

The crown jewels are still worn for special occasions.

By now we were hungry and ready to eat, so we walked over to the nearby Torvehallerne food market. It's a nice market, but mostly had fresh food venders and not as many restaurant stalls, so we went to the nearby Midwest Diner. This was super kitschy and a fun experience to see how "Midwest" food was interpreted. Fun times! From there we went to the Round Tower, an astronomical observatory from 1642. It has a cool spiral ramp to reach the top (originally built so horses could use it), and great views across the central city. Leaving the tower we dodged a popup rainstorm, and then I went back to my hotel to rest for a bit.

The Torvehallerne market.

Over-the-top milkshake.

The traditional Midwest food, chicken and waffles. :)

The outside of the round tower.

View of the city from the tower.

The very top is an observatory.

You could stand on the glass floor and see all the way down.

Cool spiral architecture of the tower.

Typical Danish scene near my hotel.

My hotel room was on the top floor and had cool old wooden beams.

That evening, I walked around a bit more, and was treated to a rainbow over the city. I wandered and happened upon a few cool looking churches and even a palace. Copenhagen is a great city to just walk around without a plan.

Yay, rainbow!

The marble church.

A cool orthodox church I walked by.

This guy packed up his string bass from the Jazz Festival and biked away!

Panorama of Nyhavn, where my hotel was.

Gorgeous sunset over the historic buildings.

The next morning, I had breakfast at my hotel, including koldskål with crispy biscuits and strawberries. I met up with Kyle, and we kicked off a long day of visiting a lot of tourist sites. Walking by Amalienborg we happened upon a changing of the guard, and then continued north to Kastellet, a 17th century citadel. It still has an active military function, but you're able to freely walk in and enjoy the grounds.

Changing of the guard.

St Alban's Church next to the Kastellet.

The bridge leading in to the Kastellet.

The original earthen mounds and moat still surrounds the citadel.

Of course there's a windmill!

Next we took a train to the Norrebro neighborhood, which is more of a residential area and off the tourist radar. We walked around for a bit and saw some murals before visiting the Assistens Cemetery. A cemetery may seem like a weird place to visit, but it's a very park-like area with a number of famous graves. We made sure to visit the graves of Søren Kierkegaard, Hans Christian Andersen, and Niels Bohr.

Pedestrian / bicycle bridge across the train tracks.

A cool mural in Norrebro.

A unique grave.

I remember reading Kierkegaard in college.

A row of historic tombs.

Author of many tales, including the Little Mermaid.

People use the cemetery as a park. It's quite pleasant.

Famous chemist/physicist Niels Bohr.

Another mural, this time political.

We'd had a packed morning already, but we had a few more things before lunch. We started by taking the train to city hall plaza. Now might be a good time to mention how awesome Copenhagen's metro system it. There aren't many lines, but the trains are frequent, fast, and clean. Very easy way to get around the city. After briefly viewing the inside of city hall, including the famous clock, we went next door to the National Museum of Denmark. This was a sprawling museum with a wide area of historic and modern exhibits. The highlight was undoubtedly "The Raid," a special exhibit on Vikings. After viewing some artifacts, you enter what the museum calls a "cinematic story." Essentially you walk through a series of dark spaces with walls reminiscent of billowing sails or crashing waves. As your group arrives in each section a video is projected on the waves showing the journey of Björn Ironside and his fleet of 62 ships traveling toward Rome in the 800s. The videos are extremely well done, and honestly seem like something that would be produced for Netflix or HBO Max. This was easily one of the best single exhibits I've ever seen; it's worth a trip to the museum just for this.

For lunch we met up with Celie, a friend from Emory University, at Restaurant Karla, which serves traditional Danish food.

Subway map.

The subway is great.

Historic clock in city hall.

The main atrium of city hall.

Viking horns on display in the National Museum.

The museum atrium.

The beginning of the Viking Raid exhibit. The cinematic portion is in the blue wave structures.

The museum had a wide array of items, such as this Day of the Dead diorama.

An exhibit on monsters of the night.

Items from Greco-Roman Egypt, including Fayoum portraits.

Hey who added Disney's Hercules? :)

A mummy with its coffin.

An entire historic room that was relocated to the museum.

Celie told me this is a very common Christmas meal in Denmark.

Hi Celie!

After lunch we started the afternoon by walking around Slotsholmen. We visited the adjacent royal library, which is known as "the Black Diamond" thanks to the color and shape of a 1999 addition. We had some tea in the library's cafe, and then walked around to do some final tourist shopping. After a rest at the hotel, we had falafel for dinner and closed out the night with ice cream at Kastbergs. This was my favorite ice cream of the trip. I had two unique flavors - sea buckthorn and cask whiskey.

Entering Slotsholmen.

The library atrium.

This little book was very helpful!

Yay, ice cream!

My flight was supposed to leave the next morning, but was delayed five hours. This gave me time to visit a few more things around the city. After a great breakfast at the hotel, I walked to Our Savior's Church, which had been closed for high winds when I first walked by it. I was the first person to arrive, and they let me up at 8:57am, a few minutes before official opening. It was amazing to walk up the tower alone, including the final portion which is an exterior spiral staircase. It was still extremely windy at the top, but luckily it was sunny and there were fantastic views. I continued on what was essentially a church tour, with the next stop being the Marmorkirken (marble church) which opened at 10AM. This church's main feature is the impressive dome. Just down the street was St Alexander Nevsky church, which was not open, but the gold onion domes looked cool. Another block away was Sankt Ansgars Cathderal, a catholic church from 1842. This was a nice quiet church to visit, and I was the only person there. My last tourist stop of the day was the Amelienborg palace museum, in the square where we had seen the changing of the guard. Finally I went back and checked out of my hotel and took a train to the airport.

The impressive gold and black spiral staircase on Our Savior's Church.

View from partway up.

View from the very windy top.

I can see my hotel, and the marble church, where I was headed next!

The dome of the marble church.

The soaring interior.

Reflection of golden onion domes.

St. Ansgar's Cathedral

Inside the palace museum.

The big hall of the palace museum.

Pizza for lunch at the airport.

Welcome back to ATL, lit up for Independence Day.

That wrapped up my time in Copenhagen. It's a lovely city, and one of my favorites in Europe. It's very livable, with a walkable/bikable center and a great metro system. The tourist attractions are top notch. I'd love to visit again!