Copenhagen Part 1

We've both been a bit homesick for winter (although kind of glad we're not home right now for any huge winter storms), and so we decided to head to some snowy locales for our next few trips! This past weekend we went to Copenhagen, Denmark. We arrived around noon on Friday (I took the day off) and set out to explore while the sun was out. There was a canal right outside our AirBNB... although sadly, no one skating on it. Maybe this is because it was clearly not 30 cm thick:

We walked around the downtown and first came to the Rundetarn, or Round Tower. This is an observatory built in the 1640s, and still in use today (although sadly only at night on very few days per week). There is an attached church which is for university students nearby, and it is very pretty:

 To get up to the top of the 36m tower you actually have to travel almost 270m, around and around, on uneven cobblestone. There are a few interesting stops along the way:

Zodiac signs with moving planets

Difficult to photograph, but glass floor installed in the central core of the building - before this was closed off a young boy fell all the way down!

The view from the top was pretty spectacular! We saw our first of many amazing church steeples in this city...

and a statue of Hermes/Mercury

 We then headed towards Christianborg palace, where many of the state visits and events are held. But first we stopped to look at this nice bridge...

Um, what's that under the water?

A sculpture in honour of the ballet about Agnete and the Merman - a woman who goes to live under the sea with a merman, has seven children with him, then grows homesick and leaves him for the surface. Here they are, calling out to her from underwater. A weird thing to come across if you've not expecting it!

We then visited Christianborg Palace. It's one of many (at least six) castles in Copenhagen, and has a long and storied history. A building was first started here in the 1100s, and over the years it was built and torn down and rebuilt until it was designed to be the home of the monarch in the early 1700s. However there was a fire in 1794 (due to soot buildup in chimneys) which burnt the palace to the ground. This displaced the king and his family to their 'temporary' home at Amalienborg (where they have been ever since) while it was rebuilt. Unfortunately no one learned their lessons from the first fire, as it burned down again, for the same reason (!) in 1884. It is now the only building in the world to house all 3 branches of power of a country, as the Danish Prime Minister's Office/House of Parliament, Supreme Court, and the Monarch's reception rooms are all based here.

The spire was supposed to be the highest in the city, but they miscalculated and it was too short... so they added some more crowns! (and a weather vane)

The old throne room (no longer in use) - the 'taller' throne is actually designed for the queen. The tall back would let her rest her elaborate wigs/hairstyles, and the chair seat is wider to accommodate the wide skirts of the time.

Ceiling frieze, telling the story of how the Danish flag was 'given' to the people by God during a major battle in the 1200s - according to our guide it is the flag with the longest continuous use as the representative of the country, without being changed.

The current monarch, Queen Margrethe II, designed this rug and its colours (they are much brighter in person). The rug company TWICE delivered an unfinished rug to the castle. Oops? She sounds like a neat person though - one of her hobbies is to sew costumes for the national ballet, and she also drew the illustrations for the Danish version of Lord of the Rings (under a pseudonym) and helped to translate it into Danish!

A portrait of 4 generations - the youngest person is a boy, but by tradition at the time they dressed young boys in girl's clothing for several years to 'cheat' the superstition that girls had better survival rates than boys. For generations, the Kings of Denmark have alternated between two names - Frederik, then Christian, then Frederick. Margarethe, the first queen in hundreds of years, named her firstborn son Frederick, after her father, to continue the tradition.

Serious wallpaper and moulding

The pattern on the floor allowed petitioners to the throne to take their leave of the king and back out of the room (not turning their back on the monarch) without bumping into walls!

The Great Hall holds 17 tapestries in a very modern but kind of bizzare style. I could have listened to our tour guide go on about these for hours!

Example - the right of this tapestry includes all the freshwater fish in Denmark, where the left side is the saltwater fish. The bottom is the rocks (earth) of the country, while the heavens above include the zodiac constellations for the Queen and Prince Consort. You can also see her favourite dog breed, the dachshund, at her feet.

Important scientists across the top, including Einstein and Niels Bohr, with famous politicians and world figures on the bottom, and a history of the 20th century both in Denmark and internationally

Now THIS is a library!

Dinner service, with life-size illustrations of local plants and flowers.  Every one of these plates is worth several hundred dollars 

Entrance hall with giants holding up the weight of the palace

Chandeliers of Murano glass from Venice - I guessed this at the palace and was super excited when I confirmed it at home. Neat to see the different countries we've visited intersecting in unexpected ways!

We finished our tour just as the sun was setting, and raced up the tower (underneath the tree crowns) to get some shots:

We then visited the ruins underneath the castle (mostly of the previous strongholds and palaces that used to be here). The pictures aren't too exciting, but I loved this picture in the children's area, where you are supposed to dress up and have your picture taken!

We ended our first day walking around the downtown enjoying the scenery, and trying to find somewhere to eat.

One of the most important concepts in Denmark is hygge - which is all about coziness and comfort. I thought this was pretty well illustrated by every patio we walked by - they all had blankets and candles out (even though not many people were taking advantage on this cold night) so that if you chose to sit outside, you could do so in warmth and comfort!

We saw a ton of great things in our first 10 hours or so in Copenhagen, but the next morning we took a detour to another country altogether. Stay tuned!