[Copenhagen, Denmark, Jun 11, 2024]

I woke up to the rain that had been forecasted to arrive. I was hoping that it will be like Amsterdam, where it rained only for a couple of hours instead of the whole day like the forecast said. At any rate, I had planned to go heavy on the castles today due to the forecast. But I had a few places to climb also, and I was hoping for good views from there.

I started my day at Rosenborg castle, which was only a 10-minute walk from my hotel. It was built by Christian IV in the early 17th century and it quickly became his favorite castle. It remained a royal residence until 1720 and from about 1660, it stored the finest objects in the King’s possession. In 1838, it opened to the public as a museum.

The castle is surrounded by the King’s Garden, the oldest and most visited park in Copenhagen. It contains several historic buildings, such as the Royal Barracks, home to the Royal Guard. The changing of the guard at the nearby Amelienborg begins here. The park is also home to several statues and monuments. Despite the gloomy weather, I enjoyed walking through it on my walk to Rosenborg.

The ground floor and first floor of Rosenborg take you on a chronological journey through the royal lineage from Christian IV to Frederick VII.

The Great Hall occupies the second floor. Woven tapestries and anointing chairs show the splendor of the monarchy.

The basement houses the Armory and the Treasury, which I was excited about since the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London remain one of my favorite museum experiences. The Danish royal crowns and crown jewels aren’t as impressive though.

On the way to the second castle of the day, Amelienborg, I ducked into the Marble Church, which I had now seen from my canal tour, from atop the Round Tower, and from my walk to- and from the Little Mermaid statue. Known for its Rococo architecture, this church, which is not actually made of marble, was designed to be the focal point of the Frederiksstaden district of Copenhagen. Frederiksstaden was intended to commemorate the 300 years jubilee of the first coronation of a member of the House of Oldenburg.

The Marble Church dome is supposed to have some of the best views of Copenhagen, but climbing it was limited to weekends only until June 15th. Gah! I only missed it by a couple of days! I had to make do with the inside, which is still gorgeous.

Next, I visited Amalienborg. It is the official residence for the Danish royal family and consists of four Rococo palaces laid around an octagonal courtyard. At the center is a large equestrian statue of Frederick V.

One of the palaces is open to the public and houses the Amalienborg Museum. The rooms of several royals are intact and are on display on the first floor. But I found the rooms extremely crammed with furniture, the lighting too dim and the signage overly detailed, so I didn’t spend a lot of time here.

The next floor had been re-arranged to show the special exhibition ‘Frederik X: King of Tomorrow’ to celebrate the new king, who just ascended the throne on January 14th. The exhibition created a portrait of the new king through photographs, objects, video clips and paintings. Just like the royal rooms, it was way too detailed for me and I walked through without pausing much.

But this placed me back outside just after 11:30 am, which was the perfect time to settle into a spot for the changing of the guard, which takes place here every day at 12 pm. Unfortunately, this was the more limited ceremony; the full one takes place from September through April when the royal family is there.

The best part of the limited ceremony was when the new guards walked over to the different corners of the octagon to change each set of guards there. A good portion of the crowd followed them closely as they did that, myself included. This allowed us to get a lot closer to the guards!

All of the running around worked up my appetite, so I headed to one of the best bakeries in town, Sankt Peders Bageri. It is the oldest bakery in Copenhagen and in addition to the treats, it allowed me to see a new part of town, the Latin quarter. I spotted the entrance to Tivoli, the famous Copenhagen amusement park, and Copenhagen’s City Hall (pictured below) as I got off the metro.

The rain, which had stopped while I was at Rosenborg, returned just as I got to the bakery. But that didn’t stop me from grabbing some goodies and sitting outside to enjoy them with my umbrella open 🙂 Luckily, the rain didn’t last long.

I walked off the pastries on my way to Christiansborg, which was 15 minutes away on foot. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Prime Minister’s Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. It is the only building in the world that houses all three of a country’s branches of government. Several parts of the palace are still used by the Danish monarch, including the Royal Reception Rooms, the Palace Chapel and the Royal Stables.

I first headed to the tower, which is free to enter. I was immensely surprised that I didn’t have to get to the top using my own two feet – there was an elevator! An even bigger surprise was the sunny weather that met me at the top – didn’t it just stop raining? That was the beginning of a beautiful afternoon in Copenhagen! The views from the top were amazing and sufficiently different from the Round Tower the day before, which is in another part of town.

I next toured the Christiansborg ruins in the basement. I learned that the present building, the third with this name, is the last in a series of successive castles and palaces constructed on the same site since the erection of the first castle, Absalon Castle, in 1167. It was demolished in the 14th century and Copenhagen Castle took its place. When that castle aged, Christian VI built the first Chistiansborg Palace in 1745. But that fell victim to a fire in 1794, and so did Christansborg II in 1884. Christiansborg III was finished in 1928 in the historicist Neo-baroque style.

Absalon and Copenhagen Castle were excavated at the start of the 20th century and can be seen today in the subterranean excavations under the present palace, which I found absolutely fascinating.

There were also models of the previous castles.

I then toured the royal apartments, also knowns as Royal Reception Rooms. Unlike the ones at Amalienborg and Rosenborg, they were quite spacious and open. As the name suggests, they are still used for official purposes, and I loved seeing pictures of recent events that took place in them on the signs.

The Alexander room is named after the frieze that frames the hall under the ceiling. It shows Alexander the Great entering Babylon after his conquest of the Persian Empire. You can see it in the photo on the left above. It is 35 meters long and and is the work of Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. He made it in 1812 during his stay in Rome.

The Royal Family’s exquisite and world-famous porcelain set, the Flora Danica, is on display near the Alexander room. It is believed that the set was ordered by Christian VII as a gift to Catherine the Great of Russia. However, she died before the set was completed. Instead, it was first used by Christian VII on his birthday in 1803. The set has since been used for numerous royal banquets. The motifs for the set were based on the great botanical encyclopaedia, the Flora Danica, which took 122 years to complete and contains pictures of all wild flowers native to Denmark.

I also tried to visit the chapel (open on weekends only till later in the summer) and the parliament (it required pre-booking, which I didn’t realize). Still, I felt like I had seen more than enough of Christiansborg. This palace wasn’t even on my radar at first but I am glad I changed my mind and visited it. Out of the 3 I did today, it was my favorite.

I had plenty of time to walk over to the Church of Our Savior, where I had a 4:30 pm reservation to climb its spire. On the way there, I noticed a place that had also caught my attention on the canal tour yesterday. It was called Kayak bar because you could rent kayaks there. But you could also just enjoy food and drinks on its platforms right on the Christianshavn canal. Even though I was still kind of full from the bakery, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to relax for an hour on the canal.

The Church of Our Savior was built in 1696 and was intended as the town church for Christianshavn, then an independent merchant’s town on the island of Amager. The spire was added in 1752. It is 300 ft (90 m) high and the external staircase turns four times counterclockwise around it.

Climbing the stairs on the outside was definitely a little nerve-wracking, especially at the top where the stairs become really narrow. The views were amazing though!

Because it was so close by, I had to walk through Christiania. It began in 1971 when a group of people cut a hole in the fence to the military barracks and squatted there. Soon, the area was known for Pusher Street, where you could buy hash and pot – but no hard drugs – from various stalls. Today, many of the original settlers still live in the collectively controlled village. Many of them built their homes themselves, giving the area an extremely interesting architectural feel. There is also a variety of eco-restaurants, workshops, galleries and music venues. By the time I visited, the open trade of cannabis has been shut down as of April 2024. Pusher Street’s cobblestone road was physically removed, and a new apartment complex is expected to be built there. With Pusher street gone, so was the main appeal for tourists, but I still saw plenty of people clearly not living here walking around. The notorious rule about not taking photos had clearly gone the way of the illegal cannabis trade, which I welcomed!

From there, I walked back to my hotel through the rest of Christianshavn. I crossed the Kissing Bridge, which my canal tour guide yesterday pointed out to me. It was nicknamed that because it’s one of the few bridges in Copenhagen that opens up. When the two sides come back together, it’s like they are kissing each other.

I wished I had more time to meander, but my 6 am flight the next days meant an extra early wake up time, so I wanted to wind down and try to go to bed early. But Copenhagen has impressed me with all it has to offer and I know I will be back again to experience the many things I did not have time for.