Copenhagen, Denmark

Our first stop on our cruise the next day was Copenhagen.  I had heard a lot of great things about this town and was very excited to see it!!!  The name Copenhagen means "Merchant Harbor" and it is believed that the city was founded in 1167.  Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with the longest continuous royal blood line in Europe, spanning some 400 years.  The entire country of Denmark is half the area of Maine.

The kids ready to go!  It was so nice to have friends to travel with, the kids really enjoyed it also!!!  

We decided in Copenhagen we were going to take the hop on hop off bus.  More than once it has been a great experience and this was no different.  David and Michael trying to see who's arm is stronger.

In Copenhagen 55% of  the people there ride bicycles.  There was parking like this all over.

I thought these were neat, double decker bike parking.  :-)

The Fountain of Charity in the Old Square of Copenhagen, Denmark has provided drinking water to the citizens since the 1600s. The pregnant woman on top squirting water from her breasts next to a boy urinating was once considered scandalous.

We couldn't help ourselves, Iron Man and the boys in a big toy store.

The Dragon Fountain at Copenhagen City Hall Square was made from a model in 1889 and was originally intended for Amagertorv but lost to the The Stork Fountain.  In 1904 a bronze basin was erected with decoration inspired by ancient Greek ornamentation in Copenhagen. On the edge of the basin were placed three dragons, all spouting water and rather larger than sketched in the 1889 project. 

 This is the Lures Blowers which is located at the east side of the Town Hall and is one of Copenhagen’s most legendary landmark known as “Lurblæserne”. The two bronze Lure Blowers standing on their Column blowing an ancient type of trumpet called a Lure - was erected in 1914 - and given to the city in 1911.  The common myth is that the blowers will blow their horns if a virgin passes by the monument.

I thought this was really cool, all over the city was self watering plants.

Next we headed over to the National Museum.  There were three levels, but we headed to the kids area first for obvious reasons.  :-)  This was outside the door of the children's area, still not quite sure what it is supposed to be, kind of scary.

Though the kids area was GREAT!!!  Here Michael is climbing the kids only ladder up to a "ship."  The boys are in the sleeping part of the ship.  They thought the cubby hole was really cool!

Michael up on the horse, ready for a parade.

AJ looking all regal and David peaking through the window in the back.

They had armor that you were able to put on, all the kids tried it on and I mean all.  :-)  David is on the left and AJ on the right.

They had wooden swords we could play with, they boys did have their turn, but then David and I decided it was our turn to go!!!

Michael carrying the water like they did in the olden days.

Here AJ was using a pulley system to get bricks up to the other kids to build the brick wall.  This place was great!!  So many hands on stuff for the kids to do!

On of the men that worked there was nice enough and let the boys hold a real sword.  He told them to try and hold it with one hand.  Micheal was able to hold it up the second time!

This boat is a replica of a type called a "faering."  This, along with three other boats, were buried with a Viking chief in Gokstad in Norway around 900.  The boats were smashed up to prevent anyone else using them.

This is an aurochs from Vig, which drowned trying to escape from the hunters' arrow.  The skeleton was found in a peat bog in western Zealand 8600 BC

This is the Christiansborg Palace and is the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Prime Minister's Office and the Supreme Court.  It is the only building in the world that houses all three of a country's branches of government.  This is the third palace built here and there are ruins of the first underneath this one that the town preserved.

This is King Christian IX's equestrian statue that is situated out in the riding ground complex.  It was finally finished 21 years later in 1927.

There are two of these that you go through to get to the palace.

On big thing in Copenhagen is telephones.  This is one of the old time telephone booths.

This is a tower with the golden, fair-weather girls at the top.  The girl with the bicycle that you see means it is sunny, there is also another girl with an umbrella for when the weather is not so good.  It is supposed to be very accurate to the weather.

David couldn't help himself, he had to see what was in the 7-11 there.  He said it was what he expected to see in a Copenhagen 7-11, not the normal American stuff.

The boys thought these guys were really good.  They were playing the piano open with a stick on the strings.  It was really cool!!

Of course what is a vacation without ice cream!!!

The kids were trying to figure out how this person had no head, with the sunglasses and hat staying up.

This is the Liberty Memorial which celebrates the end of serfdom, where farmers and workers had to stay on the land where they were born and work without pay for the estate holder.  They couldn't leave without the permission of the landowners.  It was built in 1979.  The four figures symbolizing Fidelity - Justice - Virtue and Courage are around the base.

We went into the mall there and saw this, it is fish swimming in the infinity symbol.  You can see how big it is by the elevator located in the back of it.

We saw car seats in front of the bikes, toddlers, etc.  This was the fanciest one that we saw while there.

The New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen contains the largest collection of ancient art in Northern Europe and a significant collection of Danish and French works from the 19th and 20th centuries. It receives around 350,000 visitors per year, making it one of the most popular art museums in Denmark. 

This is New Harbour, which in Hans Christian Anderson's day it was a place of drunken sailors and prostitutes.  Hans didn't seem to mind.  He lived on both sides of the canal in three different homes.

Here we are in front of the famous Gefion Fountain. 

It is on the harbor front in Copenhagen.  It features a large scale group of animal figures being driven by the legendary Norse goddess, Gefjun.  It is the largest monument in Copenhagen.

Here is the fountain with St Alban's church behind it.

St Alban's Church is the only Anglican Church in Denmark.  It was named after Saint Alban, the first martyr of England (303 AD).  It was built in 1887.

The stained glass windows are from three different periods.  These are Victorian and were made in London between 1887-1901.

This statues was erected in memory of all the sailors who lost their lives at sea.  It is located right next to the harbor.

Down below there was a crane that you could actually crank and lift up somebody, and of course the boys wanted to do it!!  They were higher than David is tall.  They had a blast!

This metal man sitting on a key is called "The Global Visionary" and the key is intended to symbolize the key to the future.  It encourages to think more global, future-proof and outside the box.  It is three meters tall and 2 1/2 tons.  It is made our of 8,500 pieces of used metal from cars, machines, etc.

Here we are waiting for the bus and of course they are climbing in the tree.  :-)  Though we almost missed the bus because they couldn't get down quick enough.

The Little Mermaid statue was a present from brewer Carl Jacobsen (The Carlsberg Breweries) to the city of Copenhagen, made by a then little known sculptor called Edvard Erichsen. The Little Mermaid was unveiled at Langeline in 1913.  The Little Mermaid symbolizes the fairy tale by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, the story of a young mermaid who fell in love with a prince who lived on land, and often came up to the edge of the water to look for her love.

This is the Angel of Peace monument.  After a long day in Copenhagen we headed back to the boat after this.

Dinner time, Michael checking out with Ari is doing.

Then the kids decided they wanted to go to the kids club for some fun.  They were made into pirates, went to disco dancing where Michael won a cool prize and then they headed to see the show that night.

It was a pharaoh show and was really great!!  Lots of acrobatics, dancing, singing, all the kids really enjoyed it!

Our little pirates!!!  After the show it was late and time to hit the sack!  We all had a wonderful day and enjoyed the city of Copenhagen.  It is one that David and I would like to go back to because there were things that we weren't able to see in one day and they have one of the oldest amusement parks there too that looked like a lot of fun!!!  We shall see how are travel takes us!