Today’s adventure found us traversing Copenhagen in a masterfully planned 15 km loop that hit all the city’s major highlights, many historical areas, and some hidden treasures.  Thanks to Christina and Thomas’s expert tour guiding, we saw the city through the eyes of locals.  If you look closely at the map, you can see the route we took in black (start and end in the bottom left corner).

We enjoyed walking around the Parliament building at Christiansborg Palace (complete with marble-columned horse stables left from when the facility housed the royal family).  A special treat was Christina’s “secret garden” between the Parliament and the Royal Library – though not so secret since it was a major Pokémon stop last summer.

We passed by Nyhavn (“New Haven”) which is a bit reminiscent of Bergen, and then had a lunch of sandwiches at a local restaurant, including juices of rhubarb and elderflower. Delicious, but hard to get at home!

At the Amalienborg Palace (current residence of the royal family), we were impressed by the guards, though we didn’t envy them their 8 kg bearskin fur hats!

Of course, no visit to Copenhagen is complete without a visit to the Little Mermaid statue – good thing she is now back from her trip to China last year as part of a Danish exhibition.  And, that journey took us close to the Kastellet fort, where Nick remembered seeing a windmill many years ago – and it is still there!

Our walk back toward the center of the city took us past the Rosenborg Castle and gardens where we were treated to an outdoor concert as part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, just started a day ago.  A highlight for Susannah was the trip up the Round Tower (with a circular ramp instead of stairs so the king could take his horses and chariot up), which affords views of all the places we had walked around the city.

We ended our day – of course – at Tivoli, the famous Danish pleasure garden replete with parks, rides, restaurants, and entertainment that is a favorite destination.  We had a marvelous meal at one of the oldest restaurants in Tivoli – good food, good friends, good times!