With some liquid sunshine in the forecast, we decided to do a few inside tours today. However, the forecasted “showers” turned to a driving rain as we walked to our first site. Here we are waiting for a “shower” to pass.
First stop, Rosenborg Castle. Originally built as a pleasure palace by Christian IV in the early 1600s. It is now open to the public for tours, housing a museum across 5 floors.
From Rosenborg we traveled through the expansive public park and historic site, Kastellet. The site is the best preserved star fortress in Northern Europe. Kastellet is a pentagram shaped citadel, which used to be part of the defense of Copenhagen. While it still an active military area, it is now mostly a green park with trails around the pentagram.
The Little Mermaid – well known as a disappointing tourist attraction, lived up to its reputation. The sculpture was commissioned by Carl Jacobsen (the son of the founder of Carlsberg) and is based on the same named fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen. There’s a great read on Wikipedia regarding how often this poor thing has been vandalized…including the fact that this statue does not have its original head!!
Next stop, Amalienborg (the Queen’s Palace), which consists of 4 identical palaces around a central courtyard, built in the 1700s. The royal family lives here, with a museum housed in one of the palaces.
Within the Palace museum we came across The Golden Tableau, which comprises eleven miniatures of classical statues.
Jason with the Golden Fleece:
Then we saw these curious items:
And here’s the connection:
We wrapped up Copenhagen with dinner at a wonderful Italian cafe in a plaza in “Old Town”…in the morning we head to Bergen, Norway.
