Bonjour, Tervist, Goddag

Copenhagen Day 2

Today was our second full day in Copenhagen and we got out to see some of the other sights we missed yesterday.  After breakfast we walked to Rosenborg castle, which was actually a really cool castle.  It also had a really good smartphone app that acted as a guided tour around the castle.  For many of the artifacts you could scan the barcode and it would give you all the details for that artifact.  Here’s a few pictures…

This is the wine cellar of the castle!

The sword and crown from Christian IV’s coronation.

After the castle we stopped for lunch at one of the many hotdog stands throughout Copenhagen.  They offer a lot of different kinds of hotdogs, and are called “cold feet cafes” by some. They are quite popular.

Once those were polished off, we hopped on a boat for a tour of the harbour and canals around Copenhagen.  The tour was an hour, and was a great way to see a lot of sights and get some information about them.  The boats are very low as they have to pass under some very low bridges.

We ended our sightseeing with a trip to the National Museum and Christianborg Castle.  The museum was good, but I think we have seen enough museums for a while.

These are Danish drinking horns, on display at the museum.

That pretty much wraps up our trip, we are off to the airport tomorrow at noon for our flight to Iceland, and then on to Toronto.  Both of us are very much looking forward to getting home, though we’ve had a great time exploring Paris, Tallinn and Copenhagen.

Copenhagen part 2

Wifi is a little sketchy here in our hotel, but here’s a few more pics from today.

These are the weather girls. They are located across the square from City Hall and indicate the weather for today. A bike means sunny, and the umbrella is for rain, plus there is the temperature gauge going up the building.

This is the palace guard walking through Nyhavn. We don’t know why they were walking through town, but it was quite the procession.

This is my traditional Danish meal at Tivoli gardens. Herring, and a bunch of odds and ends to make open faced sandwiches. I have to admit I felt a little out of my league trying to figure out how to eat it all.  The caviar and hard boiled egg was delicious. Even the herring was pretty good, much better than the breakfast fish I had a few days ago.

This is the atrium in the main university building.

We enjoyed our first full day in Copenhagen today. Weather was fair, a mix of cloud and sun, mid to high teens. We did a self guided walking tour of the city which is really picturesque. My favorite area is Nyhavn which is close to our hotel and where we went for dinner last night.  We walked out to the Queen’s palace and did a bit of shopping along a busy pedestrian strip but didn’t buy anything - what restraint! Prices here are very high, food is surprisingly so for the simplest things! We went to Tivoli Gardens tonight for a walk around and dinner. Pricey to get in in our opinion but much better than expected once inside. Its basically an amusement park but the rides are actually in the foreground. There are lovely gardens and interesting buildings and lots of restaurants and venues for music. Lots of them are ones that you can enjoy for the price of your admission. Others are high end symphonies etc which you have to pay an additional amount to see.

Above: A fountain in front of town 

 

Above: Tivoli Gardens

Above: Nygavn as the sun starts to set

Copenhagen

So we made it to Copenhagen after a long day of mostly sitting around. We had two flights totaling 2:30 and spent about 5:50 waiting at airports. Not sure why we thought it was worth saving some money not to take a direct flight when it was this short but oh well.

Our hotel on Copenhagen is certainly not as nice as the ones in Tallinn but it will do for the next three nights. We walked over to Nyhavn to have some dinner and then picked up a couple of drinks to have as we relaxed back at the hotel. Looking forward to getting out and seeing the city tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will stop and we will have a nice day.

Back to Tallinn today on an exceedingly boring 2+ hour bus ride. The only interesting part is the occasional stork and giant nest that has been built on one of the hydro poles. It was sunny and nice when we arrived back and we had a quick walk to our new hotel - Swisshotel - from the bus station. The hotel is a 5 star swanky, we could live here forever, hotel. The bus boy turned on the TV for us to English which started with a greeting to us in name on the TV screen. We are pretty impressed and are heading to one of their restaurants shortly for dinner which I’m sure will be exceptional.  We are on the 25th floor so we also have a nice view although not of old town which is about a 10min walk away.

We walked to Kadriog Park once we were checked in. It has a palace and the house of the Prime Minister of Estonia along with a lovely park and art museum which we passed up. We walked back into old town for another stroll around and a visit to an old Dominion Monastery. It was just okay. I was just as enchanted with Old Town again this time.

Slow day in Tartu today. We over estimated how long it would take to explore the town - oops! Its also a rainy 14 degree day. Doesn’t inspire us very much. We did do a little walking around today to see a big pig statue outside the butcher house and a local market. We were drawn to a local group that we could see dancing in the main square. I thought “Awesome, traditional cultural dance”. Alas, it was an American church group making their way to visit the Pope in Spain. Apparently they haven’t checked a map lately as they are no where near Spain and the Pope lives in Rome. Stupid Americans. The women who accosted us and told us all of this chatted up Jeff for a while - hilarious. She also thought we were locals - should have pretended we didn’t speak English - stupid Canadians! Also had a local girl take a picture for us. We are rarely in pictures together so this one will definitely get framed when we get home! lol  

I also had a much needed pedicure today at the hotel spa. I was escorted to a private room with what looked like a dentist’s chair. While she slaved over my feet I was reclined back - just like at the dentist! She literally slaved poor girl. After walking km after km in cheap flats I had done a number on them, especially my heels which had cracked. She must have filed them for the better part of half an hour with the foot file! We are looking forward to going back to Tallinn tomorrow and especially looking forward to Copenhagen.