Day 24 – 2 August 2023 – Copenhagen, Denmark 1^st full day

The end of our cruise this morning so an early breakfast, finish packing, then off the ship around 9am to line up with the other 1,800 people from the ship needing taxis this morning.  After around half an hour in line we get into a Mercedes taxi & off to our hotel.  Our driver got confused with the address I gave him, on my sheet of paper it started with a Capital O, but it should have started with a capital O with a line through it, a totally different street. After that was sorted we got to the right hotel, checked in, dropped our bags & walked the 100 metres to the nearby railway station.

Five stops & we were in the middle of Copenhagen city at the Kongens Nytorv station. The train is very efficient, driverless, & on piers once out of the city. In the city it is underground. We walked across the Kings New Square to the old town port canal, Nyhavn, then walked along both sides of the canal looking at the brightly coloured historic canal front houses, lots of them now are restaurants, cafes & pubs. It is very crowded, it is a very warm sunny day & the canal front is bustling.

We decided to go for a canal boat ride, there is a very, very long queue for one of the canal boat operators, they charge 50 krone, the other operator has a short line & we go for that one & pay 140 krone each.  It was worth it, it is hot & we didn’t bring our hats & we would like to see a lot in the few days that we are here.  Around 150 people are in the long, low, wide boat, sitting 8 across. We can see why it is so low, the first bridge the boat hardly fits under. Later on, another of the 14 bridges we pass under is so narrow the boat just manages to squeeze through, then it has to turn the corner, great boat handling skills.

The tour lasts around an hour & we are impressed by the young man guiding us, he has a great sense of humour & switches between Danish, German & English quickly & easily whilst explaining what the sights are. We only get a glimpse of some of the sights such as churches, palaces, museums, library, etc., but it whets our appetite for more, Copenhagen is a beautiful city. When we leave the boat the waiting queues are amazingly long for the canal boats. It is now 1pm & we decide to have lunch so walk along the eateries along the canal & stop at one that had some free seats in the shade. Tereza had fish & chips (for a change & for easy one hand handling) & I had Danish mussels with a Danish beer. Delicious. There are so many people walking along the canal. Aren’t people working or are there so many tourists?

A golden church spire catches our interest & we decide to walk & have a look. It is only a few blocks away & when we get there, it is a massive round structure with a beautiful big dome on top. The door is open so we go inside for a look, it is beautiful inside as well, the dome is impressive from the inside & a very long way up. The altar & organ are also very impressive works of art. This church is called “Frederiks Kirke”, it is also dubbed the “Marble Church” & was started by King Frederik V in 1749 & completed over a long time, finally finished in 1894.  A little further down there are three golden orbs with crosses on top of another old building, it is a 19^th century Russian Orthodox church.

We are tired by now with all this walking & catch the train back to the hotel, trains come past every 5 minutes & in a short time we are back in our hotel, collect our bags from storage & into our room. Tereza asks me to remove the cast from her broken arm, so we do that carefully & Tereza has a shower to wash her arm for the first time in six weeks. Now for the rehabilitation to get the fingers, wrist & arm working again.  Fingers are stiff & sore, the rest of the skin on the arm feels sensitive, but the place where the bone broke feels OK, hopefully it has mended, (I have only been gently massaging it with some cream).  The weather was great, about 21C, Ron got sunburnt. Another wonderful day.