Denmark Adventures: Day 7

Coming off the high of our lovely outing to the Deer Park, we decided to spend a low-key day in Copenhagen. We started out for the downtown first thing in the morning, lucky enough to watch the sun rise over Tivoli’s {one of the top tourist destinations in Denmark, Tivoli is a popular amusement park} front entrance on our stroll through the heart of the city.

Right across the street from Tivoli – City Hall.

We never did end up going inside this building, but the pictures we saw of the interior were quite impressive.
Abigail was delighted with the resident pigeon population and, after eying them longingly them from her stroller, was thrilled to chase after the birds and watch them scatter (stayed tuned for another adventure where her chasing didn’t end so pleasantly…she has the scars to bear witness)!

A quick posed picture in front of another ubiquitous fountain (with the requisite bike, of course).

Our ultimate destination was the National Museum – with free entrance how could we pass up a visit!

There were a broad range of artifacts housed at the museum: from animal skeletons to ancient tools, architecture and wooden idols.

Some ancient coins…

This picture does not do justice to the uniqueness of this particular piece: it is a painted table, with a cylindrical mirror jutting from the centre. Only by looking into the mirror do the characters depicted in the painting come in to proper focus. It was incredible, and boggles my mind (I’m as inartistic as they come) how someone could visualize the final product during the intricate process of painting!

This is certainly a spot someone could easily spend an entire day (the plethora of artifacts was pretty incredible). But I’ll admit it wasn’t a hit for me because Abby was so restless (I can’t really blame her…museums are not too enthralling to a 16-year old, let alone a 16-month old!). At one point I left John to go back to our locker at the entrance of the museum. Failure to communicate led John to wander on ahead without me, so when I returned, he was nowhere to be seen. I raced around the museum over and over again (getting more lost in the maze of rooms each time). I was sweating (wearing Abby in her carrier), frustrated, and tired! I finally happened upon him, happily snapping pictures. He thought I was off browsing on my own, so was surprised at my slight panic over finding him. All was set to rights soon enough, and after a quick picnic lunch we headed off again.

We passed by the Parliament/Christianborg Palace and snapped a few pictures of the exterior:

Both times we visited the palace, there were no horses to be seen, but the central courtyard (above) often has horses pacing around. We did walk by the royal stables soon after, though:

Pictures of the family inside the royal guard stations:

We did venture into the palace, but decided against a tour (we had big plans to visit several other castles/palaces while in Denmark). There were some stunning architectural details in the entry portion of the palace, though, and Abby had a delightful time climbing the stairs!

We strapped Abby back into her stroller and headed off to grab some “touristy” things like postcards and local food. Within minutes she was asleep, so we took our time wandering the streets.

We tried a local hotdog!

And then we ended up at one of John’s choice destinations – the main Lego store in the city (Legoland is actually 3-4 hours away, most easily accessible by flight). The store did not disappoint. The sheer scale of some of the Lego creations was staggering. There was Lego (and Lego accessories) as far as the eye could see!

The entire wall was a mosaic of Lego pieces!

There was, of course, lots of Stars Wars themed Lego, so John bought a small set home for his growing collection (NOT the one pictured below! Lego is no cheaper in Denmark than in North America).