Port 74 Copenhagen, Denmark

by Ed · May 27, 2022

Hej, godmorgen! (Hi, good morning!)

It was a very early arrival in Copenhagen on May 17th, 2022! The horizon was beautiful!

We see a magnificent castle in the haze behind us. I didn’t realize we’d soon be visiting this site!

In port there is a line of windmills in an arc around the bay. Over the three days we are here we’ll see boat races, dredging, and windsurfers all over this bay!

No one could tell us what these are. The tour guides, the shuttle bus drivers – no one! These stand in front of a pension company.

We learned that this little symbol – recognize it? – was invented here. Have you used Bluetooth connections? The college student who invented it named it Bluetooth in honor of Harald Bluetooth, responsible for converting many Danes to Christianity, establishing the bishop positions in the church, and having the church responsible for handling marriages!

The port area is being developed for the next major housing area, with an estimated 30,000 families living here in the next ten years! The architecture of the condos is interesting, and here is one of the most intriguing! Not sure I’d ever want to live in this building, though.

The yellow buildings were built by the King several hundred years ago for Danish navy troops to keep them close to the port. They are still in use for military housing!

The Statens Museum for Kunst is the national art gallery for Copenhagen, and is one of the most beautiful buildings near the port! We drove by this place eight or ten times during our three day stay!

In town the most striking cultural sights are the bicycle parking areas! There are hundreds of thousands of bicycles all over Copenhagen. This lot is at the entrance to the subway. One of our tour guides said she bought four bikes in the last year because three bikes were stolen! So many bikes are left without any locks at all.

The shuttle bus drops us off across the street from the Copenhagen Cathedral. The tower is distinctive so it’s easy to find our way back!

In front of the cathedral on the far side is Moses with a tablet. The Ten Commandments are written in Danish!

The statue on the near side is of King David. Moses and David are both beautiful works!

The interior of the cathedral is stunning! Bright arched ceiling supported by clean white half columns give it a very light airy feeling! Along both walls are 10-12-foot statues of the twelve apostles. These are equally as beautiful as the Moses and David statues out front!

The most beautiful piece of all is this – at the altar is a statue of Jesus!

I watched as the lady let herself through a gate blocking the altar, walk around the alter, set her bag on the floor, and slowly drop to her knees. Her presence made this my favorite photo of the statue! He’s looking right at her!

One final shot for the cathedral – the organ pipes at the rear are simple and clean, in keeping with the overall cathedral design. What I found interesting, and is difficult to see in this view, are the small horn pipes across the center section that stick straight out!

On our way to find the Round Tower we came across this gentleman – Niels Bohr! I quickly glanced around as Joy announced we were in front of a Science building – it’s the University of Copenhagen Science Wing! Yup, makes perfect sense!

On the other side of the Science wing entrance is this monolithic sculpture to quantum theory.

This is the Round Tower, our first milestone on our first day in town.

This is the Stork Fountain. It has frogs around the base and is crowned with a spray of golden cattails!

This is City Hall. This is a beautiful building anchoring a large square that overlooks the Tivoli amusement park!

This sculpture is the Lur Blowers. It sits atop a tall column, so look high to see it! Two guys hold the horns while one of them blows!

The entrance to Tivoli moved around the corner from the Hans Christian Andersen building to this gate on the adjacent street.

A little farther past Tivoli is the Liberty Memorial. This sits in the median between four very busy lanes of traffic…

…and directly in front of the train station! This is a beautiful structure! If we ever get back I’ll try to go inside!

On day 2 we’re touring the old part of town again. This is the Church of the Holy Spirit, set back from the road behind a wrought iron fence.

The interior is simple, clean, with smooth column surfaces, smooth ribbed ceiling vaults raising the eye up, and warm wood balconies carrying the eye forward!

This is the first church I’ve ever been in that has doors to pews! This makes me think of the church with assigned family box seats that I first read about in Nathanial Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables.”

The organ pipes at the rear are elaborately framed, and supported over a wall with lovely gold leaf paintings!

This is the National Theater. The tile in the domed ceilings of the balcony are gorgeous!

We head over to the canal at Nyhavn.

A Memorial Anchor sits at the mouth of the canal. This is huge and is a reminder of what the big sailing ships used to carry!

The boats add a nice touch of class to the waterfront, and the colorful buildings make this a picturesque place to visit!

We then head to Christiansborg Palace to see the buildings the shuttle buses keep flying by! Today, May 18th, is a day of remembrance for the victims of Tamil who were being massacred by Sri Lanka. The demonstrators had just set up as we arrived!

Next to the Palace is the Ministry of Finance. The coat of arms is the remarkable part of this building! And then across the street…

… is the old Stock Exchange! This is a beautiful, long building with a twisting spiral tower made of entwined dragon tails!

This is the tower. There are four dragons, their open jaws at the bottom and their tails winding to the top! We also see this on…

…this statue of King Christian IV. It is puzzling what is meant by the inverted towers. The one on the left side of the photo is clearly the tower over the Stock Exchange. I believe the tower on the right side is the one on Rosenborg Castle. I guess King Christian IV turned Copenhagen upside down! He was their longest lasting ruler.

We continued around the corner, and found this contemporary building called “The Black Diamond” which is a modern extension of the Royal Danish Library. Again, the sea of bicycles is mesmerizing!

Then we encounter the building that was the King’s brewery. In front there are four statues and numerous pieces of marble and granite that obviously belong to some other structure.

Continuing up the third side we arrive at the riding arena side of the Palace. Open arms provide a gateway that allows us a peek inside!

Then along the fourth side, on the northwest, I am puzzled by this pond. It is not deep, and it does not appear to be a fountain. The inner design is continuous – follow the zig-zagging line back and forth until it circles back around to the beginning.

On the evening of the second day we have an event for all of the Around The World travelers still on the ship at the National Aquarium called Da Blå Planet (The Blue Planet). On our way we see this magnificent fountain!

This is the Norse goddess Gefjon plowing with her four powerful oxen. She is credited with creating the Danish island of Zealand by plowing up land from Sweden and depositing it here. The holes left by this created two Swedish lakes!

The Aquarium itself is quite the site to see! It was designed to look like fish scales, and has a five-petal overall architecture, each petal hosting an aspect of marine life. We have a TED talk on the architecture of Denmark, then a mermaid show, then dinner!

Elisa is the mermaid. She is a remarkable free-diver and gave us a beautiful 15-minute show, swimming with the fish, rays, and even hammerhead sharks!

Our dinner table was on the menu of this great white! This was my view through our entire meal!

At the end of the evening, on our way out, Joy found this monstrous snapping turtle!

On our way to the bus we see the exterior bathed in blue light. This truly makes this Da Blå Planet!

On day 3 Joy and I have an excursion to see some castles and a palace. Our first stop is to the north. This is Kronborg Castle – it is the one we spied through the mist on our way in to harbor this morning. This was built in the last quarter of the 16th century, 1575-1585.

The bus has to park outside of the castle grounds, so we get to walk a bit. We pass a new museum, designed by an architect that enjoys taking advantage of existing architecture. In this case he designed the museum to fit inside an abandoned dry dock!

There is a moat outside of the berm walls of the castle.

Then a narrow cut through the berm. The paving at this point is being refurbished.

A fabulous model of the site is on display! The two deep holes on the far right are the dry dock that we just walked past.

Then we pass another moat, this one with a whimsical (or distressing) sculpture of a hand coming out of the water!

Then we pass through a complete gate!

Inside the gate – another moat! That’s three!

Then there is the gate to the interior of the castle. But today we’re not going inside. This is just an exterior tour.

Back to the model we find it has been overrun by “fruit flies”! (Do you remember when I first knew them to be fruit flies?)

Then we headed west to the current royal palace, Fredensborg Palace. This is one of three summer residences used by the Queen – she is in Copenhagen today, not here! But we had fun watching the soldiers! For example, the gentleman below would stand, swiveling his head like an owl, then march to the other side (off the right edge of the photo), turn, and repeat.

Difficult to see, so take my word for it, are two guards way off in the distance in front of the main Palace building. They did a complicated walk, each one back and forth, then one to the far end, then both of them together back and forth. I didn’t see at what point they return to their respective ends.

Just 20 yards away a group of soldiers prepared for their daily duty. We saw them complete putting their uniforms on, and watched their bags get hauled away. Then they lined up for an inspection.

This photo is messy, but I found it fascinating! Let me explain.

This squad performed a weapons move I have never seen – rather than grounding their weapon next to the right foot as typical at “Attention” and “Parade Rest” they swung the weapon between their legs, then crossed their right foot over their left, pinning the muzzle of the weapon in their crotch! Now that I’ve explained this, can you see it? This freed both hands, allowing them to now don gloves!

OK, we were here to see the Palace, but had more fun watching the troops. Time to move on.

Moving on to our last planned stop, we passed this interesting statue – a stag being taken down by three eagles! Does this ever really happen?

Soon we arrive at Frederiksborg Castle! We get to go inside this one!

This is one of my favorite photos from this visit – I am in the fountain courtyard outside of the main Castle square, and the statue is high on a pillar next to the bridge to the gate. The clock tower is part of the Castle in the background!

This may help understand the previous photo. This is the fountain in the courtyard in front of the Castle – a masterful waterworks that is flowing beautifully!

Now, look for the white column in the lower center near the gate. There is a dark statue on top. That’s the statue in the previous photo, and the clocktower of the Castle made a perfect background! My photo was probably made at about the location the person with the really white jacket is currently standing. That seems to line up rather well!

Now I’m inside the Castle square! Wonderful statuary! The doorways have a Byzantine feel.

Our first stop is Knights Hall, also called Rose Hall. This is almost a total restoration due to a major fire. Knights’ coats of arm symbols are embedded across the ceiling. The ceiling wall panels are filled with animal scenes embedded with the antlers on the stags. Suits of armor stand at the far end. A wonderful space!

This is the King’s private church, and it became the church for the knights. Their coats of arms adorn the walls throughout! This view is from the Queen’s Room. To the right is the King’s Room. Yes, they attended in separate rooms. Oh, and these rooms are just below the organ pipes! You can see part of the decor hanging down.

Looking back at the organ pipes, you can see the openings into the Queen’s and King’s rooms underneath. The pipes themselves are fabulously adorned!

We learned the King or Queen award coats of arms for major military actions, and Winston Churchill received one!

And Dwight Eisenhower was awarded one! He was given this as a military General officer, before he became President. None of our Presidents can receive one because they are prohibited by the office. So Eisenhower was a rare case!

On our way to the “Meeting Room” where the King would meet with important visitors, we can see the royal gardens! Beautiful! Too bad they aren’t part of our tour.

Here is the room used for important meetings! It is a long way from everything, and very quiet! Plus, we learned the King has a secret entrance here!

I have a lot of other pictures but I don’t want to inundate you – I already have too many photos in this blog. So let’s wrap it up! Hey! If you know of our gaudy & outrageous blue and yellow IKEA stores in the US, here’s what they look like in the land they started! Wouldn’t this be nice at home?