Joe and I took an early train to Copenhagen and arrived shortly after 11:00am. The train ride was pretty relaxing and easy. We checked into our hotel which thankfully had a room ready for us even though we were earlier than check in and headed out to explore the city. Since I’ve never been to Copenhagen there was a lot for me to see! We decided to wander around near the shops and enjoy the nice weather. We went into the Carl Jensen shop. He's famous for his work with silver and I was extremely impressed. I found a nice Christmas tree ornament that I’m planning on buying when we go back (ornaments are the things I like to collect from the places I visit) but didn’t want to have too much to carry with me during the trip. We know at some point we’re going back to Copenhagen because we certainly weren’t able to fit everything in in one day.
Throughout the day we noticed several trucks with many teens on them celebrating. We had learned that they had just graduated from high school and were out celebrating for the day. It was fun to watch the trucks go by with all the kids in them having a good time. Here’s one of the groups of teens celebrating.
So we made our way to the famous Nyhavns harbor area to have some lunch. We picked an outdoor cafe that Joe ate at with his parents when they were visiting in April and enjoyed a wonderful lunch of burgers and fries. While we were eating there were two street musicians playing violins along the harbor. They were so talented! It was nice to sit and relax with the wonderful classical music in the background. The area was really beautiful and has some great houses.
After lunch we walked over to the four palaces and the cathedral. We started in the Cathedral with was very beautiful inside. I love going into these old churches and seeing all the beautiful artwork and the details in the structure. It’s amazing. Then we walked over to the palaces which we later learned were originally built for four nobles. Each palace is exactly the same, we decided not to go inside because it was pretty expensive but we enjoyed looking at them from the outside.
The next adventure was a 60 minute boat tour of Copenhagen. It was a fantastic way to see so much of the city. We sat in the back of the boat and had a great view. My only complaint was the two girls sitting behind us who kept talking the ENTIRE time we were on the cruise, and not just talking quietly either but loud enough to make it hard to hear the tour guide. Why even get on if you’re not going to pay attention? But, I digress, the boat tour was really excellent. We got to see a lot of the city which was really cool. We saw the Opera House and the palaces from the water, the old stock exchange building and the sight where the Little Mermaid is SUPPOSED to be, but she’s currently on loan to China for the Worlds Fair or something like that, pretty disappointing to not see her though! While we were on the cruise we went past a HUGE Yacht. The tour guide informed us that this yacht belongs to one of the guys who wrote Microsoft excel and that every summer he comes to Denmark because his girlfriend is Danish. I forget where he’s actually from, Norway maybe, but it was pretty crazy! The boat tour also took us through Christina which is a cool part of the city as well. I really enjoyed the trip.
Next stop: TREATS! We all know how much I love my treats and especially Birthday treats. Joe took me to this great bakery where we picked out two different fruit tarts, I picked strawberry and Joe picked a mixed berry. They were SOOOOOO YUMMY! I was in Heaven! Excellent birthday treat choice! :) After our treat we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening activities.
Joe took me to Tivoli Garden’s for my birthday. We got there around 6pm and enjoyed a chamber music concert just inside the park. Following this concert we headed over to the larger music hall to purchase tickets for the Symphony concert that evening. Joe and I happened to be some of the youngest people in the line but we didn’t care because we both really enjoying going to the symphony. Three different pieces were being played including a Schumann piece for 4 horns, a Mozart clarinet concerto and a Brahms symphony. The Mozart concerto was our favorite. The guy who played the clarinet was amazing! It made me miss playing my clarinet! But that piece was one of the highlights of the night! :)
After the concert Joe purchased tickets for us to ride the Star Flyer, really high up swing chairs. So we found a place for our stuff (nothing was allowed on the ride and I later realized why) and headed to the ride. The ride takes you up 80 meters (about 263 feet) into the air and swings you around. The view from the chairs was AMAZING! You could see the whole entire city which was so cool! That night there was also an out door rock concert so we got to see all the people there for it as well. It was really so crazy to be so high up but it was an awesome experience! Even though I was a little nervous to go on the ride it was so completely worth it and absolutely breath taking. (Now the reason why they don’t want you to have anything with you is because you’re so high up and you go around pretty fast so if something came out of your pockets it could do some serious damage!)
Anyway, after the ride we got some pizza which wasn’t the greatest and then got some delicious hot chocolate (pictured above) and went to the lake to watch the water and lights show. The show was pretty cool with lots of neat water fountains and lights mixed in. It was a perfect way to end the first day of our trip and an excellent celebration. Around 12:30am we finally headed back to our hotel room to get some rest before traveling to Warsaw for Day 2 and city 2.
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