Other City Sightseeing and Changing of the Guard

Laura and I spent a weekend seeing the sights in Copenhagen. Here is a recap of the best things we saw.

We visited Rosenborg Castle, the home of the most famous of Danish sovereigns, King Christian IV. He ruled from 1588 to 1648 and is remembered for his reform-mindedness. In addition to the beautifully appointed rooms in the interior, Rosenborg Castle also houses the crown jewels. At right you see King Christian IV's crown, which was splendid indeed. Below is Rosenborg Castle itself.



We also enjoyed walking the waterfront in Copenhagen. Here you see one of many ships from the harbor. The Danish flag flew proudly over all of them.



Not far from the waterfront is Frederik's Church, also known as The Marble Church (Marmorkirken in Danish). Having visited more churches in Europe than I care to count, they all tend to run together. However, this church was a welcomed change of pace with its imposing but tasteful marble interior. The words you see written on the church are Danish for "The Lord's Word is Eternal."




Not far from the church stands Amalienborg Palace (the royal residence in Copenhagen), where each day at noon there is the changing of the Royal Guard. When we visited London back in December, we missed their version because it was too cold and crowded; we found the Danish version much more agreeable.




Finally, Laura and I also spent an evening at Tivoli Gardens, the Danish amusement park right in the heart of Copenhagen. According to Wikipedia, it opened in 1843 and is thus the second oldest amusement park in the world (after another Danish amusement park). Tivoli has a nice atmosphere, and in fact a lot of people pay reduced entree fees just to walk around and enjoy the gardens and eating establishments.



We of course couldn't completely pass up the rides, which were predominantly of the state-fair-throw-up variety. Here we are about to shoot off on one of their roller coasters.