København, Danmark: Day 3

Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 3: Sunday, 11/21

Sadly, it was my last day in Copenhagen. I had a flight out at 7 pm, so we made the most of the day and Nelly took me on a walking tour of the city's highlights. We walked through Strøget, which is a pedestrian street that stretches form the city's Town Hall Square to Kongens Nytorv (The Kings New Square. At 3.2 km (1.98 mi) it is the oldest (45 years) and longest of it's kind in the world. We milled around through the tourists tourist attraction and walked by the many restaurants, outdoor sidewalk cafes, fast food, specialty shops, art galleries, gift stores, department stores, street entertainment, theaters, and museums that the place offers.

 Strøget

After walking through Kongens Nytorv, we then walked through a neighborhood on the side of a canal called Nyhaven where a Christmas type market was set up. There were several stalls selling a variety of goods, and even Christmas trees! We then walked to the playhouse, a huge glass building right on the water. This theater is right across water from and facing the Opera House In terms of scenery, the only thing Copenhagen's got on land-locked Prague is the water. Seeing colorful rows of houses lined up by the harbor that anchored movie set like ships with windmills in the distance was definitely picture perfect.

 "Yule in Nyhaven"

 Some colorful buildings and ships by the harbor!

We then went to the palaces called Amalienborg, which is where the royal Danish family lives in the wintertime. It's made up of four identical palaces with rococo interiors around an octagonal courtyard, the Amalienborg Slotsplads. In the center of the square is a monumental equestrian statue of Amalienborg's founder, King Frederick V. Next up was another palace, Christiansborg Slot, which is located in Slotsholmen. This is comprised of different buildings with a neo-baroque centerpiece, and is the seat of the Folketing (the Danish parliament), the Danish Prime Minister's Office and the Danish Supreme Court. It is the only building in the world that houses all three of a country's branches of government. Beneath the palace are ruins, open to the public, of Bishop Absalon’s Castle and Copenhagen Castle.

 The Amalienborg palaces

We walked past the stock exchange building and later the Black Diamond. The Old Stock Exchange was designed in  Dutch Renaissance style with a prominent spire of four dragons with their tails twisting towards the top and ending in a spear with three crowns representing The Kalmar Union (between the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Built in 1999 the Black Diamond is adjacent to the Royal library (the national library of Denmark and that of University of Copenhagen). Named for its outside cover of black marble and glass, inside the Black Diamond is a library and a concert hall. There are 3 bridges connecting it to the Royal Library.

We had seen a lot by this point and made our way back to the Kings New Square where we got traditional Danish street food - hot dogs. These weren't any regular hot dogs though. Wrapped around the long, skinny sausage was a strip of bacon! Refueled with food, we headed back to Nelly's to regroup and figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to go to Glyptotek, a local art museum, focusing on sculpture. We saw exhibits on the Romans, Greeks, Egyptian, Mediterranean, and art including Van Gogh's.

 The central area of the Glyptotek

The time was nearing for me to pack up my things and get ready for my flight, so we went to the metro and I took the 15 minute ride to the Kastrup airport. Going to Denmark was my first solo traveling flight, and all went smoothly. By 9:30 I was back in Prague, and looking forward to the week ahead of me... at least before I have to leave for my next trip!