Thursday, July 30, 2009

A day with Hans

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Wow did we have a busy day yesterday.  As you can see from the photo above we met with Hans Christian Anderson in the morning and he took us on a walking tour of part of the old town Copenhagen. We are standing in front of the Royal Library with our new best friend Hans. 

Cindy and I left the hotel under cloudy skies so we borrowed two umbrellas from the hotel.  We were lucky and didn’t need them at any time during the day.  We found a small coffee shop to have breakfast before our tour.  We each had a cappuccinos and a bowl of fruit, granola and yogurt for a mere $26.00.  Well Toto I don’t think we are in Starbucks land anymore!

After our tour with Hans we headed for the Natural History museum.  The museum is really large and we only got to see a small part of it.  I thought the most interesting part was what I read about the occupation by the Germans during WW II.

The tour ended right near Holmen’s Church, one of the main Lutheran churches in downtown Copenhagen.  Denmark is over 90% Lutheran. This one was built in the 1600’s in honor of all the sailors.  We stepped inside to take a look and the inside was fantastic. The following photos give you some idea of all the beautiful wood carvings in the church. The altar is the oldest in Denmark.

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Our next stop was a the Christianborg Palace.  This is where the Queen has all the state dinners and where she receives dignitaries and us commoners on News Year day. The palace is also the home of the Danish Parliament and the Supreme Court.

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This is one of the pillars leading into the reception hall to the palace.  We could only take photos in this room.  The palace was rebuilt for the 5th time in 1928.  It had been destroyed each time by fire.

Our buddy Hans told us about a great local cafe (Canal Cafe) for a good traditional Danish open face sandwich.  We stopped in and he was right.  The place was filled with locals and us.  We had some great sandwiches beer and wine (beer is more expensive than wine) and headed out for more sightseeing.

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After lunch we took a canal tour and then walked halfway across the city to climb the spire of this unique Lutheran Church. (did I mention that this place is overrun by Lutherans?)  After 400 steps you reach the top of the spire you have a fantastic view of the city.

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Tight fit for a thin guy like me (got to cut the beer out at lunch)

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Reminded us of Venice   

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Well I would love to add more but we have to run and meet our buddy Hans for another tour of the City.

2 comments:

The Roberts Family said...

Beautiful! And I have to say, I think Hans looks like Willy Wonka! (the whole outfit thing)

Romios Family said...

Dude, I was thinking the same thing about Willy Wonka - ha! Glad you guys are having fun!