Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

Sadly, it's only a half day in Copenhagen. The ship parked up just after 12 am.  We stood on deck, taking in the busy-ness of the area around us.   Not what I expected to be honest, and we hadn't really thought about the weather either.  We'd come with plenty of warm clothes, but not waterproofs or a brolly.  We stood on deck and realised just how cold and wet the day was, so we got the coats and gloves out.  The ship was cleared by customs just after 12.30, and Peter and I were wrapped up and on the pier heading towards The Little Mermaid by 1 o'clock. 

When I'd looked up "What to do in Copenhagen", there was just so much.   I spent ages trying to work out where to go and if we could walk from the ship.  In fact, I even worked out a circular route for us to walk.  Well........  My planning wasn't a complete waste of time, as we did manage to cover the first few stops of the walk, but we kept going off route to see stuff and in the end just didn't have time for the places I'd planned.  Despite the weather, we got to see loads. Here are the pictures.

How can you go to Copenhagen and not see The Little Mermaid.  Iconic and very lovely, she was gifted to the city by the owner of the Carlsberg Brewery.

There were loads of bronzes and sculptures around the city, but this one on the Langelinie Alle caught our attention as we tried to work it out.  The marble plinth the angel is stood on is carved with the names of hundreds of ships.  We worked out this is a rather poignant memorial to those that have died at sea. 

The Kastellat is not listed as a tourist site, it is definitely worth a walk through.  It's a working fort, with the Danish military still resident there.  But it is also a historical site - a star shaped fortification, surrounded by a moat and containing the red and yellow buildings of the original garrison.

Within the Kastellat boundary we came across this glorious little windmill.   It turns out we'd fallen doubly lucky because it was open for just a few days - Fri, Sat and Sun in October and November.  We got to have a look inside.

Everything is made of wood.  The cogs, poles and gears, the walls and ceilings, and even the lovely little black tiles on outside - all made of wood.  Lovely.

The Kastellat is a wonderful place to walk on a sunny day.  Shame we were only getting a very wet one.

Just out of the Kastellat, we turned left to have a look at the fantastic Gefion Fountain.  Photo's cannot do this fountain justice.

It has been designed so well that you can even see the hot breath streaming out of the bulls noses.

From the fountain we headed for the Amalienborg Palace.  Basically what you get to see is a square surrounded by the Palace buildings.  There is a museum, but we had much more to see, so we left it for today.  But we couldn't resist going inside Frederics Church, also known as the Marble Church. It's massive dome beckoned and we had to go see.

Next it was a quick look at Nyhavn, an area famed for its restaurants and bars.  The drizzle  that had persisted for the last hour had increase to rain and we were getting drenched.  It took the shine out of the place a little, and we hurried on.

From Nyhavn we headed to Christianborg Palace, which is still in use by the Danish Royal Family.  I had wanted to see the ruins beneath and the tower, but we were rapidly running out of time, and we had to queue to get through security.  Security?  Really?  Yep! They made us take off our very wet coats and have our bags scanned as we walked through airport type scanners before we could get in the lift to go to the top of the tower.  It's free though, and you get a wonderful view of the city which must look brilliant at night.

We didn't get to see the Palace ruins, but we did very quickly have a look in the very pretty Christianborg Chapel, used by the royals for everything from christenings to lying in state, before deciding that it was time to turn and head back. 

At last the rain eased off as we hurried along, and the wind picked up nicely to dry our soaking clothes, so by the time we walked up the ramp onto the Marco Polo, we were only very wet, rather than completely sodden.

All in all though, a really good afternoon. We have tired legs and feet to prove it. Tomorrow is Warnemunde, Germany and whole lot more ground to wear our legs out on. Awesome.

On our way to Copenhagen

2pm

Yesterday was a long day, and we were both absolutely shattered by 8 o'clock, but we made ourselves stay up for the show - a tribute to Abba, before going to bed.

The alarm went off at 8am, and then it was back into our routine.

 So far, it's been a really good day.  Peter is the only "crafter" on the ship and gets the craft room to himself.  This means we don't have to work around anyone else and can leave the room set up, saving us time and stress.  Brilliant!   I have to mention one thing though.   When we arrived and got the key to the art room, I noted how clean it was, but apparently it was not always so.  A previous art teacher had somehow managed to get paint all over the carpet, which took the cleaners 3 solid hours to get out, so "Never Again!" it seems.  They have a type of plastic covering that they use to protect stuff when the ship is dry dock, and they've used it to cover and protect the carpet whilst Peter's classes are on.  It's like cling film!  It made us laugh when we first saw it, and it's really weird to walk on, but it works.  Class eh?  

So, having got the art class business all in hand, and I've been taking it easy reading and people watching.  The weather has been really good.  So good in fact that sitting out on the back deck required stripping down to t-shirts and the wearing of sun glasses.  Absolutely glorious and definitely not what I expected on a ship in the North Sea in the middle of October.

7pm

Peter had to run 3 classes today.  That's the problem with being popular I suppose.  So, once he'd talked himself hoarse and we'd tidied and cleaned up, it was downstairs to the cabin for a quiet few minutes before getting our posh togs on ready for formal night.   Just as we were doing so, a persistent knocking made me eventually open the door to..........  An engineer!  He wanted to come in and batten down the porthole!

"Nooooooooooo!"  I'm saying.  "We've had such a lovely day, we don't want any bad weather."  But he insisted, telling me the captain had said it must happen, and a shadow of doom was cast across the rest of the evening.

11pm

And he wasn't wrong.  As we were eating the ship began to yaw a bit.  As we waited for the show, it pitched a little more, and then during the show, it made a definite attempt to tip us out of our chairs a few times.  The thing is, it makes me feel ill.  So as soon as the show was finished, I was downstairs, posh togs off, sea sickness pill swallowed and in bed.   I always feel so much better there.

So that was our first day of this cruise.  Tomorrow we've got a half day in Copenhagen.  Not a place we've been before.  We are so looking forward to it.   

1st Day of a New Cruise - The Baltic Cities on the Marco Polo

Well, after all the fuss and rush, me and himself are sat opposite each other on our twin beds updating blogs.

The cabin's a bit smaller than the ones we've had before, but, like magic, I have managed to squeeze the contents of four large suitcases into the cupboards, wardrobe and drawers.  Just a little more tweaking and it'll be a wonderful home from home and livable for the next four weeks, (two cruises back to back).

This is a first for both of us, as neither of have come this way before.  I spent a good deal of my childhood in Germany but I've never been to Copenhagen, or Tallinn or any of the cities on this cruise before.  I am so looking forward to it.

We've just been warned off that the lifeboat drill is in about 10 mins, then after that we'll go to see the cruise director to meet the other members of the entertainment team and find out who we've got.  It should be interesting.

So another quick sup of me tea, and off we go.