Justins World

After a quick bus ride from Billund airport to Vejle, I bought a ticket for the 2 hr train journey to Copenhagen.  All very efficient, much like Germany with its public transport. The train had free wifi and also tea and coffee and went at a rapid rate we could only dream of in Australia.  Its clear the Danes also generate a lot of their electricity via wind turbines.

It was fairly straight forward to find me way upstairs at Copenhagen central and buy a 48 hr ticket for Copenhagen public transport.  Unfortunately the metro and the S-Tog are different train networks and I had to catch the suburban S-tog to Norreport before changing to the metro to go one station to Forum, to check into my budget hotel, Cabinn Scandinavia.  Its a decent size for one person, but 2 people it might be tighter.

Rosenborg palace

I headed out to see as much as possible in the evening.  I ended up going to see Rosenborg Palace, which houses the danish crown jewels. It was closed so I couldn’t go inside, but the park has a hive of activity, with sunbaking and picnics the two most dominant activities!  I wandered down some streets and came across the Round Tower.  You could drive a car up most of the way in this unique tower.  The views from the top were great, but there were so many things to see including a few palaces and church spires.

Inside the Round Tower

I found a small and cheap place to have dinner at about half of the cost of meals in Billund, although we are still talking over $20.  As has been the case the sun sets quite late and it was a Saturday night so there were people out and about on the streets as I returned to my hotel.

Today I had a list of things to see and doubted I could fit them all in.  First off I headed to Christiansborg Palace. I didn’t see Princess Mary taking the kids for a walk, but I did get to go up another tower!  I’m lucky I got their early, because this one has a limit to the number of people at the top, so the queue got quite long by the time I got to go up.  This was after an x-ray scan of my bag, after all the tower is part of the palace.

Christiansborg Palace

View from Tower in Christiansborg palace to the riding yards.

After the palace I was onto the train to Carlsberg to visit the brewery of the same name.  The brewery was more of a history of Carlsberg and beer than a working factory tour.  There was also a beer bottle collection and stables with some lovely horses.  I actually had my included beer and a cheap pub lunch here.  85 Kroner for lunch is a bargain and I got two sausages for that!

Beer bottle collection

Back on the train and this time I headed for the Kastellet. On the map its a 5 pointed star surrounded by a moat.  I thought it might have been an  old fortress or castle, but turns out its a working military base, but in true Danish style the public are allowed in and around the base, because its such lovely parkland. Although a sign did say, don’t touch the cannons, but I couldn’t see any to touch, except for two old cannons well past their use by date.

An important looking building in the Kastellat

I continued walking down a few streets to the last palace of the day, Amalienborg Palace. Here they have guards dressed in funny hats like the ones that guard Buckingham Palace in London. Except these guards talk and allow for photos with them, as long as you stay a metre away. I’m not sure who lives in this palace, but I still didn’t see Princess Mary.

Amalienborg Palace

Finally I wandered a bit further to see what all the fuss about the Nyhavn canal was about. There were some very nice houses and boats along here, but the place was packed full of people.  The bvars and cafes were full of people so there was no where to get a quiet drink and relax along here.  Plus there were canal tours by boat, and each boat had someone with a megaphone explaining everything.  Which was good because the smart people could just walk along the canal and listen to the guide for free.  The canal isn’t that long or wide!

Nyhavn canal

So there we have it, Copenhagen in a day and a half. Its all I could afford to do, to be honest! Before I came to Denmark I thought geez I’ve overbudgeted on this trip, I have plenty of money left and within 4 days its all gone!  So all that is left is to pack my bags and catch the metro to the airport (I love cities with rail links to the airport).  A bit of an epic journey home via Adelaide with an overnight stay there, because Qantas rescheduled flights after I booked. Thatrs it for this trip, as per usual I have no idea where I’m off to next!