Things have been a little quiet on the exploring front these last couple of years. Between one thing and another, Explorer Beastie and I haven’t managed to get further afield than Donegal in a long time! But all that changed last week…
Look! We’re on a plane! And that’s a pretty good indicator that we’re leaving the island… But where are we off to?
Well, this is a good start – a nice bit on sunshine on our first morning! Time for a quick stroll around this lake, I think.
Beautiful! Now maybe we could try getting a bird’s eye view of this city, so that the good folks watching at home can see where we are…
Aha! So, we have spires, verdigris…
… And in the distance, the bridge to Sweden. Welcome to… COPENHAGEN!
One of our first ports of call here was the Rundetaarn (Round Tower), which gave us these great views out over the city, and helped us to plan our wandering for the day. This tower was built by King Christian IV in 1642 as an observatory (it’s actually the oldest functioning observatory in Europe) and it is also Denmark’s “zero point” – when the country was first surveyed by Thomas Bugge in the late 1760s, he took the Rundetaarn as the starting point for all his calculations of distance throughout the kingdom. And there’s more to the tower than the viewing platform at the top. You can see this working model of the solar system on the wall as you come back down…
… And that (unfortunately hazy – it was dark!) picture in the bottom right is the tower’s hollow core, where you can stare 25m straight down through the plate glass floor. As you can see, Explorer Beastie wasn’t fazed by this at all, but the most I could manage was placing one foot on the glass while the other remained firmly planted on the stones at the edge! Although it turns out that I really needn’t have worried – in 1880, a choirboy tumbled out of a toolroom at the top of the core and fell the full distance to the bottom, where he remained trapped for the better part of a day before being discovered, alive, with nothing more than a scrape on his arm and a few missing teeth!
Copenhagen’s skyline is packed with beautiful tall spires, but one particularly caught our eyes from the top of the Rundetaarn. So when we found ourselves back at street level, we made a Beastline right for it!
This is Børsen, the old Danish Stock Exchange. If you look closely, you’ll see that the tower has four dragons at its base, and their intertwined tails form the 50m tall spire. Beast-tastic!
And, although this was our favourite, there were plenty of other elaborate buildings to distract us as we wandered through the city streets.
We also found some monuments on a more Beastie-sized scale. Well, we could hardly visit Denmark and not set foot inside a Lego store, could we?
And after a long day’s meandering, our weary paws brought us to one of the most iconic parts of the city – the tall, colourful townhouses at Nyhavn! Of course, I couldn’t resist taking one more photo before it got dark…
Perfect!
You can see more of our Nordic adventures next week – but what do you think of Copenhagen so far? Have you ever been, or is it on your travel-to-do list? Let us know in the comments!
Looks great. Copenhagen is definitely on my bucket list 😊
Yaaay! I’d recommend going at this time of year too… As you can see, we got beautiful weather and most of the attractions weren’t too busy!
Ahhhhh beastie is so brave!!! I could not have endured Round Tower and its terrifying Hollow Core of Doom! I’m deathly afraid of heights and had a breakdown in Bruges last year attempting to visit the bell tower like a brave girl. But other than that… it looks awesome and I’m jealous! haha 🙂
Eeek, tell me about it! I’m normally ok with heights, but the hollow core gave me the serious heebie-jeebies. The good news is that most of Copenhagen is flat, so heights aren’t really an issue a lot of the time!
Copenhagen is very much on my travel to-do list…unfortunately it’s not very high on Mr. Husband’s travel list so to get him there I’m going to have to either drug him or lie to him about the bookings I’ve made ( something along the lines of, “What?! We’re in Copenhagen!? I could have sworn I booked us on a trip to Hawaii!”). And at first I thought the Rundetaarn tower was a giant Danish unicorn.
Hahaha! Might be worth a shot… Could you try him with another Scandinavian country, and then sneak him over to Copenhagen for a day or two? We were actually considering taking the bus to Malmö in Sweden for an afternoon, until we realised that they don’t play “being in the EU” completely and neither our Euro nor our Danish kroner would be any good there!
Those pesky Scandinavians. Hmmm…I could tell him we’re taking a trip to IKEA and just leave off the “headquarters” part. Since the Portland IKEA is right near the airport, the rouse could totally work!
Cunning! And hey, that would totally work in Dublin too… Could this be a deliberate ploy by the Swedish tourist board, I wonder? 🤔
Copenhagen looks to be a beautiful city. I have never been to any of the Scandinavian countries but would love to see them. I look forward to seeing more of your explorations.
Thanks Laura! Copenhagen is beautiful… As are any of the Scandinavian cities I’ve been to. They’re definitely worth investigating if you find yourself back on this side of the pond!
Abroad at last!!! I’m so glad you managed to go for a trip outside the island! Traveling is simply fantastic! I love to read your travel journals, they are so detailed and interesting!
Thanks Tajana! Much as I love Ireland, it was definitely nice to get away for a while and see some new things. I think I’m out of practice with the travelling thing though… I should probably book another holiday immediately to get my skills back up 😉
Oh, yeah , I totally agree 😁😁😁
Amazing tour and photos. I bet the Lego store was very fun with Beastie. 🙂
Thanks! And yes, there were plenty of fun photo opportunities in the Lego store… I’m such a tourist! 😆
Beautiful Copenhagen snapshots! I’m admiring all of the city’s spires and stone buildings and waterways. And those townhouses are very iconic indeed! What gorgeous architecture. Are they shops or residences? I love it when they put plate glass over scary drops – Explorer Beastie is definitely a brave soul! 🙂 And the picture of Explorer Beastie with the Lego tower is gold! Glad to read that everyone had a splendid time – it’s nice to get bitten by the plane-ride travel-bug! 🙂
Thanks, it was brilliant! In fact, I could easily have spent the entire trip taking pictures of pretty buildings (old and new) and colourful side streets. Those townhouses at Nyhavn mostly have bars and restaurants in their ground floors – they’re beside a canal/harbour, and it’s a popular place to grab a drink at an outside table by the water. But there could well be people living on the floors above! As for that drop… Eeek! Normally I’m fine with heights (I did the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon without a second thought) but there was something about that one! 😨
Very neat about the townhouses. Unique waterfront bars is something I SO (so) miss about the European cities I remember! This one’s lovely. 🙂
Yes, and with all the canals and man-made lakes in Copenhagen you’re totally spoiled for choice when it comes to waterfronts! 😀
Wow, what a cool trip. The tip of that one tower (with the dragons) reminded me quite a bit of a unicorn horn. 😀
Yes, I can see why! That whole building is covered in decoration as well, not just the tower… And it’s huge! We couldn’t go inside, but we spent ages looking at all the statues on the walls.
Sounds really cool. I’m putting Copenhagen on my ‘to travel list’ now.
Yaaay! You won’t be disappointed 😀
Helen, I love Denmark! I spent a lot of time in Aarhus (but only passed through Copenhagen). Your images are terrific. And, of course, how could anyone resist a beastie in a lego store?!? So adorable. I hope the travels went well and that you enjoyed the country–seriously one of my favorites, and I visited nearly every time in the winter ❤ There is something magical about Denmark.
Thanks Melissa! And yes, it was brilliant! With one thing and another, it’s been literally years since I went anywhere, and Copenhagen was a great place to restart my wanderings. I was especially taken by the way everything seems to be well thought out, and built to last! I’d love to see more of Denmark, so I’ll be sure to pick your brains before I go back!
Wow. Looks like you and EP had quite some fun, Helen. How I wish I could take such a trip too. But my time will come soon. Hope is alive. 😊
Of course! Aren’t you graduating soon? That would be a perfect excuse to get away on an adventure! 😀
Hehehe. Yes. I graduate in June, God willing. 🙂
Aaaah, you’ll be grand! Enjoy your last few months as a student 😀
Wow, what great pictures! Looks wonderful! That hollow core pic is wonderfully creepy. 🙂 Looks a bit like Explorer Beastie gained a Copenhagen super power and is floating above the drop. I’ve never been there, but you’ve made a compelling case to add it to the travel list!
Yes! Drop everything and go immediately! It’s just so flippin’ PLEASANT! Well, apart from the terrifying hollow core 😵Oh, and I’ve a part 2 coming up tomorrow as well, featuring two places I always check out when I visit a new city… 😀
Love Love Love Copenhagen. Did you go to Hay? I think it would be right up your alley. One of the best TV shows ever is Börgen – three seasons of Danish politics, so I was quite excited to see Cristianborg Palace which is adjacent to the stock exchange.
No, but that’s one for next time! I’ll have to see if I can track down Börgen as well, that will set the mood for my next trip! Thank you, Maggie! 😀
I love those inter-twined dragon tails.The City of London (the square mile, that is) is guarded by dragons at its main entrances… I guess they do have a reputation for taking care of treasures.
Oooh, l’ll have to look out for those next time I’m there! I hadn’t made the dragon-treasure connection before, but now you mention it, it makes perfect sense!