Transatlantic - Copenhagen Day 1

We had reached our final destination of Copenhagen!  We would actually be in port overnight so there was no "all aboard" time this day.  You were free to stay in the city and come and go as you like all evening.

We had an all day port adventure scheduled which started out with a motor coach tour of "city highlights."  We liked our guide right away.  He was quiet with a dry sense of humor.  We drove around the city and past Tivoli Gardens and other highlights and then got to stop at the Opera House to take some photos.

Our next stop was Amalienborg Palace which is actually a large courtyard with 4 identical palaces.  One of them is the residence of the Queen of Denmark, one is for the Crown Prince and his family, one is for the Queen's other son and the fourth is for guests.   The courtyard is completely open and you can freely walk around but there are guards.  The rules are that you must stay 3 meters away from the guards and all of the palaces.  We had about 30 minutes to explore on our own and our guide told us that the changing of the guard ceremony would take place at noon which was about 10 minutes away.  He said that because the Queen was not currently at the palace it would be a smaller ceremony but still worth seeing.  I have posted video on my facebook page www.facebook.com/magicaladventuresawait.

  Once back on board the motor coach, we were head to the Open Air Museum which was about 30 minutes outside of Copenhagen.  Here we were scheduled to have a "traditional Danish" lunch and then have some time to explore the grounds.

   Now when traveling in tour groups, you are bound to come across a fellow guest who is not the most pleasant and may make your experience a bit difficult to enjoy.  And in our tours on this trip, there were one or two but none that really worth mentioning.  Unfortunately, on this tour we had a woman, let's call her Lady T, that stuck out.  Lady T was seated in the back of the motor coach and she wasn't a quiet person.  We were seated about in the middle and could hear her clearly.  From her comments alone on the bus, she seemed unaware that we were in a different country as she compared all the prices that she saw to what things cost at home - though the current exchange rate that day was 6.5 Danish Kroners to 1 US Dollar.  
   I could tell you everything that she did to make herself a problem for the entire tour (and I started to write it all out) but I had to experience it and it wasn't fun so I don't think you want to read about it either. We were thankful that she was only on one of our six port adventures.

    Our "Danish lunch" was a small buffet that started with some cheeses and meats, bread and herring.  I was not brave enough to try the herring but everything else was good.  There was then some steak, vegetables and salmon meatballs.  For dessert, there was what looked like a large shortbread cookie with fruit on top.  It was very light and tasty.
   Once we finished, our guide started to just give us the lay of the land.  The Open Air Museum is about 100 acres and has over 100 rural buildings from 1650 to 1950 from all over Denmark.  They are all the original buildings that were dismantled and then rebuilt on the property of the museum.  The idea is to show the different buildings from peasant / farm life over the years.  
   There are also people there dressed in period clothes that will do demonstrations for you.  One woman showed us how she takes wool from the sheep and makes it into yarn.  They will have different demonstrations on different days.  
​     You really need a full day or more to explore the whole area.  We could only do a small portion but it was a beautiful place.  

Our last stop of the day was to see the Little Mermaid statue which is iconic to Copenhagen.  Our guide told us the original Hans Christian Anderson story...not the Disney version.   We were able to get off the bus for a photo.  The statue is of course popular so it is crowded and challenging to get your photo but we managed.

    Despite putting up with Lady T and her many complaints, we enjoyed the tour.  

    

The show that evening was a variety show with two performers we had seen already, JUNNK and John Kimmons.  I actually enjoyed John Kimmons more this time than his full show.  It was our last night at dinner and we had the Frozen menu.

     We also had to have our luggage outside by 10 pm.  Boo!!