15 July 2013 Copenhagen

We have woken to the ship just arriving in Copenhagen.  Up and organised , had brekky etc, we were going to do our own thing today but I have a chest infection and Sam a sore throat etc so we quickly booked a city tour yesterday afternoon. We met our tour at 9.00am, the ship is docked right in the city again which is great really.  We would have just caught the on off bus but as we decide on the tour it has been made easy for us, we went for a drive through the sights then taken to an old fishing village (Dragor) situated about 25 mins from the city, very cute place, a lot of the cottages still have their thatched roofs, which are very expensive to maintain, every 30 years or so they have to be replaced, the insurance is huge and if it has a thatched roof it has to be replaced with thatching as it is heritage listed.  We then had morning tea in a hotel and walk thru the city before our drive back and then to see Amalienborg Palace (this is where Mary and Frederik live), there are four rococo pavilions of equal size, Margaret the Queen lives in one, Mary and family in another, one is a Museum and apartment for Frederick’s brother and the other one is for visiting dignitories, they are built around a square. 

Copenhagen was founded in 1167. Most Danish Kings are called Christian or Frederik.  The only King they remember of course is Christian the 4^th who ruled from 1588 to 1648, he is pretty much responsible for all the beautiful architecture which is Dutch Renaissance, it was not a pretty place before he ruled. He was married twice and had 22 registered children.  They say half the population can trace themselves back to him.  They know so much about him as he kept a diary of every day.  He loved getting involved in Wars and they lost much land from this, Denmark was only half the size by the time he passed away, but he was a favourite.  Greenland and the Faeroe Islands are still part of Denmark, they each have two reps in the Parliament.

Lovely place one could go back to and explore more.  Sam says I have to give you all a break from all this info, I could go on.  We were delivered safely back to our ship and we have now let the ropes go and our esteemed captain is taking us on to Oslo.  Love Sabine and Sam  XXX