Copenhagen in a Day

Saturday, April 2, 2010 (Part 1):

Wow! What a day we had. In fact, this was to be the first of quite a few very long days -- so many that I was completely unable to keep up with my journal. I was constantly days behind. And on this first day of our whirlwind vacation, we saw Copenhagen -- all of it! We saw all of the top sites in the city. It was great, and it left me thoroughly exhausted.

First, a few words of Danish will help sort out where we went and what we saw.

"Slot" = Castle

"Kirke" = Church

"Havn" = Harbor

We started our day shortly after 9:00am by walking to Slotsholmen (a castle, get it?). This is where the first castle in Copenhagen was built in the 11th Century by Bishop Absalon. The original castle was destroyed in the 13th Century by the rival Hanseatic League. The palace that stands here today was not built until the early 20th Century and currently houses Parliament and the High Court.

We had hoped to tour through the ruins of the original castle and the stable area, but we were a little too early for that. Nothing was open yet, so we just walked around the extensive grounds and enjoyed the statues and the architecture. Much of Copenhagen today is built on fill, but this particular castle is one of the few areas that was originally solid ground!