Canal and Harbour Tour

We boarded our boat and got great seats up the front in the fresh and cool air. We travelled out of Nyhavn and turned left into Inderhavnen (inner harbour) and past the new Copenhagen Opera House, which some have described as resembling a large hat. We then passed the new waste to energy plant, where they have built a ski slope and a huge rock climbing wall. Then it was past the Naval museum and across to the famous Little Mermaid, a bronze statue created by the sculptor Edward Eriksens. It is small and from the boat you can only see the back of it. The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen (son of the founder of Carlsberg) who had a the hots for the ballerina Ellen Price, who performed in the ballet based on the fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson. He asked her to model for the statue; the head was modelled after Price but, as the ballerina did not agree to modelling in the nude, the sculptor’s wife, Eline Eriksen, was used for the body.

We then passed by Amalienborg where Fred, Mary and the family live. Next door is Frederik’s Church, popularly known as the Marble Church for its rococo architecture. It is an Evangelical Lutheran church which has the largest church dome in Scandinavia, with a span of 31 metres. It was supposed to be larger but they ran out of money and it stood in partial ruin for some time. It took a further 150 years to complete it.

We then headed into Christianshavn, which includes Freetown Christiania, a unique neighbourhood in Copenhagen which is a free spirited community and commune. It began in 1971 when squatters occupied an old military base and was originally quite lawless. We then passed the Church of Our Saviour, a baroque church most famous for the external spiral winding staircase. There are 400 steps to the top of the spire, the last 150 being outside. We may try to climb it in the next couple of days.

As we left Christianshavn we passed under the Circle Bridge, which has been made to look like a ship and, directly behind it, the new library referred to as the Black Diamond. As we turned into another narrow canal we passed the Danish Architecture Centre at BLOX, voted the ugliest building in Europe by the association of Architects. We then continued along Frederiksholms canal, past The National Museum of Denmark and under the lowest and most narrow bridge of the tour, with a very sharp turn, which took a few manoeuvres to get around. We then passed Christianborg Ridebane, the Thorvaldsen Museum and Christiansborg Palace before heading back to Nyhavn where we disimbarked. We were so fortunate with the weather this afternoon as everything looks better with blue sky and the sun shining.

After our tour, we headed off in search of hot chocolate and coffee. We came across Espresso House that served both and also Cinnamon buns. Bonus! We found some comfortable armchairs inside in front of a sunny window and I went off to order. When I returned there was a guy sitting in one of the other armchairs and a jacket on the one next to me. When the other guy returned we started up a conversation. It turns out they have been friends since childhood and still both live about an hour out of Copenhagen in the Viking town of Roskilde. They were in their mid-fifties, both divorced and have been there for one another. Kim used to be a professional football player in the Danish League and now works in finance and Nick ran a clothing business. We had a great time chatting to them for about an hour about everything from kids, the cost of living, divorce, hygge, indigenous people, the US election and travel. Once they headed off we also decided to head home via the supermarket for a quiet evening, as tomorrow we have our food tour on bikes. (Manual bikes, so thank goodness Copenhagen is flat!)Read more