COPENHAGEN, DAY 1

Hello my dear readers, hope you are all well

After spending two days full of excursions and sightseeing in the Swedish capital, it was time to  say good-bye to Oslo and travel to our next stop - Copenhagen, Denmark's capital.  We took a short walk to the Stockholm Central Station where we caught a train to Malmö, the third-largest city in Sweden, situated on the southern point of the country.  After travelling through this part of Sweden for about 4 hours that were spent by watching the tranquil scenery from the big train windows or, reading or munching on some snacks, we disembarked and loaded onto the bus crossing the Oresund Bridge that spans over Oresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark.

On arrival in Copenhagen we checked in to the historic Admiral hotel, situated on a beautiful quayside with proximity to the major city's attractions.  We had lovely, spacious room with the windows overlooking the waterfront and from which we watched people who stayed in the hotel and were taking a plunge in the cold water.  I assume it was, as it was late August and the outside temperature didn't rise past 18C.

We first visited Copenhagen in back in 2010 arriving from Japan and hungry for big portions of food which would mainly consist of a big bowl of roasted potatoes and a humongous steak.  You would hardly see any potato dishes outside McDonalds where a Big Mac and a bag of French fries would set you back $30 AUS. As for steaks, you can only find them in the fancy restaurants that are a part of the big hotel chain, the biggest would weight 90gr!!!! and would cost you more then $100 AUS.  I am talking 15 years ago.  Don't get me wrong, Japan is a fascinating country, but when it comes to food, if you don't like miso soup for breakfast and don't eat sushi and not a fan of other Japanese food, you either have to be prepared to pay big bucks for European food or go hungry.  But I digress.

As for Copenhagen, they know how to feed a hungry punter.  We stayed there for three days and had a lovely time.  We even scored a lunch at famous Noma restaurant, thanks to a last minute cancellation.  To this day, we still talk about that meal. It was an amazing experience. As a matter of fact, there is a detailed post on my blog about our lunch at Noma. Pity, it was closed down. So for us being back in Copenhagen 15 years later was like walking down memory lane.

After dropping our bags, we went downstairs to join our group on a walking tour to learn more about the history and culture of the Danish capital.

Again, as in Stockholm, the city is crisscrossed by the waterways and canals that makes walking around it very pleasurable and quite exciting.  When you are on a bridge, you have such a broad view of your surroundings and get a clearer perspective and understanding of a city's layout.

There was on thing thought that I wasn't very happy about - a number of untamed bicycles on the streets.  You have to be on alert when they are approaching the traffic lights as they are coming from every which way and not always obeying the traffic lights.

The last time I saw so many bikes on the roads was when we visited Amsterdam in 2010, right after Copenhagen.  But these days their number is quadrupled and with it came the danger of being hit by one of them.

What I love about Copenhagen is the modern architecture blends harmoniously with the historical building and famous landmarks.

During our walking tour we came across a magnificent statue of Bishop Absalon who is historically credited as the founder of Copenhagen in XII century.

The other statue that caught my yes that takes centre stage in City Hall Square and is called The Lure Players that shares its space with swanky Scandic Palace Hotel.

When we came to the another public square called Axeltorf, we saw an sculpture installation of nine bronze amphoras called Zodiac where each amphora represents a planet in our Solar System.

We kept on walking along more gems of the city.  

This St Alban's Church designed in the  Gothic Revival, is the only one Anglican church in the country.

We stopped to have a closer look at Frederik's Church, popularly known as the Marble Church for its Rococo architecture and it has the largest dome in Scandinavia.

Our last historical stop for the day was to see an impressive equestrian statue of King Frederick V in Amalienborg Square and Amalienborg Palace (the home of Royal Family) in the distance.

Visitors are not permitted inside the Palace but we managed to glimpse the tradition of the Changing of the Guards that takes place every day at 12pm.

Our tour ended at well known Nyhavn harbour, central canal port easily recognised by the  colourful narrow houses lined along both sides of the canal and the multitude of boats, masts and sails constantly bobbing on the its surface.

It was in one of those houses in the restaurant called Heering where our group dined together at the end of the day.

By the time we finished our desserts (chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream which was simply divine) and were back on the street, the sun had gone and the evening was settling in over the city.  

Our itinerary for Day 2 was as busy as it was for Day 1, so my husband and I both agreed that if we want to keep going, we'd better find the way to our hotel and have a good nights rest.  And with that, we bade farewell to our fellow travelers and were gone.

Stay tuned for Day 2.

Until then,

Anna

xoxoxo

 

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN DAY 2

Hello my dear readers, trust you are all well.

Before I continue my narrative about our Scandinavian adventure, I would like to apologise to all of you who kindly left comments under my posts to which I didn't respond on time.  The reason being that someone left a very scary comment on one of my latest posts with the link to a site that sells guns and other deadly ammunition because I had never set the option for "Comments Moderation" which means that I have to manually approve or delete comments that ended in my Inbox, but I totally missed that part of the process and as a result all the comments were sitting there unread and unanswered.  Funny enough, I had been wondering lately as to why all of a sudden people stopped leaving their comments until I finally figured it out👍.  And now I am happy to report that all of your lovely comments have been read and answered and all the nasty ones have been reported as scam and deleted.  

Well, this problem is now sorted, so back to this post.

On the morning of our second day in Stockholm we met our local tour guide for the day, Victoria, who would take us on a tour around the historical part of the city and its main landmarks so we all hopped on a tour bus eager to see the top attractions such as Stockholm City Hall, the Strureplan Square and Parliament Building as well as modern side of the city centre.

Our first part of the tour ended in Old Town.  After that we proceeded on foot, with Victoria taking us on a walk through the medieval cobblestoned streets of Old Town (Gamla Stan), one of the largest and best-preserved medieval city centres in Europe. Gamla Stan is located in the middle of one of the 14 of  Stockholm's islands that are all linked by the bridges over the canals and waterways. It is dates back to the 13th century.  Today the Old Town makes for a  colourful labyrinth with beautifully preserved old buildings, The Royal Palace and gothic churches, not to mention all its cafes, bars, restaurants and shops

During our walking tour, we crossed a few waterways between different parts of Stockholm and ended up at the foot of one of the city's most iconic buildings and the heart of modern democracy, Stockholm City Hall.  This is the place where all the Nobel Prizes are awarded apart from the Peace Prize that is awarded in Oslo.

FYI, if you are planning a trip to Stockholm and want to see the inside of this magnificent building, be aware that the City Hall can only be visited with a tour guide.  

But before we stepped inside The City Hall, Victoria wanted to show us the outside walls of the buildings so we can admire its magnificent structure built using the prominent red bricks (around 8 million of them were used) and its surroundings including this beautifully landscaped and maintained park.

Afterwards, we followed her inside and found ourselves in the world renowned Blue Hall where the annual Nobel Prize award ceremonies and banquet are held annually on the 10th of December (the date of birth of Alfred Nobel) for Nobel laureates, Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 distinguished guests.

The name of the room is misleading as despite its name, the Blue Hall, the walls are covered in red brick.  Originally the architect planned to cover them in blue glazed mosaic tiles but then fell in love with the bricks, and as they say "The rest is history".😊 

We left the Blue Hall and found ourselves in the Council Chamber with it is magnificent 19-meters high ceiling with its exposed wooden structure that was inspired by Viking-era longhouses and resembles an overturned Viking ship.

The next room that we walked into was called Prince's Gallery.  This spectacular reception room was named after Prince Eugen, King's Gustav V brother and a prominent artist whose beautiful murals decorated the walls of the Gallery.

The Prince's Gallery is renowned for its panoramic French-style windows offering views of the lake and Sodermalm island with its famous Munich brewery.

Our last stop was at Golden Hall named after the gold mosaics that cover its walls.  Measuring 44-meters in length, it is best know as the location for the famous ball that follows the annual Nobel Prize awards in the Blue Hall.

There is a time 45 minutes limit for each tour group.  It might feel a bit short but our tour guide timed it perfectly.  We felt very well informed and were able to see all the major attractions open to the public.

We left the City Hall thanking Victoria for her time with us.  Our tour host Zdenka was waiting outside to take us for a group lunch at one of the restaurants serving traditional Swedish food.  My husband and I couldn't resist ordering their traditional meat balls that were served with mash potato and red cabbage salad.  The whole dish was utterly delicious. 

After lunch it was our free time.  I kept tracking the delivery status of our parcel with my husband's phone in it but it was still in transit so we went for another long walk around the neighbourhood and came across the most amazing store called Svenskt Tenn which translates to Swedish Pewter, a renowned Stockholm based interior-design studio and home goods store.  Once I walked in there and saw all the amazing wares that they are selling, I knew I was in heaven.  You should go on-line and see for yourself, this place is sublime.  

Also, we still have not heard a word from a delivery company about the whereabouts of my husband's phone.  In case you are wondering what happened to his phone, he left it behind in the hotel in Helsinki 4 days ago.  You can read the full story here . It was nerve racking as we were leaving quite early the following morning, when at long last at around 6 pm we received a message that our parcel was delivered to the drop and pick-up point a few blocks away.  When the guy behind the counter handed over the package containing my husband's phone, I nearly screamed Hallelujah, the pressure of the last few days was finally lifted off my shoulders.   My husband and his precious phone have been re-united at long last and we will be able to enjoy our holidays once again👍!!!

On that happy note we returned to our hotel to get ready for the next day departure to our next destination, Copenhagen.

Until our next stop

Anna

xoxoxo