Saturday, June 27, 2026
Here is some history about Copenhagen that comes through Wikipedia. Copenhagen is Denmark’s largest city with a metropolitan area population of 2.1 million. It housed one of the oldest monarchies in the world and has a history tracing back to the Viking Age. History is everywhere in Copenhagen and the surrounding areas, where you will find old castles, cobbled streets, and ancient ships.
In past years the locals were feared far from the Danish shores. They were Vikings and famous for pillaging and raiding foreign villages. They were sea travellers who explored foreign territories in Europe, Asia and even North America. They believed in Norse Gods like Thor and Odin and their time ran 250 years from around 800 until 1050 AD.
At one point, the Danish Viking Sweyn Forkbeard (Svend Tveskæg) and his son Canute the Great (Knud den Store) were the kings not only of Denmark but of Norway, Southern Sweden, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney and parts of England.
After the Viking Age, Denmark entered the years of Kings and Queens. Copenhagen was founded in 1167 by Bishop Absalon and became capital of Denmark during the 15th century. Herring fishing then brought great wealth to Copenhagen and, under the reign of King Christian IV in the 17th century, the city grew to become the important regional capital it remains today.
From 1376-1412 Denmark was ruled by a woman. Margrete was the first who ruled through her son, the King. She founded the Kalmar Union bringing Norway, Sweden and Denmark together under her rule. From January 14, 1972, until January 14, 2024, Denmark was once again reigned by a female regent: Queen Margrethe II. In her annually New Year speech on December 31, 2023, Queen Margrethe announced that she would abdicate after 52 years of reign making her son King Frederik X of Denmark. The Royal Family still lives in Copenhagen at Amalienborg Palace.
Amongst its important historical inhabitants are author Hans Christian Andersen, astronomer Tycho Brahe and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
We arrived 2.5 hours late as our fight out of Alesund was delayed. A planned walking tour was cancelled as a result of the delay and so we had a late dinner across the street from the hotel in a place called Esmee. It was a delicious meal of sea bream seveche and grilled sea bass. It was a delightfully balmy evening with many young people cruising the sidewalks in scanty clothing. It had been the warmest day of the year so far. Eventually we crossed the square back to our hotel, the D’Angleterre. The weather is expected to be rainy the next morning…..
Sunday, June 28, 2026
And it did. We were hoping the day would clear up as it was our free day and we hoped to tour the city on foot. The sun did come out by 10am and we had a lovely, even too hot, day. Mark counted 16, 800 steps. No hills of course. Copenhagen is flat as a pancake.
From our hotel we walked to St Ansgar’s Cathedral, the oldest Catholic Church in Copenhagen, where I attended 10am mass in Danish.
1887
From there we continued walking through a large tree covered park to the Statue of the Little Mermaid sitting on a rock in the water next to the shore. A huge cruise ship was in town and thousands of people wandered the streets. Even the Little Mermaid was crowded with tourists, like us. On our way back toward the old city we got a photo of St Albans church. We passed by our hotel and changed into lighter clothing and shared a club sandwich. We saw a sign that read 89 degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest day of our trip so far.
Most buildings, except the churches, are 5-6 floors high and made of stone or brick. The uniformity is appealing. We saw only one sky scraper in the city, a Radisson Hotel, and it looked out of place.
Back on the street we walked through the shopping district. and bought some clothes that were 40% off. Couldn’t resist. Don’t know how we will fit the new duds in our bags. It is already tight. From the shopping area we continued walking all the way to Tivoli Garden, only to learn it is an amusement park, not a garden. Hot and tired, we walked toward the canal hoping it would be cooler. We ended up at a place on the canal called Kalvebod Brygge Harbor Bath. It was packed with young people in very tiny swim suits sunbathing on the passenger only bridge. I guess there were more than a thousand people cheek by jowl soaking up the rays. We had had enough. Mark ordered an Uber and off we went to our hotel.
The driver was from Afghanistan and had been thee recently. He told us life was much better there now, except for women who still cannot go to school after grade 6 or work in public. Hmmph. Didn’t sound much better to me.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel. The air was still very pleasant.
Monday, June 29, 2026
We were met by a female guide named Sine. She spent the day with us. First she took us to the Royal Theater for a very private in both the front and back of the house. The theater guide,Pia, was waiting for us and wasted no time telling us about the theater, which was built in 1874 and has the oldest orchestra in the world. King Christian I was the first king of the orchestra, which has had 1086 musicians since 1448. Each new musician gets a consecutive number and generally stays in the orchestra for life.
First we saw the preconcert Hall in a lot of splendor.
In 1536 the reformation took place. The result was that the 1/3 of the land that had belonged to the church went to the king, who already had a third. The last third belonged to lords of the land who lived near the shore and protected the coastline from ships wanting to avoid the tax.
Early in the 1400s, Eric of Pomerania and great nephew of Margarete, who married the king who then died, leaving her “regent” and queen. She was the first European queen.
The golden age of art in Scandinavia was from 1810 to 1870. Famous people of the period included Sarah Bernhardt, who was a dancer and performer as well as sculpture.
From the pre concert Hall we went to the front of the house at the balcony entrance and immediately saw the central chandelier resting on the floor for cleaning and repairs. It was interesting to see it that way. It weighs 950 kilos and contains 2000 pieces of glass. Very impressive.
On the far left is the Royal Box. Too get there we walked into a private elevator that took us to the box floor and into the royal lounge, and the box itself.
Then we went to the back of the house and immediately we were in brightly lit rooms where staff was working on costumes and props. Work was very compartmentalized. We were not allowed to get into the individual rooms.
That was one super tour. Our guide told us it had been very special tour just for us. I believe it.
After leaving the Theater we drove around a bit on our way to our next tour.
We learned that 50% of workers commute by bike. There are 200 thousand cars and 1 million bikes. In spite of the huge number of bikes, car traffic is heavy. 17% of the population are non-local residents. And we learned the city has developed a “climate adaption system” to drain the rain water away from the streets to reduce flooding. It seems to be working. This day was sunny and pleasant.
Then we arrived at the Carlsberg brewery. It was founded in 1847 by J C Jacobson and was the first company to make lager. His son, Carl, was sent abroad in 1860, when he was 15, to Germany, Czech Republic, France and the UK to learn all he could about beer. In 1870 he returned to find that JC had built a brewery annex for him to create new beers. Carl makes lager beer in 3 months where JC”s method had taken 6 months. A rift forms between the two men and Carl goes his own way. They make up before JC dies in 1887.
Carl joined both brewery businesses and named the company Carlsberg. He created a foundation and put the company into it. He loved art and gave away 30% of earnings to art and other causes. The business was very successful. He died in 1914. The foundation continues to operate the company.
Today the most popular Carlsberg beer is the Tuborg Classic. The historical facility we toured is huge and takes up a lot of space for the former factories, Carl’s large home with much art and gardens, and the Foundation office building.
The current factory is elsewhere and even larger.
Our third tour of the day was the Fredericksburg Palace in Copenhagen. It is currently occupied and operated by the Danish Army. We were toured around the facility by an army cadet in officer training.
The first 2 floors of the Palace were built in 1703. The third floor and wings were added in 1709. Six Bronze Age burial sites were found and relocated. The palace was handed to the state in 1849.
Our driver dropped us off at the entrance to TIvoli Gardens and we saw a much different scene than the one we had the day before. There was a lot of colorful garden grounds, permanent rides scattered about, many restaurants and several in and outdoor theater venues. We had filet of Sole at a place called Glassalen. It was quite good.
Then we went to an indoor theater to watch a pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes, play a variety of classical pieces written by Schubert and Chopin. The music was OK, but did not make me love it. However, the audience sure did. The pianist played 2 encores and they were still clapping when we left.
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Our guide, Paul, and a new driver picked us up at 9am and headed for the Lousiana Art Collection, about half an hour away. While enroute, Paul told us we were in the center of a city that had been walled with earth berms and moats. Today, the berms have been leveled and converted into parks. Centuries ago, being surrounded by water and multiple fortifications, Copenhagen was strategic in gaining passage through the narrow straights at Oresund for ships to get to the Baltic Sea and the largest trading posts in Europe, next to the Mediterranean. The Danes required a tax be paid for passage through “Oresund”, the sound, into the Baltic Sea. As a result they became very rich. If a ship did not pay it was treated as a pirate ship.
Then Paul talked about a very rich man who had been married 3 times to women who were each named Louisa. When he converted his home into an art colletion open to the public, he named the place Louisiana. The museum was opened in 1950.
A museum guide, Anna, spent 45 minutes telling us about the place and showing us several sculptures. When she left us we wandered around on our own and saw most of the art in the collection. I, however, did not take to most of the works on the walls. I did like most of the sculptures, but did not get info on them all.
From the Louisiana Museum we went to a beachside restaurant called Bolaget Visby. We had delicious fish lunches.
We made a stop at Frederick’s Borg Castle, a centuries old fortified castle, to see the interior of the castle and the castle gardens.
Inside the castle proved to be even more interesting than the outside. A huge chapel was decorated with many gold leaf details. In the halls near the King’s audience chamber were walls of Coats of Arms. Paul helped me find these two that were of interest to us.
we went outdoors to walk around the gardens. I thought this scene the most interesting. there’re were also large lily ponds that were not yet in bloom.
That was the end of our planned adventures for the day. We drove back to Copenhagen, Mark got out at the hotel and Paul and I went to the National Museum to see the Viking section. Unfortunately, it was about to close and I was able to see only a little of the exhibit. Here are a few items from the 250 years Vikings existed as a culture.
That touch of Viking culture and a walk along the new Opera House completed my day. It felt good to chill on a bench at the edge of the Opera House and the fjord before returning to the hotel and a return dinner back at Esmee.