Copenhagen Denmark Day 3

The day started with an abrupt wake up call. I decided to take the morning off and rest my weary body while Michael was going to go find the official winter palace. We were figuring out how and when to meet up to go on a canal cruise when Michael decided to go downstairs to get a cup of coffee. I am still in bed and he comes in and says there is a canal tour leaving right from the hotel at 9 am – and it is the only trip of the day from the hotel. Well, that solved the problem of the where and when – but it was 8:30 am and I am still in bed. Didn’t take me long to figure it out – get dressed NOW and FAST – and avoid a mile walk to get another tour.

The canal boats have a very low freeboard and are narrow and long. They were designed to go under the very narrow and short canal bridges. Head clearance, when sitting in the boat, is about 6 inches. The tour lasted a little more than an hour and we saw many of the places we saw from the bus, but from the water. It was a most scenic trip and our guide was a college student on holiday who spoke three different languages on the tour. Her college education is totally paid for and she gets a monthly stipend from the government while she is a student. I told her about how we pay for our higher educational system and she was quite shocked. She said she doesn’t mind paying 50% in taxes as everything is taken care by the government.

I returned to the hotel while Michael (where he gets the energy I don’t know) continued on with a five mile self-guided walking tour. He visited Copenhagen’s famous “walking street,” which is non-stop shopping for pedestrians only. He went on to the Rosenborg Have, which is an armory where the new palace guard starts out from each day at 11:30 am. He walked through the gardens on the way to the Amaliebosrg Slotsplade, the actual winter palace, and watched the guard change. He has some great pictures. It was then on to the Resistance Museum (which was, unfortunately, closed as it was Monday). Michael finally pooped out and headed back to the hotel, with a stop at Denmark’s largest department store and a number of designer type shops, with a nice lunch stop at an outdoor café.

We ventured out once more for a meal at a Chinese restaurant, and then back to the hotel to do our final packing. It will be a short night for us as we have a 7:30 am flight from Copenhagen to London, and then home to Seattle.