Day 3 in Copenhagen - Christiansborg Palace and the Canals

Our third full day in Copenhagen saw us enjoying the delights of Christiansborg Palace and the serenity of a one-hour canal tour of the city.   

Christiansborg Palace has a long history for the Danish monarchs and its origins extend even before then. The Danish royal family ceased using the palace as its residence in 1794, but continues to use it to this day for royal receptions, for the throne room and for other state occasions.     

views of the state reception rooms

    As you can see in the picture, top left, the monarch requires that all tourists wear blue booties over them shoes to protect the floors of the reception rooms. The dining hall, top right, has a ginormous table that can seat your entire extended family for Thanksgiving. The taller throne is the Queen's. The chandelier, bottom right, was purchased from the Swedish royalty, who then asked to borrow it so they could copy it and replace the chandelier - classy seller's remorse?     We also toured the ruins under the Palace. It's a fairly new exhibition and is really neat. It reminded me strongly of the exhibition I saw a year or so ago in Montreal.   

    After a happy few hours enjoying palace life, my Dad and I decided to take a seat for a guided tour of the city by water.     

  We took a boat similar to this one all throughout the harbor and canals of the picturesque city of Copenhagen.      Lots of great information and great pictures, too! Also a great chance to rest our sore tootsies! Dad has recorded more than 10,000 steps each day of our trip; I'm averaging closer to 17,000. That's not because I'm shorter. It's because I tend to go out for a bit after dinner while Dad (being more the wiser), relaxes and prepares the travel itinerary for the next day.       

    This section of the city is known as Nyhavn. It is part of a collection of canals that one of the previous monarchs (I forget which one) had built because he liked the way Amsterdam and its canals looked. Nyhavn was an easy walk from our hostel and is an area full of cafes, shops, street entertainment, and fantastic people-watching!     This is one of the most photographed parts of the city, according to the canal tour.            We made it back to the hostel in time for the early happy hour, and then we went down the street to a hamburger gastro-pub. Can't remember the name of it, and, unfortunately, the burgers weren't that memorable either. The name was a play on words with "buns" and the waitresses wore short-shorts. Think Hooters, except we weren't aware of the theme until after we sat down and ordered.      Stay tuned! The next installment will cover the famous Tivoli Gardens and our last full day in Copenhagen!     NOTE: for those of you following by email subscription, any videos I post will only work if you access them via the website - www.vacaken.com.