At Sea: Friday
Had a relaxing beautiful sunny day at sea, but cold! Decided to get some laundry done so we’ll
have enough clean clothes to get us through next week. It will be a very busy 11 days, with only 2
sea days and one of those is just before we leave the ship. We even packed up formal stuff –just won’t
be back on ship early enough to do that anymore. Tours to Berlin and St. Petersburg are ALL day. Will need to double up on my vitamins. LOL.
We have met some very interesting, diverse, sharp people in
these last 17 days. Two of whom we now
consider friends and will keep in touch.
And the couple from New York with whom we’ll share pictures (he sat on
one side of the van in Normandy and I sat on the other side—so we decided to
exchange) But, there are some we met
that just couldn’t find their way out of a walk-in closet with the lights
on. One couple this morning at
breakfast: From Toronto (should NOT be
an excuse) who winter in Florida. Had a
Baltic cruise scheduled last year but had to cancel because of his health. Said she didn’t know this cruise went on to
the Baltics—they really wanted to do that one.
???? Then …they shipped their
car to NYC, so will fly there and drive back home to Toronto. When I mentioned having son or son-in-law
drop our car at airport the day we get home so they wouldn’t have to stay up to
pick us up…..she said she never thought about having someone take their car to
airport.. Granted, the NYC airports are a lot larger than LR and would be
harder to find a car, but….they didn’t need to be out on their own.
We can’t get off ship until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning due to
all the 2200 others who are leaving the ship for good. They get first dibs at shuttles to airport,
etc. We just want to go downtown and
then we have a walking tour that we
planned before we left home. There are
certain things we want to see and when we finish with that, we’ll go back to
city center, catch the shuttle back to ship.
At 4 p.m., all the groups that are signed up with Alla Tours to the
Baltic ports will get-to-gether for last minute instructions.
Copenhagen, Saturday
A great day in a beautiful city. One thing we have noticed on the ship is that the right hand
doesn’t know what the left is doing.
We’ll watch the port information in the room and then read the printed
information coming from the port/tour desk…..they say the opposite things. The port information director said he
couldn’t get any info from the Hop On Hop Off buses, so he didn’t know about
them. HOWEVER, you could buy tickets on
the Princess shuttle into city center on the bus or at the desk. Later, we get a printed notice saying that
the shuttle tickets have to be purchased by 6 p.m. the day before we get to
Copenhagen. We sure didn’t want to buy
shuttle tickets and then find the
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| Changing of the Guards at Amalienborg Castle |
HoHo bus sitting there. So, we took a chance and didn’t buy anything. When we looked outside at 8 a.m. this morning, HoHo buses were lined up waiting. We could have paid $32 for the RT shuttle and then had to get around on our own or $48 for an all day tour of the city with HoHo. By 9 a.m. , we were on a HOHO headed into town. Stayed on it for the complete tour of the city, then back around again for the stops where we wanted to get off. It worked out perfect.
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| Nyhavn |
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| Nyhavn |
We were greeted early this morning by a local Copenhagen band
playing on the dock between the ship and terminal. Quite lively.
Denmark has a population of 5.5 million people. Of that 5.5 million, 1.7 million live in
Copenhagen. Today, Saturday, the
remaining 3+ million were in town visiting.
NEVER seen so many people. The
little canal strip of Nyham with restaurants all up one side were totally
crammed full of people eating. No chance.
But it is a place I have seen in pictures all my life and never dreamed
of seeing…I saw it. So cool.
Sitting on the east
coast of Denmark, Copenhagen has been that country's capital for 600 years and
is the largest city in Scandinavia with a population of 1.7 million people.
It's home to the world's oldest monarchy (King Erik VII set up permanent
residence in 1417) and its present Queen, Margrethe II, currently lives at
Amalienborg Palace.In a country rich in Viking history, grand castles and lush green countryside, Copenhagen is a charming city of 17th- and 18th-century buildings, beautiful parks and gardens, pretty promenades along canals, and ancient winding streets made for walking and biking.
Copenhagen recently marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, the legendary and magical writer of such fairy tales as "The Little Mermaid" and "The Princess and The Pea."
We saw The Little
Mermaid….and it is really that….little.
Amazing that it has become such an international tourist site. We had timed our visit to see the changing of
the guards at noon at Amalienborg Palace (the home of Queen Margrethe II) and
it worked out. We had a perfect spot to
watch. We also saw the Stroget, the
busiest shopping area I’ve ever
seen. Lots and lots of shopping.
Near the Little Mermaid,
in the park, these pavilions are used for the Royal Family while awaiting their
Royal Yacht for a cruise in the harbor.
The one with the crown was the Monarch’s; the other for the Queen.
Also drove by the Maersk
Headquarters building….employs over 117,000
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| Maersk Headquarters |
Went by Tivoli
Gardens/Park…a huge amusement park/garden etc area. Very busy on this Saturday morning. We avoided the rides.
.JPG) |
| Stock Exchange We spent our few krones that we had on junk food…everything else took our credit cards. It was a cloudless day with temps in the 50’s…beautiful weather. We thoroughly enjoyed Copenhagen. I came away with these thoughts: |
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| Tivoli |
We got back to ship and
found a new look….this new group of tourists are somewhat younger and more
European than what left this morning.
But there are still plenty of old farts around….including us.
After meeting with the
bunch of us from Cruise Critic who have signed up for some of the Alla Tours
for the Baltic ports, we came back to room….will probably not do the nightlife
tonight. Next week will be a hard week.
We left Copenhagen about
6:30 p.m. and went north towards the North Sea and Oslo. It’s a narrow strait between Denmark and
Sweden….Sweden on our starboard side (our side of the ship)..beautiful scenery
until late in the evening. It’s past
9:30 p.m. and the sun is still shining.
Tomorrow will be Oslo,
Norway. Plans are to do the HoHo …
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