Diary of an adventure to Eastern Europe.. Part 2

Landed at 7:00am at the Kastrup International Airport, Copenhagen. The weather was chilly ( at 14C ) and... it was DRIZZLING!!... I told myself... BAD NEWS!! my first day and the weather was not cooperating with our group. We all boarded a bus with our tourist guide to have a morning city tour and lunch ( since our hotel rooms won't be ready till after lunch)...

As we neared the city... we encountered so much traffic. There were too many bicycles on the street since it was rush hour and people were on their way to work.

 Another problem was the draw bridge was up to give way for the boat to pass...

The Stock Exchange building.

Our first stop was the Copenhagen Opera House. They innaugurated it on January 1, 2005. The opera opened on Holmen. The opera is the new venue for operas and ballets, with state of art facilities. The entire project was a donation made by the A.P. Moller and Chastine Mc Kinney Moller Foundation.

The winter residence of the Danish Family is known as Amalienborg. It is made up of four almost identical rococo palaces built around an octagonal square, which were originally built by four noblemen in the years 1750 - 1754, on land granted to them by King Frederick V. The Royal Family lived on Christianborg until 1794, when it burned down. The Royal Family decided to buy four palaces and named them Amalienborg, moved in and lived there.

The Royal Guard, an elite force of the Danish Army, has as its main purpose the protection and security of the Queen. Every day at noon, the guard replacement marches into the square and commences the change of the guard. Each guard has a two-hour shift, in which he is to alternately stand in front of the very distinctive guard house or march back and forth in front of the palais to which he is assigned. After the two hours, the replacement is marched out from the guards' room, located under the colonnade to the South of Amalienborg (except of course at noon), and is relieved.

Next to Tivoli Gardens is the Town Hall Square. The town hall was built in 1892-1905 and was designed by Architect Martin Nyrop, who was in part inspired by the town hall in Siena, Italy.

Our lunch was at Copenhagen Corner.

Our lunch was good. The only bad experience I had was..... We HAD TO PAY for OUR WATER ( which is 5 EUROS for a 1.7ml )....and when we complained they told us that SCANDINAVIA has potable water.. therefore no need to buy bottled wate.... but JUST to make sure... I still bought my bottled water all though out the trip.... 


After lunch we headed for a free afternoon shopping. I went to have some money changed and to my surprise... I found out that in COPENHAGEN they do not accept EUROS or DOLLARS ( unless you are using your credit cards )... They said.. they ONLY accept DANISH KRONERS...


We went to the Pedestrian Street for a free afternoon SHOPPING...... Their main department store was ILLUM.