We’d been to Denmark before, and we’d even technically been to Copenhagen before, but on our previous visit we’d taken a full day’s tour that had seen us spend most of the day away from the country’s capital city. In 2022, this would not only be our second time docked at the Danish city, it would also actually be the first of two trips to the Danish city in the same year. We knew that one of these trips would have to include a highlights tour of Copenhagen and after checking times in port, etc. we opted to do it on the earlier of the cruises to this European country. We’d be there earlier in the day and leave later at night, giving us a chance to do the tour and check out a bit of the city for ourselves. A bit more than anticipated as it would turn out, but you’ll need to wait until Part Three of this day in Copenhagen to discover why.
A difference from the previous visit to Copenhagen in 2017 was that we were docked considerably further away from the city than before. This too will factor into the third part of this tour. Fortunately, though, we’d be using a bus to get to the start of the walking tour and, as it happened, this would provide some useful guidance for the route back to the ship later in the day. That you can read about in the final part. I am really bigging up the final part. It’ll be the bit where we got pissed off at Princess Cruises. But I’ve said too much already!
So, let’s get on with the organised walking tour of Copenhagen.
We’ll start with the view from our balcony on Sky Princess. It was a grey day in Copenhagen with the weather forecast for some light rain at some point.
After a drive from the cruise port we were debarked from the bus near The Little Mermaid; one of many groups and individuals arriving to view one of Denmark’s most-visited attractions. Yes, we’d seen it before, but it was nice to see it again, given its iconic status.
There are some people who will tell you that The Little Mermaid is disappointing in real life and that it is smaller than you might think. And to those people I would simply point out that the clue is in the name. It would be like getting disappointed with the pensive pose of Rodin’s The Thinker. And you never hear people mutter “Well, I thought The Little Mermaid was generally okay, and I didn’t have any issue with it being little, but that fish tail thing. What’s with that?” Anyway, the sculptor was Edvard Eriksen and it was first unveiled to the Danish public and the world at large in 1913.
Our walk next took us to Kastellet, meaning Citadel. Kastellet is a fortress, originally built in the seventeenth century but with a number of extensions and modifications since that time. Its form is that of a pentagon with bastions, in a similar design to many others around Europe at the time. Indeed, we have similar, partial fortifications in this same shape in our home city of Portsmouth (see: Old Portsmouth Shoreline Walk), although Copenhagen’s are far better preserved.
The moat around the fortifications was particularly photogenic, helped by that light grey cloud that added some nice, polarised reflections.
Kastellet is used as military barracks but during its opening hours it’s free for anyone to wander through the streets that make up the interior of the structure. As we reached the opposite side of the city’s fortress to that we’d entered we got a good view of some of the active military presence still there.
By now we were on the southern side of Kastellet and on our way to the next dedicated photo stop for this Copenhagen walking excursion. Our route there took us past more of the moats that protect the citadel and afforded us some nice views of St Alban’s Church. You might be thinking “Weird. Sounds a bit English.” If so then you get a gold star and a VIP pass to Anglican Heaven because, yes, St Alban’s is Denmark’s only Anglican church and is known to the locals as “the English church” too. The church dates from the late nineteenth century, built as part of the growing connection between the UK and Denmark through royal marriage, but services had been given in English for well over a hundred years prior to that due to increasing European trade and the number of English-speakers in Denmark in general.
As befits a military establishment, there were a couple of military statues that we passed as we continued our walk. The first of those was Our Fallen, a statue commemorating the dead of World War II, designed by Svend Lindhart and erected in 1957. The second was a bust of Winston Churchill, sculpted by Oscar Nemon in 1955. In fact, this parkland area just beside Kastellet is named Churchillparken as thanks for British assistance in liberating Denmark from the Germans.
A very short walk from there brought us to the next point of interest on this Copenhagen walking tour: Gefion Fountain. The name comes from the Norse goddess, Gefjon, generally associated with ploughing, hence the presence of oxen in the sculptures. The fountain was designed by Anders Bundgaard who sculpted the figures in the very final years of the nineteenth century with the main basin of the fountain being finished off in the first years of the twentieth century ahead of its first switching-on in 1908. The commission of the fountain in 1897 tied in with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Carlsberg Foundation who donated the fountain to the city.
The Gefion Fountain depicts the legend of the forming of the island of Zealand on which Copenhagen is located. The goddess was promised however much land she could plough in one night by the Swedish king who had not reckoned on her turning her four sons into oxen in which to help out. The land was then scooped up and thrown into the sea where it now stands.
This area of Copenhagen that we were now in is called Nordre Toldbod, the former site of the customs house that collected taxes from merchants. These days it’s more a basic waterfront area but with a few notable sights and ghosts of its former status. A statue of Mercury atop one of the gates to the former port area is by the nineteenth century sculptor Carl Christian Peters; a statue of Neptune sits opposite. The dragon street lights were particularly nice. Installed in 1892 they were designed by Vilhem Dahlerup.
Nordre Toldblod is also one of the best spots in Copenhagen to see Her Danish Majesty’s Yacht Dannebrog. This early 1930s yacht serves as the official Danish Royal Family’s residence for their summer cruises and state visits overseas. Royal quarters aboard are all aft of the funnel.
I have a fondness for sculptures and statues (but I keep it quiet and you wouldn’t know if I didn’t take every chance to mention the sculptors and dates and names of everything I see like you actually cared about them at all) so a few more here along the waterfront to mention. The bronze replica of Michaelangelo’s David is part of the Royal Cast Collection which are mainly housed in the building beyond it. This collection was founded by Carlsberg once again, who had a keen interest in art. More interesting to me, but I suspect not of interest to anyone in our walking tour group who all wandered past it without a second glance or any offered information from our guide, was the post-war abstract form in concrete called Toldboden by sculptor Søren Georg Jensen. Initially working with naturalistic forms (and he also created a replica of David) his work became more influenced by modernist and functionalist designs.
The last tourist spot in Copenhagen that I’ll cover in this first part of our walking tour of the city is Amalienborg. This large, open, octagonal space is surrounded by palaces for the Royal Family. The lack of flags flying when we visited suggests that it wasn’t occupied by any of them at the time. In the centre of the eight-sided square is a statue of King Frederik V mounted on a horse; sculpted by Jacques-Francois-Joseph Saly, this was erected in 1771. Should you arrive at Amalienborg around midday then you might just see the changing of the guards taking place. We passed some by as we headed rather quickly through because, as you might be able to tell from the photos, that forecast for light rain at some point I mentioned earlier magically transformed itself into a surprisingly determined downpour just at that moment.
We were a little soggy as we headed off for the remainder of our walking tour, passing briefly on the way out of the Amalienborg area by the bust of Roosevelt, unveiled in 1953 and sculpted by Jo Davidson. If you were looking for military connections and statuary on a web post about walking around Copenhagen then you’ve certainly come to the right place.
In the next part of this cruise travelogue series I’ll conclude the organised walking tour of Copenhagen that we undertook. However, you already know that there are three parts to this walking tour write-up so that suggests that there’s something a little unorganised to follow on from that. But what is it? You’ll just have to wait to find out.
We were back for our 5th time last Saturday and oh my, so many tourists. Your photo captures are great!