#denmarkday2

Denmark Day 2 was spent in Copenhagen.  Great city - lots of happy Danes when the weather is good.  It rained in the morning, but was nice and cool in the afternoon.  So glad I went north on this holiday - the weather is incredible.

Today's pictures and hash tags:

#maerskoperahouse - Denmark's claim to fame in business is the Maersk shipping company that you see worldwide.  The owner of Maersk is a big patron of the arts in Denmark.  He lived  to 98 years old and in the last 10 years of his life, oversaw the completion of the opera house he bought the city that looks directly out over the harbor and incidentally at Maersk company hq.  It also leads directly to the queens palace

#courtyard - this is the courtyard view of the queens palace

#guardandprotect - the queen wasn't home, but it was surprising how close you could get to the palace with only 2 guards in funny hats guarding.  Apparently the royal family lives there but doesn't use a lot of security.  Celebrity doesn't mean the same thing over here.

#fitforaqueen - front view of her home.  There were three others like it for her family, including the crown prince and princess and their twins.

#obligatorychurchshot - just a pretty church near the palace.  

#leopardumbrella - see mom, I'm using the umbrella you got me.  

 #seaofbikes - Copenhagen is exactly like the netherlands when it comes to bikes.  They are everywhere.  I thought they rode much more aggressively than the bikes in the Hague, but that's probably because Copenhagen is a much bigger city.  Also, that bar in the background must have been British because both days we walked past it, there were huge groups singing their ode to swansea city fc - they must be the only fans in Europe.  It was impressive - almost made me want to be a swansea fan. #mancity4life

#paradesfollowme - I feel like every European town I visit has a band of some sort that strikes into a parade when I'm in town.  

#crownjewels - so we took the free afternoon to see the crown jewels in the Rosenberg (spelling?) castle.  We used a recommended rick Steve's guide for a guided tour, same guy who did Hans christian andersen.  He was really good - definitely worth the extra kroner to have it explained.  I'm kicking myself because I didn't pay extra to take photos.  I wish I would have, I had no idea they would be as beautiful as they were.  Whilst smaller in quantity, the beauty rivaled the crown jewels in London. Amazing.  The castle itself was nothing special.....#castledout but enjoyed the commentary.

#deathdefying - next stop was Tivoli amusement park, which is supposedly the birth place of amusement parks.  One of the girls on this trip is majoring in engineering and film at USC - she wants to design theme parks.  I mostly went because she realllly wanted to, but ended up having a lot of fun. The park was cute, simple and contained a lot of Danes having a ton of fun.  They are just really happy people.  I rode 2 rides - a train roller coaster (with the bus driver!) and a set of swings that took you way up in the air overlooking the city.  The swings were scary - we got stuck at the top, which was not cool.  It was only about 2 minutes, but it felt like eternity.  When we got down, they offered us free rides  after they did a test run on it, but after that, I wasn't willing to give it another shot.  The park attendants tracked us down later and gave us free tickets for any other ride, which I thought was really great of them.

#parkatnight

#lightshow - park was really pretty after dark.