Copenhagen

We previously spent 3 or so days in Copenhagen in 2018, so feel we already know the city to some extent and can give a few of the more touristy attractions, such as 'The Little Mermaid' statue and the Tivoli Gardens a miss this time around, freeing us up to spend the one day we have here reacquainting ourselves with some of the areas we loved the most last time around.

Having said that, we did set out on a tour that drove us, by bus, from the port to a drop-off point near the old fort of Kastellet with a guide, hoping we might pick up a few pieces of new knowledge as we walked through some of the more historic sites whilst making our way to the city centre where we planned to peal off and do our own thing for a few hours, before making it back to the ship on one of the shuttles Viking have running regularly from the city centre back to the ship.

You have got to love Viking - they really do make everything as simple as they can. Although to be honest, I can see why they would need to as there are, very seriously, adults on this cruise who seem to need a lot of hand-holding in order to get through even the simplest of travel maneuvers. And don't even get me started on the ones that want to be taken to the closest Louis Vuitton store as part of the Historic Copenhagen tour!!! Most seem to be very well-seasoned travellers and, otherwise, quite high-functioning adults, so I'm not sure what is going on - but maybe that's the attraction of a cruise - it is possible to hand over all control/decision-making, so that's what you do! In some ways, it's quite an attractive concept but sometimes difficult to cope with if you are swept up in the tide. I feel like I had a little bit of a rant there, but..... thanks for listening

Anyway, on with the day...

First off it's Kastellet: construction of this fortress was started in 1626 by King Christian IV (he was one very busy King!) and it's now one of the best-preserved remaining fortifications in Europe. The fortress was felt to be a necessary means of protection against various enemies but, most frequently, the Swedish, with Denmark and Sweden going to war against each other many times between the mid-1400s and the 1800s. Despite the fact the Danes and the Swedes now have many cultural similarities, there is still an underlying current that would suggest the Danes still don't feel a lot of love for the Swedes of the past. Meanwhile, to this day, Kastellet is still a working military base for several hundred employees, who I'm sure get heartily sick of tourists generally ambling about as we make our way through their workplace. It is very interesting though and apparently, the secret service is also housed here but it's not known exactly where. Andrew loves a bit of spy action so is quite interested in this fact.

After leaving the Kastellet area, we walk (very slowly) to the Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Danish royal family. Today Margrethe II, who resides in one of the four 'wings' isn't at home (apparently she likes to spend the warmer months in her 'summer home'), but members of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Frederik's family are - we know this because the Queen's flag is not flying but the Prince's is. The royal family are adored by the Danish! We also learnt, which is quite obvious if you know anything about Danish royalty, that all kings are named either 'Christian' or 'Frederik' and alternate from one generation to the next.

One more random fact: Danes love their flag and many have their own flagpoles, however, the law states flags can only fly during daylight hours and must be taken down prior to nightfall and, additionally, must never be allowed to touch the ground.

At this point we reached the city centre and leave the tour with the priority being to find some lunch. Whilst most Scandinavians speak very good English, not all do, many of the more authentic restaurants don't have an English menu and the term 'lost in translation' is particularly relevant when it comes to ordering a meal. Therefore, it can sometimes be difficult to find a restaurant that is both authentic and still relatively easy to navigate. Often it comes down to finding a restaurant with a lot of locals eating and using Google Translate to assist in averting any potential disasters. This was our approach on this day and it worked, we had an absolutely delicious lunch in a restaurant serving an enormous array of smørrebrød - a traditional Danish open sandwich. So good!

We found our way back to the ship after having fallen in love with Copenhagen all over again and looking forward to our day in Skagen tomorrow. However, once again, the weather has defeated us and we are now heading to the port of Aalborg instead. Oh well, no matter, apparently it's even more gorgeous than Skagen according to the Cruise Director