Delving into Denmark

We embarked upon our second cruise for the holiday, this time on the beautiful Celebrity Silhouette bound for Scandinavia and Russia.

Copenhagen was our first port of call after a day and a half at sea. We had an overnight stay so plenty of time to see this fascinating city. The most famous attraction is the Little Mermaid sculpture, based on the story of the same name by the Dane Hans Christian Andersen. On our walks through the city we also saw the ‘other’ mermaid who is much bigger and better endowed, as well as the Royal Palace (Amelienborg) where our own Princess, Mary from Tasmania, is resident with her husband Frederick and their four children.

The wonderful Frederiks Church, also known as the Marble Church, is very similar in style to the Pantheon in Rome and has the most ornate and beautiful organ pipes we have seen. The Kings Garden, acres of lush green trees and hedges, contains the Rosenberg Castle where the Crown Jewels are housed. And Kastellet (the Citadel) is set amongst acres of lawns, streams and willow trees where healthy ducks preen in the sun – and even bob for apples in the water!

The weather was challenging at times, requiring us to find cover from the rain. This we did at Magasin du Nord, a department store that boasts two cafes and a wonderful basement food hall. After replenishing our caffeine supply and checking emails we headed off only to be cut short by yet another rain event. So we ducked into a corner pub, only to discover that it is in fact the oldest pub in Copenhagen, built in 1723 and is a fascinating rabbit warren of cosy dark timber rooms. We ordered lunch, a standard fare of beer (or water) and a selection of Danish open sandwiches on dark brown bread. Delicious.

British built cathedral

Outside Princess Mary's 'house'

One of the canals

Rosenberg Castle

Lunch at Huiids Vinstue, Copenhagen's oldest pub

The Marble Church

The Citadel grounds with former military accommodation

Still in Denmark but this time in the smallish town of Fredericia which was originally marked as the capital. A brass band welcomed our arrival on the wharf from 7.30am so there was no sleeping in. And again the weather was questionable so we donned our rain coats and set out to follow the historic route around the town.

This included a rather lengthy walk over and along what was once the old city walls and moat, now lushly green and littered with cannons. The township is a delightful mix of old and new and because of the presence of our cruise ship, was alive with bustling international food markets. Jim tried Danish Bratwurst on a roll and we purchased a bag of dark chocolate covered almonds for later. Each stall represented a different European country and the cheeses, meats and antipasto looked divine – pity we couldn’t take any with us!

On our way back to the ship we came across the 2015 Craft and Design Fair and wandered through. Here we saw many unusual types of fibre and fabric crafts as well as beautiful leather work and divine glass handled knives. The people were so friendly and everyone speaks English, including Karl and his wife who own Karl Kaffee where we had coffee and the most wonderful homebaked chocolate oatmeal slice.