Sea Day
The next day was a sea day. The sea days are great for relaxing and recharging the batteries. We spent time together exploring the ship, playing golf and ping pong, and we also let the kids spend a little time in the kids club, while the adults checked out the casino – we started off strong on the roulette table and ended in the black. It was cold at sea, so we did not use the pool. Additionally, it was dress up night, so we cut our afternoon short so that we could get ourselves ready for pictures and dinner. We ate in the main dinning room and had rack of lamb with mint jelly. After dinner, we hit the shipboard entertainment, which was Cirque Pan, a kind of Cirque du Sole, but with a Peter Pan theme – the kids really enjoyed it, as did the adults.
Wednesday, June 30
Copenhagen, Denmark
On Wednesday, we arrived to Copenhagen. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and has a population of about a million. Copenhagen was first mentioned in the twelfth century and was referred to as Portus Mercatorum, which is really just a fancy Latin version of Købmannahavn. This has since been mangled into København in modern Danish, and even further mangled into Copenhagen in English, but all it really means is "merchant harbor."
We did not have an organized tour. We wanted to see the Carlsburg brewery, but that tour was sold out. Instead, we ate a late breakfast, got off the boat, and made our way to Tivoli Gardens, which is one of the world’s oldest leisure parks, dating back to 1843. This is the amusement park that we hit on our very first cruise that went from Amsterdam to Copenhagen to Oslo. That was three years ago, so it was nice to have the opportunity to go back and see it again. The kids still remembered it from the first cruise. At that time, they were too little to go on any of the rides, but they made up for it this time around.
When we came three years ago, we did the hop on hop off bus tour and saw a number of the great palaces: The four identical classicist palaces of Amalienborg, make up the main residence of the Danish royal family. The octagonal courtyard in the centre is open to the public and guarded by the ceremonial Royal Guard. The relief takes place every day at noon and is a highlight for any royalist visiting the city. There is also a small royal museum on the premises. Rosenborg Palace is a small but pretty renaissance palace, surrounded by the lovely King's Garden which is one of the most lively parks of the city. The palace both serves as a museum of Royal history and as a home for the crown jewels which are on display in the catacombs beneath the castle. Unusual for a well-founded democracy, the palace that houses the parliament, Christiansborg, is also a royal palace. It is usually possible to visit the Royal reception rooms, stables and the old court theatre here.
We decided to spend the afternoon at the amusement park and not visit any of the other historical sites, so I got my fill of the history of Copenhagen by visiting Wikipedia. Here is a summary if you are interested:
***Around 1160 AD, King Valdemar handed over control of the city to the archbishop of Roskilde, Absalon, one of the most colorful characters of the Middle Ages — a curious mix of great churchman, statesman, and warrior. As the country's only city not under the king's control, Absalon saw it thrive and erected a castle on what is today Slotsholmen (the remains are still visible in the catacombs under the present day parliament). As a man of religion he also built a great church, and with those necessities taken care of, Copenhagen quickly gained importance as a natural stop between the two most important Danish cities, the old royal capital Roskilde and Lund in present day Sweden. Endowed with an enviable location on the banks of the important Øresund Strait, it slowly but steadily surpassed the old urban centers. Copenhagen's rise was greatly aided by entrepreneurial trading with friends and foes alike and by prosperous fishing which provided much of Roman Catholic Europe with salted herring for Lent. But with prosperity comes envy and in the years to follow Copenhagen was laid waste and pillaged time and time again, mainly by the German Hanseatic League, which at one point completely destroyed the city.
But like a phoenix, Copenhagen repeatedly rose from the ashes. When the Danes kicked out the Pope during the reformation, Roskilde lost its importance as a Roman bishopric and after taking control of the city twenty years earlier, the king moved his residence to Copenhagen. Not terribly keen on seeing their new capital laid waste once more, successive kings built massive fortifications around the city. None more so than King Christian IV, who embarked on a building rampage which not only included the ramparts still visible throughout much of the city but also many present day landmarks like the Round Tower and the stock exchange. Since then Copenhagen was besieged by the Swedes, and then famously bombarded, set ablaze, and nearly destroyed by the British vice admiral Lord Nelson, who in one of two battles for Copenhagen, famously responded to the order to withdraw by saying "You know, Foley, I have only one eye. I have a right to be blind sometimes," and then raised the telescope to his blind eye and touted "I really do not see the signal."
Again, the city shook off its struggles and the population mushroomed during industrialization. When a cholera epidemic did a fine job of killing nearly everyone there wasn't room for, the King finally conceded that long range cannons would render its constraining walls irrelevant, and thus allowed the city to grow outside the now antiquated ramparts. But it was not long before a new modern fortification was built (known as Vestvolden today), which made Copenhagen Europe's most fortified city of the late nineteenth century.
After being subjected to yet another invasion during WWII, the whole idea of a fortified city was thrown out the window and replaced with one of the finest examples of urban planning anywhere — the Finger Plan. Copenhagen is one of few cities in the world to devise a long term plan for growth and then actually stick to it; try placing your hand over a map of Copenhagen with the palm as the city centre, and it's quite obvious why it's called the finger plan. Despite being the laughingstock of the country through the seventies and eighties when wealthy residents all moved out into the fingers, leaving behind an impoverished bankrupt city, a visit these days will prove that the Phoenix has risen once more. End of history lesson.***
After spending three hours at the amusement park, we made our way back to the ship for a late lunch. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner and we were meeting our friends the McDonalds for happy hour. After happy hour, there was a teddy bear party for the kids at 6PM. So the kids did that while the adults had a quiet meal on their own. After dinner, we picked up the kids and took them for a late dinner at the buffet and then got them to bed. The ship left around 5PM from Copenhagen, so we decided to try our luck again at the casino. We went back to the roulette table, but were not so lucky this time around. Our friend Brian showed up and won $50 in the first 2 minutes, so we decided to stick with him. We made our way to the blackjack table and played for about 2 hours. We ended up winning about $150 when we decided to call it a night.
