Day as a tourist

Written on August 3rd, 2012

Today I took a day off from work to do two things. 1) Accompany my friend D to airport and wish her luck on her six month study aboard trip in New York and 2) be a tourist for a day in Copenhagen.

Joining D to airport was easy and she seemed to have everything under control so I think I was there for moral support. But I am not even sure she need that. I know she appreciated the fact that I was there and we both know she will have a great time in NY.

So around 9:45 am I waved goodbye to D and made my way to Østerport. I have lived in Denmark for almost two years and I have never seen the front of the little mermaid statue. Yes, I have seen the back of the statue many times while on a canal tour boat but I have never seen the front of the statue.

As I am making my way to the little mermaid a tourist asked me for directions for the little mermaid and I said I was heading that direction and he could just come with me. This Asian tourist said "Wow, your English is really good".   I just said thank you while thinking in my head 'Yeah I really hope my English is good'. The two of us walked to the little mermaid and this statue was absolutely surround by tourists.

 I will see the mermaid again in September so I was not about to fight for a picture with it. Then the Asian tourist and I walked around the area and found a really neat church with a beautiful fountain in front. I told the Asian tourist (who said he was only in Copenhagen for one day) that the best way to see Copenhagen is by the canal boats. I directed him to go to central station and go to the tourist office right outside central station and they will tell you where all the canal boats are. The Asian tourist went on his way telling me "Thank you thank you. I never would of seen so much without your help."

I went on my way trying to find the Marble Church and after walking around a bit I did find the church but I could not get really close because of lots of road construction. About this time it was close to noon and I planned to meet K for lunch. So I made my way to Nørrport and got on the bus to meet up with K. The two of us had a great lunch and fun girl chat. After lunch K had to get back to work but it was great to see a good friend.

I made my way back to Nørrport and I decided this is a good time and a good place to do a few errands. After an hour of productive shopping I wanted to put up my feet for a while and just relax. So I made my way to the Rosenborg Castle grounds. Behind the castle there is a nice park, I found an empty park bench, relaxed there and read my kindle for about an hour. It was great to sit there in the great weather and just relax and read.

After reading I decided I should try to get to the Marble church again. I now know that one entrance was completely blocked but the other entrance hopefully was not blocked and it wasn't. The church was amazing and smaller compared to other churches but still amazing. I also found out while I was there that at 1 and 3 pm every day you can go up to the top dome and see Copenhagen. I bet it is an amazing view and very much worth going back and trying.

Next to the Marble church was Ameliborg castle, where the royal family live mostly during the winter but today there were at least two royal family members there.  How could I tell? Well on top of the house (if you can call it a house) the Denmark flag was raised meaning that a royal family member was there. Plus you can't miss the guards with the guns. And just like the British royal guards; the Danish royal guards do not react to anything. There were some tourist that were messing around the guard; I thought it as stupid but that is tourists for you. On the opposite side of the castle grounds there is a large fountain next to the harbor. It was a great view and I decided to follow to path along the harbor just for fun. I already knew that the harbor path would eventually take me back to the little mermaid. I took a nice leisurely walk and just enjoyed the sights, sounds and weather.

After that I decide to take care of some more errands around the Copenhagen area. I had some dinner in a nice restaurant and then took the next train back to my apartment. All and all I call that a good leisure day around Copenhagen; I saw a few interesting sites and I took some time off just to relax and read. I call that a good day.