Showing posts with label Copenhagen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copenhagen. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Rosenborg Castle : Treasury and Crowned Jewels

Written on August 6th and 7th, 2011.  This is one of the many blog posts I have in the works for a long time and finally I have figured out the best way to post all these past adventures really easily. 
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On August 6th I planned on going to Amelienborg Castle, where the royal family lives. But I have never been there and when I noticed on the train to Copenhagen that I forgot to pack my Copenhagen map, I needed to come up with a back up plan. I knew the general area as where Amalienborg Castle was and I knew which S-train and which metro train to take to get to this general area. But after I walked out of the metro station I will be on my own. So I deciede I would give myself an hour to walk around and try to find Amelienborg Castle. If I could not find it within that hour I would change plans and go to Rosenborg Castle instead because I knew where that castle was.

 Well after an hour of looking I saw some great canal scenary, (which I later found out is called Nyhavn) nice restuarants near the canal and a guy that looked a lot like 'Captain Jack Sparrow' but no castle. So I walked back to the metro station and made my way to Nørreport and Rosenberg Castle.  

When comparing the size of Rosenborg Castle to Christiansborg Castle, Christiansborg is much larger. But Rosenborg has much more history in it because the castle has not been damage by fire. I guess I went to the castle during a busy tourist time but that actually worked well for me. Since I was by myself, I would offer to take a couple's or family's picture in exchange of them taking mine. Every time I get a picture taken of me in front of the castle or statue I think how happy my Mom will be.

(Back story: When I was younger and I traveled some where I would bring back tons of pictures. My Mom always said 'You take lots of pictures but there are no pictures of YOU while you were there.' So now I make an effort to get pictures of me in front of a castle. Thanks Mom!)

You can enter the castle grounds for free but if you want to go inside the treasury or castle you much purchase a ticket (75kr = $13) also if you want to take any photos you have to pay an extra 20kr ($4). I wanted pictures so I went ahead paid 95kr. I must say when I went in the ticket office the man behind the counter was really busy and another guy was getting so frustrated by all the people not understanding that their bags must be put in the lockers. He kept saying 'No that bag must go in the locker'.



Once inside the castle grounds the first thing that caught my eye was the ARMED Danish soldiers guard the entrance to the treasury.

I decided to go to the castle basement first this is where the royal jewels are kept first. When I entered the area where the jewels are kept the first thing I thought was 'Crap it is really dark down here this lighting is going to make taking pictures difficult.' And I was right every time I took a picture with the flash the reflection of the flash would bounce off the glass and ruin the picture and when I tried to take pictures with no flash the picture did not turn out that well. So I pose a challenge to my photographer sister JA, when you come to visit I want to see if you can use your skills to take some great pictures of the royal jewels. Well noticing that taking photos was not working out I decided I was going to switch my camera settings to video recorder and take videos of the jewels instead. I think that idea worked out well since photo flash was giving me so many issues. The treasury is split into 9 sections, three of those sections are behind a five inch thick safe door.

Section A is the first section I walked into and it contains the ceremonial arms and large wooden barrels of the Rosenborg wine. Section B is where the objects made of ivory and amber were kept.


Section C is a small room behind a locked glass door and behind this door was hundreds of Rosenborg wine bottles on a wine rack. After a few failed attempts of taking photos I just moved on to Section D.

In Section D, the most notable item in this section was King Christian IV's riding trapping from his coronation in 1596.  Section E also had riding trappings but from the wedding of Prince Elect in 1634.





I have say the history behind all these jewelery peices is amazing. Some of these jewels date back to the 1600's and they look in decent shape.







After passing the safe door I reached Section F where many more jewels and King Christian III's Sword of State is stored.

Section G is where the royal batismal jewels are usually kept but the Crowned price and his wife had twin babies eariler this year and the jewels were used during the cemeromy and moved to another muesum for viewing. Also in this section was King Christian IV's crown used in 1596, this crown was used by King Christian IV and King Frederik III.

Section H had many interesting things in it. There was one cabinet full of rings and all these rings had large colored diamonds on them. Another cabinet stored these gorgeous elmerand earring and neaklace.
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I am working on my more blog posts. Thank you all your love and support.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Rosenborg Castle : Rooms of the Castle


On August 6th, 2011 I went to the Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen, I have already posted a blog post about the Treasury and Crowned jewels. After looking at all the beautiful jewels in the Treasury I made my way to the rooms in Rosenborg Castle. This blog post is going to be just a picture post.  I really hope you enjoy all my pictures. Thank you to all my friends and family for your love and support. 

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Rosenborg Castle
Christian IV's 'Winter Room' - Ceiling & paneling in Renaissance style.
Fireplace mantel in Christian IV's 'Winter Room'

Christian IV's Writing closet - Portraits of earlier kings.

Christian IV's toilet room - ceiling.
Christian IV's toilet - The glazed tiles are from Delft, and were placed in the castle in 1708.
Christian V's room - Decorated with late 17th century Flemish tapestries.  
Pictures in the stair case to the second floor

Frederik V's Room 'The Rose'
Frederik V's room "The rose" -- Paintings, furniture and other objects in the Rococo style of his time. 
Frederik IV's Corridor - Exhibits mainly from the time of the king.
Frederik IV's cabinet - Used by his sister Sophine Hedvig.

Christian VI room - Painting on the ceiling

Christian VII's room - Designed in 1782-1784 in the Neoclassic style to house the Royal Coin Collection. 

Christian VIII's room - Original ceiling from Christian IV's time. 

Royal seal on the ceiling of the Long Hall

Ceiling of the Long Hall

3 silver lions that guard the royal throne

The tapestries are made in Copenhagen and depicts battles from the Scanian War 1675-1679.

Rosenborg Castle

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Staff Club fun: Copenhagen Zoo

So when I first arrived at the research center here in Denmark, I was offered to join the Staff Club. For 25 kr (~$5) a month, the Staff Club would offer to pay a portion or all of the cost for a trip or event.  On December 2010 I decided to go ahead and join the Staff Club and I am glad that I did.

On May 26th, members of the Staff Club (or at least the ones that signed up) went on a after work trip to the Copenhagen Zoo.  I thought at first the group of us were going to just walk around the zoo but once we got there I realized we get an after hours private tour!!


Bearded lizard
When every one arrived I noticed that the majority of the Staff Club members brought their children and that R and I were the only PhD students.  For the children to understand the tour it was decided to give the tour in Danish.  R and I were fine with that, I was just excited to be able to visit the zoo. 
An interesting insect, it really looked like a dead leaf.
 The first place we went to was the insect and reptile petting room. The children were excited to hold all kinds of insects and reptiles.  R was having fun holding things, while I on the other hand was steering clear of all the snakes. One of the staff member's daughter had this snake around her neck and arm, and she looked so calm. I was freaking out just looking at the snake. 
Spotted Newt
There were many other animals to see. Although since it at the end of the day, most of the animals were sleeping.  So not only was the zoo basically empty and really quiet.


Siberian tigers sleeping
Now as we walked further into the zoo, we started to hear a very loud noise. Once we got closer to where the California seals were we got to see where all the noise was coming from.  


Note: Even though the video says 0:00 for the time - the video DOES work. Just click on the play button.
Of course near the end of the tour it stated to rain. I really enjoyed to the tour and even though we did not get to see everything in the zoo I had a great time with co-workers.   After the zoo tour about 12 of us went to a nearby Indian restaurant and we had some great food. 
 

Friday, August 12, 2011

Copenhagen canal tour

So while I was walking around Copenhagen on May 19th I found a canal tour boat. I decided since it was past 5:30 pm that taking the canal tour would be a good way to end my day trip.  I was lucky it was not that busy and the next boat had open seats.  Again this is another post with lots of pictures and not that much text I hope you like it.
Christianborg Castle - a nice view from the canal




The round tower



The best restaurant in Denmark is in this building. Before I leave Denmark I am eating at this restaurant.




This is a part of Copenhagen is called New Havn (Haven) and where the most 'privileged' people live.

Nice restaurant near the canal, another one I want to check out.


This is the new Opera House.

Apartments on the canal.

Royal residence, this is where the crowned prince and his family live. You can see the Danish flag flying above the house. That means he is home.  I sure hope he his because a couples months before this picture was taken his wife had twins.

On the left is the Queen's royal residence and on the right is the Marble Church. 

Marble church and fountain.




Pirate Museum


Spiral church.

Could you image having a apartment on the canal with a nice cafe on the ground floor?  I am sure those apartments are really expensive.



Entrance to Christianborg castle.

Entrance to Christianborg castle.
Way back when the King used to live in Christianborg castle the crowned prince used to live here. But now this building is the National museum.


A Danish artist lived in Rome of a long period of time and then come back to create Romain artwork for the Queen.