Friday 24th May Copenhagen

Today we disembarked from the cruise ship in the morning. This all went very smoothly and we were met by our guide and coach at the port. It was a short drive to our hotel, a very new and modern hotel located in a new development close to the port. There was a lot of construction going on around here and it will look very good when it is all finished. Although our guide thought our rooms would be ready, on arrival at the hotel, we were told that they would not be ready until 3pm. We decided to take the nearby metro into the older part of Copenhagen and explore the Round Tower. This structure was built in 1642 to house a telescope and be an Observatory. The tower had a long, spiral ramp to climb to the top of the observatory. The ramp was built rather than steps so that horses could be used to get to the top. Apparently Peter the Great climbed the Spiral Ramp several times on horseback. (We thought that this was a good idea, after walking up the ramp!) Anyway, at the top we had a great view of city and there is a telescope in the observatory which is still used today. The Round Tower was attached to and part of an extremely decorative church, Trinitatis Kirke, which when built in the 1640’s was to hold the church, the royal book collection and an observatory, a reflection of its name. The old library could be accessed from the tower and is now a gallery. Rob and I decide to go for a walk and found that the Copenhagen City Hall was a short walk away.  The city hall, another large and magnificent building was open to everyone and at no cost. We enjoyed exploring this magnificent building with a large garden courtyard in the centre. Many Danish people choose to get married here and while we were there we saw at least two weddings in the building and another 3 celebrating after the event with family and friends, in the gardens. The City Hall building also housed Jens Olesen’s World Clock. Rob was quite interested in the workings of this clock. Following this visit we returned to our Hotel to settle into our room. Later in the early evening, Rob, Trudy, Rob and myself took the metro back into the old part of the city and found a fabulous outdoor Italian restaurant for dinner. Once again we had beautiful weather and many people were out and about enjoying the very pleasant Friday evening. Tomorrow we set off for the long journey home. Copenhagen to Dubai, Dubai to Melbourne, Melbourne to Adelaide. We leave Copenhagen at 3pm Saturday, Copenhagen time and arrive in Adelaide, Monday around 11am Adelaide time as we will have to have a night in Melbourne due to Adelaide’s 11pm curfew.


























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