wonderful copenhagen (2)

yesterday, we finally got down to seeing the city we've called home for 2 months. wonderful copenhagen, they call it, but a combination of the not-so-wonderful weather and super-lazy us caused us to shelf plans to see the sights the small city has to offer.

it was only yesterday that we got our first visitor, finally. (uncle - he says we shouldn't call him that, but i dun want his kids to call me auntie!) kah poh landed his boeing 777 at 7am in the morning, and after a short morning's rest, he was ready to tour the city. we met him at his hotel at vesterport at 1.30pm and offered him 2 modes of transport - bicycle, or train. he picked the bike. but we only had 2 bikes (thanks jiamin, we took your bike without asking you.. heh), so david took the train with his monthly pass. here's an overview of the places we went (highlighted in blue).

(click image to enlarge)

1. Imperial hotel, strategically located right next to the city hall, tivoli amusement park, and the central station.

city hall, and tivoli in the background. ok this was taken a few saturdays when i decided to venture out shopping alone...

what do you notice about this picture?

i. the temperature- getting warmer, yay!

ii. carlsberg, it's everywhere in denmark.

iii. jyllands posten - the newspaper that first published the infamous prophet mohammad cartoons.

taken on the same day as the previous shot. near city hall.

2. Christiania, the freetown, where a group of hippies live and govern themselves and are basically anti-establishment, located in a corner of the fashionable district of christianhavn, across the canal from copenhagen city centre. in the same area also stands Vor Frelsers Kirke, a church with a open-air spiral staircase that goes all the way to the pinnacle.

at the entrance to christiana. there's 'art' everywhere. uncle kp insisted that the bikes had to be in the picture as well, as proof that he cycled there. haha,

christiania sports club: you'll never smoke alone. joint the club.

totally cracks me up.

3. Kongens Nytov, the other centre of town, where the shopping street starts/ends, (think orchard road) and nearby is nyhavn (literally- new harbour), a stretch along the canal which is full of cafes and al-fresco dining. think boat/clark quay). the last time i passed by it was bitterly cold and wintery, so it was completely empty, it's alive now!

4. Marmorkirken (The Marble Church), a churh completely made with different kinds of marble. for the longest time i thought it was the 'mormon' church... heh.

5. Amalienborg palace, the queen's winter residence. also, there is amalihaven, a little park beside the harbour, overlooking the royal opera house just across. we missed the changing of the guards, but i'm attaching a video which i took in january.

the center of the palace compound. it stands in a straight line with the marble church (background) and the opera house (behind photographer)

this picture was taken in jan, you're supposed to stand 1.5 metres away from the guard, and i dunno why i looked so scared!

a small part of the very elaborate and grand guard-changing ceremony, and the very cute but nice carnival music the military band plays...

6. Den lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid), a gift from the founder of Carlsberg to the city of copenhagen, based on the character in Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale, made famous by Disney. One of the most photographed ladies in the world, apparently.

think in relative terms: how small the statue is compared to life-sized people, and how many people are gathered around her...

the industrial harbour of kobenhavn, where shipping (e.g. maersk) and wind energy companies (e.g. vestas) are sited

7. to get to Norreport station, another key train station & meeting point in town, we passed by the Botanisk Have (botanic gardens) and the Rosenborg Have (where all the palace guards live and start their procession for the change of guards). and we stopped by for an authetic danish hotdog from a hotdog stand.

(uncle) kah poh evidently satisfied with his danish hotdog! i got one too, my 1st one in denmark, haha... yay, thank you!

8. Griffenfeldsgade, our place. looks like we didn't have time to come back and clear up our house. and we took forever to cook too, danish/swedish meatballs and cabonera. meanwhile kah poh entertained himself with his cool iphone... and... youtube. we had a really long dinner, ate and ate and talked and watched youtube and looked at photos and a even a home video of baby ian! before we knew it. it was 11+pm. we gave him 2 options for transport again - bike and bus, and i kept trying to make him take the bus cos it was 3 degrees outside, not such a pleasant temperature to cycle in, but he was still hardy and caring enough so that i won't have to cycle alone at night. we went back to his hotel to get my package from home! and unloaded some stuff to bring back to singapore too. he gave us some potato chips (calbee!) and then it was goodnight and goodbye... till we meet again, somewhere in europe again maybe in the next few months?

the famous dining table shot that has appeared one too many times on this blog...

gifts from home - par avion: disc, boots,spring clothes, sauces to cook, hand cream, toothpaste/brush, cough drops, lozenges, timtams!, moisturer, toiletries, RPGs, grocery bags...

as you can see, copenhagen is really quite small, we kinda covered most of the places in one afternoon, i hope all the cycling was not too much to bear! personally, i think cycling is quite a good way to see more of the city, compared to taking the train, and faster too. poor david had to keep up with us from place to place, by train and on foot, but he was quite happy doing so.

i'm so so grateful to have (uncle) kah poh so willing to transport things for me, and my dear family for taking all the trouble to pack things and send it around choa chu kang to get it delivered here! hope you guys like the presents, haha.

ok, we need to start hitting the museums soon! no more time!