OUR EUROPEAN HOLIDAY - DAY 19 - EXPLORING COPENHAGEN

It was a big day today with plenty of walking.... Out came the good walking shoes this morning, and a bit of medication to make sure the back held up....

We had planned to tick off lots on our sightseeing list today.  I am loving our leisurely starts to the day now that it is just us.  We left home around 11am to head to Amalienborg Palace to see the changing of the guards.  We had a quick walk to get to the palace on time, and arrived with about a minute to spare which put us in a really good position to see them marching into the square in front of the Palace.  There were 1000's of people there to see the changing of the guards.  Maria made the comment that she had never seen so many people here for it.... but then we were there right in the middle of summer so there were lots of tourists around. 

I managed to get some really awesome photos of the guards and even managed to stand close enough next to one to get my photo taken with one...

 From here we walked around the square and checked out where our Aussie Princess Mary and Prince Frederick lives, and we made sure we took a couple of photos of their palace also. 
From here we walked across the road to check out the fountain and the Palace Gardens.

 From  the fountain you can look straight across the harbour and see the Royal Opera House.  The gardens were fairly small but they were ablaze with colour and lots of bees...

Our next stop was straigth down the road to the beautiful Marble Church.  How impressive did it look.  The sky was darkening so we thought we were in for a storm, but we got to the church without any rain....

Whilst most churches in Denmark are made of brick, this one is made of Marble and is within walking distance of the Royal Palaces.  Steve had visited the church before with all the Aussies but it was a new experience for me and I was pretty impressed. 

The whole dome inside was all painted.  They ask you to be silent whilst in there as it is still a place of worship, and it really was quiet moving to sit in there. 

After leaving the Marble Church we decided to head for Kestellet - the Star Fortress, but the sky was really quite dark now and on our way we felt a few drops of rain.  Just about the time we felt them, we walked past the Design Museum.  Although it was not on our list of places to visit today, it was on our list of places to visit whilst we were in Copenhagen, so with the skies looking like they could unload buckets of rain on us, we made the decision to spend a couple of hours in the Design Museum whilst the rain fell. 

I knew that Steve would love it here and he did....
This was right up his alley as he is a Design Teacher,  I new he would appreciate a visit here as the Danes are noted for being great designers.

We spent a good couple of hours in here and even lost Steve, he took hundreds of photos, not just of the displays but the way a lot of the items were made as well,  different joints etc,  a lot of them quite different to how we might do them at home..

 We ended up having a lovely lunch here courtesy of our lovely daughter-in-law.
By now the rain had passed and the sun was out again so we took off on our walk towards Kastellet.

 Our first stop was St Alban's Church.  I think it is the only Anglican church in Copenhagen, possibly even Denmark.  It was also a beautiful old church, no where near as impressive as either the chapel at Frederiksborg Castle or the Marble Church, but still worth the visit. 

 Just outside of St Alban's Church was the lovely Gefion Fountain.  Steve had already visited here as well but I hadn't so we got a few photos of us here.  It is a popular tourist attraction in Copenhagen and there were quite a few people here taking photos...

Maria then took us for a walk through some beautiful gardens along the water's edge -
the gardens were lovely and out in full.  We  couldn't get over the number of bees and bumble bees there and both Steve and I had fun trying to photograph them.

 We continued on to see the Little Mermaid - we had seen it previously when we did the boat cruise of the harbour, but only from the back side.  It is such a HUGE tourist attraction in Denmark, but is really quite small for all the fuss that is made of it.   However we still made sure that we had our photos taken with her. 

 We had been on the go for about five hours, so it was nice to stop and have an ice cream and a rest at a little park cafe..... First place we have found over here that sells Rum and Raisin Ice cream, but unfortunately not quite as good as our Rum and Raisin back home..

Our last stop for the day was a walk around Kastellet - the Star Fortress.  We got to check out the windmill, cannons, and just enjoyed a lovely walk around the star... It was lush green,  with lots of grassy slopes and patches of wildflowers.  It was just a lovely spot to have a stop and have a break...
Steve and Maria even spent some time looking for a four leaf clover.... Not that they found one at all.  

By the time we finished walking around the star it was 6.30pm and we still had quite a walk to the bus stop to catch the bus home.  We had already walked for more than 7kms today and still had a couple of kms to walk to the bus stop....

Maria took us through all the back streets and once again I got way laid by taking lots of photos of all the amazing flowers growing outside people's apartments.

  We also saw a couple of apartments with their washing hanging out the window and an electric car charging up out in the street.  The other thing I saw was a small Chevrolet,  talk about bring back some memories as I remember us having one when I was younger.  Ours was a huge car, this one was quite small, totally different from my memories of these huge cars....

It was probably 7.30pm by the time we arrived home and my feet were aching.  All I wanted to do was hit the bed.  Both Steve and I were pretty exhausted.  Fortunately Pete had cooked a huge lasagne the night before so we didn't have to worry about dinner.

Lovely chilled out evening at home,  watching TV and an early night....