Day 2 of Our Baltic Capitals Cruise- Welcome To Copenhagen, Denmark

We woke up early this morning to a cloudy, somewhat rainy and deary day. We went with our small camera due to the weather.

Veronica and I were not going to let the weather to dampen our excitement or enthusiasm...after all....here we were in Europe.

We went to the dining room and did what turned out to be a morning ritual...having to fight our way through lines of people to get something to eat.

We then returned to our cabin, gathered up my backpack and Veronica's high security purse, that we had bought special for this trip and for future trips.

Just like anywhere else in the world, you have to be alert when out and about in crowds. There are those who want you money badly and will take it right out from under your nose. Thus we bought a security purse for Veronica...slashproof plus several other security features built in.

After getting off of the ship, we found many different types of buses awaiting passengers on the pier. We decided to take a HOHO (Hop On Hop Off) bus
from the pier into the city. It cost us 250DKK for both of us or an equivalent of $45.32 for both Veronica and I to ride the HOHO bus all day long.

Once arriving in the city area, we first went to the Nyhavn section. This is considered the old fishing port section of the city. The canal there is lined with many ships and there are lots of Cafes and Restaurants that line both sides of the street and canal area. 

Below are photos taken from the canals of Nyhavn

 The Cafes and restaurants that line Nyhavn along with the boats in the canal

 We found that the toilets were all underground in this area. You had to walk down a flight of stairs to get into the bathroom. They charge for the use of the public bathrooms in several of the cities that we visited. I believe that it cost Veronica 5DKK or less than a dime to use the Ladies Room. There was an attendant there to collect the funds. When I went into the Mens room, there was no attendant present so I did not have to pay.

In several cities, The Mens Room consisted strictly of a trough to urinate in. Most of the Mens Rooms had no toilets. That is probably why there was no charge to use the Mens Rooms. No toilet, less cleaning and upkeep. Based on the smell in some of these Mens Rooms, they did absolutely no cleaning up.

 Veronica and I took a Canal cruise on a Netto Cruise ( I think that Netto is a business name, not the type of boat) This cruise cost us 30DKK, which equals about $5.47 per person for an hour cruise through the various canals of Copenhagen.

As it was with almost all of our visits to various cities, the architecture was really amazing.

Copenhagen is a rather expensive city to visit although our Netto Canal cruise was really cheap. They had McDonalds in the city so I checked out prices to compare to what we pay locally here in the states. A single burger in Copenhagen costs an equivalent of $1.66 but it is a single burger and not a double that seems to be on the McDonalds dollar menu here. A Big Mac was a whopping $5.81.

They also has Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger Kings in Copenhagen but I didn't get a chance to check out those prices. I can only imagine what a bucket of KFC chicken would cost there.

For a treat, I got a chocolate chip scone that was more like a biscuit than a scone. The cost for this scone was equal to $9USD

Below are photos taken from our boat during our Netto Canal Cruise 

 Below is one of the Hop On Hop Off buses

 I found the Nyhavn area to be extremely nice and fun to walk around

 After our cruise, Veronica and I walked around the city a bit and we made sure that we arrived at the Amalienborg Palace before 12 noon, so that we would be in the area to view the changing of the guard ceremony at the Palace 

 People were allowed to get their pictures taken with the guards but you could not stand right next to the guard. You had to stand at least one arms length away from the guard. Anytime a person got to close, the guard would extend his arm and kind of nudge the person to stand further away.

While we were there for the changing of the guard ceremony, We saw 2 dignitary vehicles arrive at the palace. they would open these big doors and let the vehicle enter and then close the doors slowly

 Below is a photo of Tivoli Gardens. Unfortunately we ran out of time to go there. I had heard that you had to pay an entrance fee and that Tivoli was better to been seen in the evening hours.

Below are various videos of the changing of the guard ceremony



At the end of our adventures into Copenhagen, we took the HOHO bus back to our ship and had dinner upon our return. We had successfully toured Copenhagen on our own. Actually we found this to be the best way to enjoy the cities/towns we visited. There was no need for us to do any official excursions. We will be keeping this in mind during any future trips to new locations. I always would rather be able to go where I want to go and when I want to go rather than have a guide show me the way. Personally I like to go where most people would not normally go. If tourist are walking up the main street, I am the type of person that wants to go down the side streets. That is usually where you will find the best sights and photographic opportunities.

In some countries you can't just get off the ship and go wherever you want. Russia is one of those countries.. You have to have a Visa to get onto Russian soil but with a government approved tour company, the Visas are included in the price. 

We had a great time vising Copenhagen but we are looking forward to tomorrows port of call....Warnemunde, Germany

We will meet up with you there.

To view all of the photographs that were taken in Copenhagen, Denmark, Germany that did not make it on this blog entry, please feel free to view this slide show. You can actually click on the slide show itself to enlarge the photographs.