2026 Scandinavian Tour - October - Day 03 - Walking Tour of central Copenhagen.

 September 5, 2026

Horrible sleep last night.  Awake at 2:30 and could not go back to sleep.  Denise and I had a nice conversation around 4:30 AM…that is how off our sleep schedules are.  Normally I can go back to sleep.  but not last night.  Bummer.

Today was going to be our ‘walking tour’ guided by Denise Tiner.  We planned the sequence of things to visit during our conversation at 4:30 AM mapping out walking distances and timings of things.  But all in all, the day went pretty darn good.  But we are beat.  I will post pictures and then describe the activity below them.  Here I go….

We started our day at a bakery that has been in business since the 1600’s.  It is called Stk. Peders Bageri.  As you can see in the pictures, the line was quite long when we arrived and it took probably 20 minutes to get inside.  They had some really unique pastries…some better than others.  But our favorite was one with pistachio nuts all over it and chocolate frosting.  It was all really good.

So this was the sad part of our day.  The highlight of our day and trip was to be the seeing of the original Christus statue along with the 12 original apostles.  Unfortunately the church (Church of our Lady) was closed for the day due to baptisms going on and then a wedding.  Come on…what do they think…they are a church?  We were so disappointed that we’ve made the decision to go back there early tomorrow morning just before their services start and get some pictures.  Unfortunately we will miss going to the ward here and attending church in Copenhagen.  Timing will not work.  Fingers crossed we get in tomorrow to see the statues!

The next set of pictures above are of the Round Tower.  This one cost a bit to get in but was interesting and worth it.   It basically is an old observatory and was the home of the guy who determined the speed of light.  Can’t remember his name.  Anyway, upon entering you walk up this spiral ramp which as big enough to get a car on.  You go up and up and up eventually arriving at some stairs that take you outside where you get a panoramic view of Copenhagen.  The last picture is actually into the room that has some telescopes.  Again, it was pretty nice to visit and took about 30 to 45 minutes to enjoy.

The next couple of pictures is of Stroget street which is a pedestrian only shopping center that has been around 1962.  Being a Saturday, it was pretty popular with lots of people roaming the street.  We also passed a cool fountain that is also shown as we walked around Stroget.

The next set of pictures and stop was at Christiansborg Palace, one of 4 palaces where the King and Queen may visit and use.  The top picture was of one of the canals that you see sometimes as you walk along the path to each site.

The next stop was the Marble Church.  Unfortunately, it was being used.  I think being a weekend, there were tons of marriages and things going on within the churches.  But it looked pretty cool from the outside.  The statue that is also shown was one of many that we passed as we walked the streets here in Copenhagen.

The next stop shown above was Amalienborg Palace.  This is where the King and Queen have their residence.  Many large buildings make up this plaza for various royal reasons.  And as you can also see, at noon everyday is the changing of the guard.  Again, not having much luck, normally there is a band and a lot more pomp and circumstance than we saw.  But it was fun to watch nonetheless.  The top picture if one of the policeman that came over and gave us a really good overview of this plaza and all its buildings and this process of changing the guard.  Great guy.

The next stop was a 20+ minute walk to The Little Mermaid statue that sits along the harbor.  I’m not too sure what all the big deal is about this statue.   But I must say that the park all around was pretty nice and there was a ton of people in the area just doing stuff.  The top picture is the Geffion Fountain where we took a quick sit down break as we walked to The Little Mermaid stature. I really needed this as my legs were really hurting.

Interesting story about the next set of pictures above.  In the temple, we were shown a mural in the baptistery where many famous Danes where shown.  One of the individuals was a young lady who was an immigrant to America.  We were told that a statue of her and plaque was found near the site of The Little Mermaid statue.  We got talking about this and decided, what the heck, let’s make the walk to it.  It probably took another 15 minutes to get there.  And when we arrived, we could see the pier but no statue.  For whatever reason, a lady and her husband approached us and asked what we were looking for.  We told her a statue of a woman who had immigrated to America for religous reasons.  The woman was not sure much as to what we were saying.  But the man knew.  He said to keep walking and we’d see it.  And sure enough, we found it.  Pretty cool.  Over 20,000 immigrants left from this site to seek religious freedom in America…most pioneer members of our church.  And in front of this statue were little bricks that had names and dates of some who had departed from here.  It was a highlight of the day to find and see this.

 Our next stop was lunch.  So we retraced our steps back past The Little Mermaid status to a restaurant that sat on the harbor.  Outside was this stature made of iron…items retrieved from the ocean.  It was pretty cool.  The restaurant was called 7 kitchens because it was made up of 7 different kitchens that made different types of food.  Pretty unique.  Have not said how expensive dining out is…but we had 2 small salmon patties, nachos and a burrito bowl between all 4 of us.  The cost…$90.   I could get all of this for under $40 in the states.

The next stop and set of pictures is of a very popular site named Nyhavn.  It is a very colorful set of buildings along a canal with many, many eateries all around.  It was VERY crowded.  But a great spot to get some nice photos of us and this place.

Our next stop was Rosenborg Castle.  I don’t know much history of this place.  But the park it sits in was pretty amazing.  Lots of people just sitting around enjoying the lovely day we had…without any rain I might add.  We too found a bench and just sat, visited and enjoyed the beauty around us.  That was the end of the sites that we planned to see.  It was a lot of walking and all our feet hurt pretty good.  But such is touring sometimes.  All great fun.

Since we were close to Kim and Ilene’s Presidential Suite, we decided to go play some cards and rest a bit.  But on the way, we found an ATM so Denise could get some danish coins and such.  Unfortunately, we left our bank card at home.  But Kim brought his.  So they pulled some money out for us.  The picture of Ilene and Denise showing candy bars that they bought with the actual bills that they had.  We pulled out 100 DKK which is close to $15.  But the cost to do that…$9.  So we paid $24 to actually get $15.  I’ve made better deals in my life.  But Denise has her danish monetary souvenir.

Bikes are everywhere here in Copenhagen.  Everywhere with amazing bike paths through out the city.  So, Denise and I have wanted to rent bikes and do some pedaling.  And that’s what we did to get back to our hotel from the one Kim and Ilene are in.  As you can see from the map above, there are ‘hubs’ of bikes throughout the city where various merchants rent their bikes.  We used Donkey Republic.  It had a 60% off coupon for your first one way ride.  So we created accounts and applied the discount.  I think we rode about 8 km back to our hotel and it cost us $3.  Pretty cheap.  It was fun.  But Denise’s bike challenged her she said with its steering.  But we made it safely.  The odd thing is that few wear bike helmets.  You’d think that would be a requirement.  The other thing is that bikes are everywhere…and not locked up.  The rented bikes have a locking mechanism that makes them unuseable.  But the non commercial bikes don’t and most are not locked.  They trust each other I guess.  

Well…great day but wiped out.  Tomorrow we head to our cruise ship to start our 7 day cruise.  It might be a few days before I publish blog updates!