Sunday 15 July 2012

The 6 day trip to Denmark and the United Kingdom - the afternoon of the first day - Stroget and Kobmagergade areas - the 19th of June 2012



As we were going across the Tordenskjoldsgade we set eyes on the beautiful 1748 Neo - Renaissance building, which houses the Royal Theatre and has been the main venue for performing Arts since it was founded. The statues in front of the Theatre celebrate the playwright Ludvig Holdberg and the poet Adam Oehlenschläger who both contributed towards the development of Theatre and Arts.

































Fairly close to it the Baroque Palace built for Quen Charlotte between 1672 and 1683,  and thus named after her. It was later handed over to the Royal Academy of  Arts and houses a faculty since then.







We soon found ourselves strolling along the lively shop lined Stroget just to feel the atmosphere of shopping in Copenhagen, once there was no particular interest in buying anything. It was packed with people and at times it was even difficult to move about, though not less interesting

We stopped at one of the Latin Quarter's squares still hesitant whether we should use one of the rickshaws available to take us up the short distance to Nytorv when unexpectedly by looking up saw a huge placard with Cristiano Ronaldo's face ... a reminder of the important role Football plays all over the world.





























We then veered onto Kobmagergade street hoping to find some small restaurant where to have a bite of something more Mediterranean like when the Round Tower (Rundetarn) imposed itself .

It was erected on the orders of Christian IV in 1642 and originally intended as an observatory. It is still used as such, making it the oldest working observatory of its kind in Europe. Having read that it was an excellent  vantage point from which  to get magnificent views of the city, though  access to its top was made by  walking up a  cobbled spiral ramp and feeling rather tired I decided I would be back some day later.




 


































We then walked as far as Nytorv, which though looking like one single huge Square is in fact two separarate areas joined by Stroget pathway - Gammeltorv, a busy market in the fourteenth century, which nowadays is dominated by a small fruit and vegetable market a few little stalls and Nytorv, which is said to have been a place of execution (around 1606).


















We ended up having some pizza at a small Italian restaurant by the Round Tower, which I photographed one last time and headed back to the hotel, not without having stopped at the Central Train station to buy the tickets for Malmo, which we decided we should visit taking into account the proximity.







It had certainly been a rather tiring and long afternoon, but we were happy to have been able to "squeeze" in a few  things in our first day in Copenhagen, taking into consideration our very tight schedule.

We were both sure the moment we fell onto our beds we would go to sleep without any difficulty ... we had walked a few kilometres and finally tiredness seemed to be taking over us.










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