Cruising the Norwegian Fjords
On Wednesday June 11 we drove to Toronto for a direct overnight flight to Copenhagen, Denmark for a 17 night cruise though the Norwegian Fjords. We splurged on SAS Airlines Business Class to hopefully get some sleep overnight and minimize the impacts of jet lag. We did get a little sleep but one thing we didn’t anticipate was the amazing food served on the flight. This was the cheese course for our 5 course meal. We can’t get this wonderful European Camembert at home.
We arrived about 7 AM and figured we would lay low for the day but our room wasn’t ready when we arrived we headed out to do a little touring on Copenhagen, a most delightful city. The bellman went out of his way to make suggestions for sites to visit in Copenhagen. We were unsure of how long we would last given we’d been away for most of 30 hours but the alternative was spending up to 8 hours in the hotel lobby and this was not apealing. Our hotel was right on the river which has a wonderful boardwalk frequented by many pedestrians. We headed out along the boardwalk and passed some of the sites we’d seen on our last visit to Copenhagen. One that really impresses me is the library on the boardwalk with its tables and chairs set up for snacks and enjoying a good book. Just past the library is the picturesque Nyhavn Canal with its colorful houses, three of which were homes to Hans Christian Ansdersen during his life.
By the time we walked through the Nyhavn Canal area we were ready for a break and ias chance would have it a canal boat tour was just about to leave so we took the opportunity to continue our site seeing sitting in an open air electric tour boat. Since it was electric, the ride was super quiet and there were no fumes. During the hour or so tour we got to see and hear about a number of the sites around Copenhagen including the back side of the Little Mermaid statue.
After the tour we walked up to the Rosemborg Castle which was formerly a Danish Royal residence but is now a museum. We toured the beautiful gardens and saw some of the Royal Soldiers practicing a drill.
Close by the castle is the Botanical Gardens. The main building at the gardens was closed so we just walked around the lovely gardens taking a few stops to just enjoy the scenery. When we left the gardens we decided to hear back to the hotel to see if I room was ready. In the way we stopped for a light lunch at a pub. Our legs were getting pretty tired at this point so this was a welcome rest.
As we walked back to the hotel along the boardwalk we enjoyed seeing so many people out enjoying the beautiful day, sitting along the river on the boardwalk, Copenhagen has designated swimming areas along the boardwalk an a number of people were enjoying a plunge despite the 68 degree air temperatures. As I was taking photos some guy just dropped his drawers in front of me. Nudity is a little different in Denmark from the US. And I deleted that photo. When we got to our room at the hotel we had a birds eye view of people enjoying the boardwalk and water. It almost looked like a beach.
Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world is located just a few blocks from the hotel.. W e could seee the old wooden rollercoaster and the chair swings which are on a tour quite reminicant of the new Universal EPIC Universe.
We called it a day pretty early. At this point we were pretty exhausted.
Our car to the port will pick us up at noon so we can sleep in.
I plan to blog on many of the days if I can. This is a map of. our itinerary.
As I am writing this we are traveling up the Norway coast and docked in Stavanger. The internet has started to become non-existent. I seem to be able to upload text but pictures, even small resolution are not uploading. I will continue to add text if I can and upload photos when I have wifi bandwidth to do so.
