Breakfast was odd as the ‘milk’ we bought seemed far too thick. It was OK on cereal but useless for tea, John found, so I didn’t even bother with coffee.  We then had issues trying to get the PIN onto the credit card. The final suggestion from our bank in NZ was to see if we could contact them using a landline somewhere. Skype is great but you don’t appear to be able to enter numbers when prompted. The hosts here don’t have a landline so suggested we ask at the information centre. They were very helpful but their phone would not work as it was toll barred. At their suggestion we went to the place where we printed our cruise boarding passes yesterday, and (eureka!) a 5 Krown call to NZ (about $1NZ) had it sorted – Phew!!! In the meantime, Lalita and I mutually agreed to leave the haircut that she offered me free of charge, as it was going to be hard to fit that in.

We took the HOHO to the Nyhavn area as our first stop and I read later it is one of the ‘must do’s’ in Copenhagen. It had appealed to both of us yesterday and there was also a virtual cache based on Hans Christian Anderson’s time living in the area. so perfect for us. We found the information needed for the cache first, and this had us checking out 2 houses where Han Christian Anderson had lived. One was at number 18 which is now a souvenir shop and the other was 67, but he also lived in number 20.

Nyhavn means new Haven, but was new actually in the 1670s, and is a canal area. The King built houses here for sailors and these brightly coloured houses, mainly on the north side, are a major feature today. The canal also had a number of boats, including hotel boats, moored on the sides. In the past when it was a busy commercial port it was packed with sailors and pubs. Now it is packed with tourists and restaurants, as well as locals, who enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. There was a large choice of places to eat, and we were ready for lunch, so it was a matter of finding a place that had smaller options than 3 large sandwiches. We enjoyed our meals in the sun/shade while ‘people-watching’.

We then walked further along the canal where there were a number of entertainers, and over to the Danish National Theatre. The ceiling on the covered archway area was tiled and clearly new.

We then headed for the bus and stayed on until we got to the Little Mermaid stop. We took the obligatory photos of what we knew by now was possibly not the original sculpture, as there is a rumour that the artist kept that, and this is a copy. We also knew that she had lost her head a few times over the years.

The statue was commissioned in 1909 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the founder of Carlsberg, who had been fascinated by a ballet about the fairy-tale in Copenhagen's Royal Theatre and asked the ballerina, Ellen Price, to model for the statue. The Copenhagen City Council arranged to move the statue to the Danish Pavilion in Shanghai for the duration of the Expo 2010 (May to October), the first time it had been moved officially from its perch since it was installed almost a century earlier. Her head was sawn off in 1964 and never recovered. A new head was installed and this was sawn off in 1984, but returned. In 1998 the third decapitation happened and the head was returned anonymously. In 2003 she was blown up and found in the water with damage to her wrist and knee. She has also been doused with paint on a number of occasions – a lot of activity for a very small (1.25m) statue.

We bought ice-creams and walked back past the Citadel area (the Citadel is a military area but the grounds are open to the public) to the Gefion Fountain. This was another spot we had heard about on the HOHO. The fountain was surrounded by tourists when we arrived as there were about 8 tour busses there, but was quieter when we left.

It is a large fountain, features a group of oxen figures being driven by the legendary Norse goddess Gefjon, and was donated by the Carlsberg foundation. It features the mythical story of the creation of the island of Zealand, so we were especially interested. According to the legend, the Swedish king Gylfi promised Gefjun the amount of territory she could plough in a night. So she turned her four sons into oxen and the territory they ploughed out of the earth was then thrown into the Danish sea.

The Oxen fountain

I left John by the fountain in the cool and went into the nearby St Alban’s church, known as the English church.  It was built from 1885 to 1887 for the growing English congregation in the city, but now has an international congregation. It has the flint exterior we have associated with many churches in England and was designed to look like an English parish church. The beautiful site of the church is due to its royal connections - the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, who was married to a Danish princess. There are a number of plaques inside acknowledging the royal connections. Present on the opening day was a large display of European royalty, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, King Christian IX and Queen Consort Louise of Denmark. Also present were the entire Diplomatic Corps, Ministers, representatives of the Army and Navy, church officials, and Greek, Russian and Roman Catholic Priests. After the consecration, the Prince and Princess of Wales hosted a lunch on board the Royal Yacht HMY Osborne to which all those who had been closely connected with the realisation of the church were invited.

We then bused to the nearest stop and slowly walked home as John was ready for a rest and I to blog and log and relax myself. We had the same tea as last night and managed to basically clear the fridge

I went for an evening walk and left John to relax in the room. We had both noted the number of people who were sitting by the canals, rivers and parks the previous evening and tonight being Friday there were more. Many had a beer or wine with them and were quietly enjoying it in the sun then twilight. It was all very civilised. The bikes outside stations continue to amaze me with both the number and variety.  

I went in the direction of the Kings Park, although I decided I didn’t have time to go in. I was walking with caching in mind but that proved relatively unsuccessful with a combination of areas closed off and people too close, but I did find one. I also found lots of cafes and bars, but also a big open area where people were playing ball games while others watched from a sort of tiered seating. I was home by 9pm so well before the sun set. We met up with our host and agreed on a time and place to leave a bag here that we don’t require for the cruise.