Monday, June 13, 2011

Copenhagen, Denmark, Day 1 - Handball at Ballerup Super Arena, Rådhuspladsen, Gefion Fountain, Little Mermaid

Greetings from Copenhagen!


8am This morning we set off to Copenhagen from Oslo.  The 7 hour journey across 3 countries is roughly like this.


View Larger Map

It goes through Sweden and from Sweden across the Øresund Bridge to Copenhagen.  The Øresund Bridge is the longest road and rail bridge in Europe.  Along the way we stopped at a Swedish McDonald's to have lunch and also topped up the fuel tank at a Statoil in Malmo.  Sweden is beautiful and reminds me of Germany, lush and green with plenty of open space.  You can see wind mills along the E6 and more along the Danish coast close to Malmo.  A long time ago I had a Swedish penpal.  Makes me wish I kept in touch with her now, it would be so cool to visit her.  The roads were quite empty, it was a quiet Sunday morning.


Swedish McDonald's.  I had a chicken bacon onion burger which was called C.B.O


Going across the Øresund Bridge.

2:53pm Checked in, dropped our things and headed off to the handball game between Denmark and Switzerland which started at 4:50pm.  The full time score was 34-29 to Denmark, half time was 20-12 to Denmark.  It's my first handball game that I've seen live and it was pretty good.  The Danish goalkeeper was especially impressive and saved many goalbound shots.




6:15pm After the game ended we contemplated going to watch the Euro Under 21s between Spain and England but then figured out by the time we get there it would've been after half time.  So instead we headed off to the city central to have some food and explore.

Along 2 Vester Voldgade there was a shop that was selling elephants.


It turns out these elephants on sale are souvenirs of the current Elephant Parade exhibition in Copenhagen which will be on display from June 1st to August 25th 2011.  There are a total of 102 of these baby fiberglass elephants all over Copenhagen.  When the exhibition is over, the elephants will be auctioned off by Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers, with the proceeds going to the preservation of the Asian elephant.  So the purpose of this exhibition is to raise awareness of the Asian elephant because it will be extinct within decades if nothing is done.


Rådhuspladsen, the public square in the centre of Copenhagen


Elephants along Rådhuspladsen


This is my favourite elephant ;)

Shortly after that we walked along Frederiksberggade and had dinner.  I had a kylling ret which was chicken with pita bread.  It was alright.


There was a Wonders of Europe exhibition that was open to the public along the same street so we spent some time exploring those.  It was photography of different landscapes and animals across Europe.


Another elephant


On first glance you might think this looks like ham... but read below


Yeah, it's semi-desert land!





Surviving and not eating food for 6 years.  Amazing.


The fountain at Frederiksberggade 2


Another elephant, they are everywhere

We proceeded to Gammel Strand where the canals are and took some photos here.  You can catch a canal tour too.




The building with the spire is called Børsen, it was built in 1619


Fountain near Højbro Plads





9:11pm Went in search of the Little Mermaid statue, which is built in 1913.  Prior to today I've only seen it in books from a long time ago.



St Alban's Anglican Church




Frederik IX


Another crazy looking elephant


Gefion Fountain


The Little Mermaid!

12:22am Time for shower and bed.  Today we'll be heading off back to Norway but stopping in Sweden to purchase food and other domestic things.  Walked 7500+ steps today.

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