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But when you ask locals, it fascinates (even puzzles them) that hordes of tourists flock to see The Little Mermaid. And it's been a popular attraction since a century ago - since 1913. Wow.
The original statue was commissioned by the son of the owner of Carlsberg in 1909. And through the years, the statue had been through a lot. It had been decapitated (not just once but twice), her right arm sawn off, blasted and vandalized. But the statue is still there by the Copenhagen harbour continuing to attract millions of tourists year in, year out.
When we visited Copenhagen in June, we decided to include The Little Mermaid in our itinerary. But instead of taking the bus to go to the spot, we took the canal tour and saw the statue from a different angle - her back! Wahaha...
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| The Little Mermaid statue by the Copenhagen harbour |
That's the Little Mermaid - back angle. Wahaha...
We found out from our tour guide that one of the reasons why The Little Mermaid isn't too big a deal for locals is because around Copenhagen, there are other equally interesting statues. Take for example The Merman and his Seven sons (sorry, I think I wasn't able to capture two of the sons in the photo. Haha...).
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| Underwater bronze statues of The Merman and his Seven sons |
So what's story of the Merman and his seven sons? According to our tour guide, there was a legend about a peasant girl name Agnete, who, one day, passed by the water and met a Merman. They fell in love and Agnete went with the Merman to the sea. They eventually had 7 sons.
One day, Agnete heard the sound of the church bells and she started to feel homesick. The Merman allowed Agnete to go to church on the condition that she returns to the sea after the church service. Unfortunately, Agnete decided to stay on land and never returned to the sea. :(
The bronze statues depict the Merman and the 7 sons calling, waiting and reaching out to Agnete. Such a sad story. Come to think of it, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen is also a sad story. :( But ironically, the Danes are consistently the happiest people on earth - topping the United Nations' list in 2013, 2014 and 2016. The sad stories behind these statues don't dampen the happy vibe around Denmark at all. :)
Anyway, Copenhagen was our home base during our trip to Europe and we spent about 5 days there. The first activity we did in Copenhagen (in between our trip to Reykjavik and Venice) was - <tadah> do our laundry! Haha...
Do you know how much the coins for the washing machine & dryer cost? DKK60 or Php420 per 1 cycle of wash and dry. Yikes, right? Everything is generally expensive in Copenhagen.
What else did we see in Copenhagen? Royal Palaces.
There are several palaces in Copenhagen but due to the limited time, we decided to see only 2 - Amalienborg and Rosenborg.
Amalienborg is the current residence of the royal family. There are 4 buildings in the compound - 2 are occupied by the Royal Family, one is for guests and one has been converted to a museum.
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| Amalienborg |
Here's how each palace looks like (all 4 are identical) and according to our tour guide, the 4 structures are interconnected via an underground tunnel.
You know if the royal family members are in the palace if the flag is raised. I think this is the palace where the queen stays so without a flag on the pole, it means that the queen is traveling.
While at Amalienborg, we also witnessed the changing of guards.
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| Changing of Guards at Amalienborg |
We also visited the Amalienborg museum and here are some photos I took inside the palace -
You'll see lots of items owned by the royal family but I only took photos of the more interesting ones like this -
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| Royal fishing bait |
There are also gifts by popular personalities like the ruler in the photo below which was a gift by Hans Christian Andersen to one of the princes.
I wonder which of his stories is depicted by the characters in the ruler...
Below is a view of 1 of the 4 palaces at Amalienborg (taken from inside the museum). I think this is palace that is occupied by the Crown Prince of Denmark, Prince Frederik, and Crown Princess Mary Donaldson (whom the prince met during the 2000 Olympics in Australia).
You can see a flag on the pole which means they are in the palace. :)
Near Amalienborg, there's a church called Marble Church. It has the biggest dome across Scandinavia with a span of 31 meters.
Check out its beautiful dome - they say the inspiration for it was St. Peter's Basilica.
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| Dome of the Marble Church in Copehagen |
BTW, if you only have limited time and can only afford to see one palace, I recommend that you make it the Rosenborg. Why? Because it is where the crown jewels are.
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| Rosenborg |
There are 2 sections of the Rosenborg - the main building and the basement. It is in the basement section where the crown jewels are kept. Check these out -
<Thought bubble - must be torture to wear these things! So glad to be a commoner - we don't have to wear such heavy objects. Wahaha...>
There are also various kinds of weapons like guns, arrows and jewel-encrusted swords like these -
Now for the main palace, here are some of the photos I took -
Wherever you look whether on the floor, ceiling, walls or furniture, the details are so intricate. I didn't know where to direct my eyes anymore. Haha...
And just in case you're wondering what a royal toilet looks like (old style), here's the royal toilet at Rosenborg -
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| Entrance to the royal toilet |
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| The royal toilet |
It does look like any other old style toilet except that it has nice tiles. Haha...
At the topmost floor of the Rosenborg palace is where the thrones are -
From Rosenborg, we explored the nearby Copenhagen Botanical Gardens. This glasshouse structure is a greenhouse.
It's called The Palm House and it dates back to 1874. Wow.
Another popular place to see while at Copenhagen is the Tivoli Gardens. It's the second oldest operating amusement park in the world. Can you guess how old it is?
It opened in 1843 making it 173 years old today. Whoa.... (The oldest operating amusement park also happens to be in Denmark.)
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| Entrance to Tivoli Gardens |
What is there to see at Tivoli Gardens? Like any other amusement park, it has rides, shows, an aquarium, mini-farm, an arcade and lots of restaurants.
It's a huge place so if you want to explore most of it, better to go there in the morning or lunch. Unfortunately, we went there in the evening and we only had about a couple of hours to explore. Yep, the photos above were taken at night-time but it looks like day-time. It's because during summer, the sun sets very late - around 10pm.
While at Tivoli Gardens, we only had time to see the aquarium -
and watch a Pantomime show -
There are also mini-shows happening around the park. You can just sit on the grass and enjoy live music like this -
We spotted this peacock in the park. She surely knows how to pose for the camera.
And if you've never seen how a peacock looks like from behind, here you go - :)
BTW, you know that Tivoli Gardens is a great place to visit because even locals go there. Our airbnb host recommended it. He said he and his friends occasionally go there to dine.
Right across the Tivoli Gardens is the City Hall Square -
In the square, you'll see a fountain. It's a statue of a bull fighting a dragon but it's called the Dragon Fountain.
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| Dragon Fountain. In the background is the City Hall. |
While at the City Hall Square, you can just sit back and relax in one of the benches to enjoy the beautiful view, people-watch, feed the pigeons -
or enjoy a yummy hotdog! There's a hotdog stand near the Dragon Fountain.
Danes love hotdogs. Our tour guide said that you can find hotdogs in almost every restaurant in Denmark - from stands to fine dining restaurants (serving hotdogs with champagne!). Even the Danish Queen loves hotdogs, he said.
Danes like the red hotdog, in particular, which they call the Danish hotdog. I tried all kinds of variety and they are all yummy (as yummy as the best-tasting hotdogs we have locally) but what I think makes theirs special is that you eat it with cronions (deep fried onions).
How you do eat the plate of hotdog above? First, dip the hotdog in ketchup and mustard, then dip it in the cronions and they would stick to the sauce. Super yum!
BTW, when the hotdog gets served to you, there's no fork or stick. So how do you eat it? Just get a napkin from the dispenser and hold the hotdog. :)
There were 2 days when we joined free walking tours. Here are some photos I took from the walking tours -
The houses above are one of the oldest in Copenhagen dating back from the medieval times. From what I can recall, in the 1700s, a big fire destroyed half of the city that's why there are very few traces of the Middle Ages left in Copenhagen's city centre.
I also remember we passed by this Church which has been converted to a cafe. What a sad reality that very few people go to church nowadays that they have to be converted to commercial places. :(
We also passed by some unique structures. Below is the Old Stock Exchange. Its roof was designed in the likeness of four intertwined dragon tails.
Here's a church with an external winding staircase on its tower. You can actually climb the tower. If you zoom in on the photo below, you'll see that there are people climbing the stairs.
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| Church of our Saviour |
Other than its unique tower, there's another special thing about this church. It plays melodies every hour from 8am to 12 midnight. Sometimes, they would even play melodies from movies and tv shows. It once played the Game of Thrones theme song and the James Bond theme song in anticipation of the upcoming shows. How cool is that?! When we were in the vicinity, we also heard it play. It played a lullaby. Haha...
Another popular tourist attraction is Nyhavn - or the New Harbour.
You'll see brightly colored townhouses dating back from the 17th and early 18th century along the harbour.
And you'll see some boathouses like this too -
One of most popular townhouses along the harbour is that of Hans Christian Andersen (middle building, second row, middle window - the one with the marker on the window).
I wonder - was it here where he thought about writing The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and The Ugly Duckling? :)
Another interesting house along Nyhavn is the narrowest townhouse - the middle building in the photo below.
It looks like it's less than 2 meters wide!
If you're the more adventurous type, a place you may want to visit while in Copenhagen is Freetown Christiana. It's a place with its own rules and own currency.
According to our tour guide, the place used to be a naval base but it was abandoned.
In the 1970s, people from the neighboring areas broke into the fence and used it as a playground for their children. Slowly, a community of hippies was formed inside the premises. The guiding principle of the community was that everyone was responsible for each other's well-being. For example, if you need your house repaired, fellow Christianites will help you. If you're sick, a Christianite medical aid will attend to you. If there is a decision to be made, the whole community discusses and agrees on what to do. If you want to live in the community, everyone decides if you'll be accepted or not.
When you're inside Christiana, there are strict rules you need to abide for your own safety. For example, there are areas where you can't strictly take photos. Tour guides from the city are also not allowed to conduct tours inside. Tours inside Christiana are strictly conducted by local Christianites.
I got so afraid by the warning of our city tour guide who left us by the gate of Christiana that I only ended up taking 2 photos inside Christiana! Haha... Better safe than sorry.
Some last few tips while in Copenhagen:
A great way to tour the city is via bike! Copenhagen is after all the first Bike City in the world.
People go to work on bikes - yes, I've seen some women in dresses and heels on bikes. :) We weren't able to go biking though because I was having severe back pain during the time we were in Copenhagen. Why I got back pain is another story next time. Haha...
If you can't bike, you can practically explore Copenhagen by foot especially if you're staying in the city centre. You can just take leisure strolls and sometimes, you'll even spot professional street performers. Time to stop, watch and have fun. :)
There are several free walking tours you can join (technically, it's not free but you get to pay whatever you think is a fair fee at the end of the tour). The ones we joined are the free Christiana Tour by Freetour.com and the free Copenhagen City tour by Sandeman's.
Finally, the Danes are so friendly and helpful. In all the times we asked for help with directions, we've never encountered anyone who refused to help us, or who were in a hurry, or rude, or who gave us suspicious looks. Each one took time to talk to us and they were happy to be of help. :)
And to end this post, here's my last shot of Copenhagen on our last day. That's past 9pm in Copenhagen on a summer night. :)
