This was our last day in the city as our overnight ferry to Oslo departed in the late afternoon. We had two items in our tourist checklist but had a lot of worries about the rain that greeted us in the morning.
We have encountered a lot of cruise ship tourists during our visit here. It seems as though all Baltic cruises are required to stop in Copenhagen. These groups tend to be 20-40 people visiting the same popular attractions that we are interested in seeing. Despite this, o ur 5Adventurers tend to be nimble and adroit when navigating around these groups so they don’t really pose any challenge for us.
We were still surprised by the number and volume of tourists that we saw at the Little Mermaid statue. This is a bronze sculpture inspired by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale.
We loved that this statue is presented right on the water as if she is just emerging to sun herself. It is somewhat small and because it only has one side for people to admire from we moved on soon after arrival to avoid crowding.
A short walk down the waterway revealed another majestic statue which commerates the loss of Danish sailors during World War I. There were no cruisers admiring this statue despite it sitting 100 meters away.
Next we swung by the largest fountain (and wishing well) in Copenhagen. The Gefion fountain illustrates the legend where the Swedish king Gylfe promised Gefion as much land as she could plow in a day and night. She turned her four sons into oxen to plow the land, which was then thrown into the sea, forming Zealand, the island Copenhagen sits on.
The last tourist checklist item was the Kastellet citadel which is a star-shaped fort built in the 17th century to protect the inner harbor of the city. There is a remarkable granite monument to the Danish international contributions to peace since 1948. There have been over 100 individuals listed as having lost their lives supporting international missions in that time. They established this monument in 2011 and it is notable that we counted 63 names since 9/11 whose lives were lost in Iraq or Afghanistan.
At this point in our day the 5 Adventurers needed to split up to accomplish separate missions. The ladies went to secure fresh contact lenses and the gentleman went to find lunch.
The rain did fall on us but we mostly avoided a serious drenching by getting to the ferry terminal early.
On board we found that the ship could hold 600 cars but could also hold tons of fun for passengers. This trip between Copenhagen and Oslo takes 17 hours so we found both transportation and sleeping accommodations together in one package!
There are shops and entertainment on the ship so it felt like a one day cruise. The family teamed up for a murder mystery which had us searching the decks of the ship for clues. We played a strange but fun version of bingo in the lounge and participated in a music trivia game. We didn’t win at all, but the last one netted Dad a free drink for; a) being alive in the 80’s, b) knowing about Baywatch, and c) loving the iconic poster of Pam Anderson.
The only question remaining today is who will awaken to witness our entrance into a Norwegian fjord? It’s sure to have good daylight. This is our window view as we say good night at 11:15pm.
5 Adventures Together 