Welcome to Copenhagen, Denmark. We learned while there that in Danish, it’s called Kobenhavn and pronounced quite differently than we pronounce it. Most of our short time in Denmark was in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen was founded in the 12th century. It was a fishing village and a bishop in the early days erected a fortress to protect it. The Copenhagen Castle was constructed in 1376 and King Erik moved here in 1416 making it the capital of Denmark. Denmark ruled Norway and parts of Sweden for long periods of time and they had many wars with the Swedes as Denmark and Sweden were the two real powers in this area for hundreds of years.

Copenhagen went through many up and down cycles over the centuries with wars, fires, bubonic plague, religious fights, the arts, and economic changes all making impacts. All of that, plus a lot of water and waterways, makes Copenhagen a very interesting place to visit.

I’ll start our visit to Copenhagen with some of the iconic and older sights. The first photo is the Harbor area. This is the view that I most see when finding information on Copenhagen. It’s sort of the iconic view of Copenhagen. Our hotel was about two blocks from here and we passed here frequently on our travels around Copenhagen. We also had several meals here. The second photo is the icon of Denmark, the Little Mermaid. This statue is at Langelinje Pier and in the harbor. It was unveiled on Aug. 23, 1913 as a gift from a Copenhagen brewer. It was inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Vicky is doing her best little mermaid impression.

The third photo is Amalienborg, home of the Danish royal family. The Royal Family found themselves homeless back in 1794 when the Christiansborg Palace burned down. They moved here as a temporary measure until reconstruction but at some point changed their minds because they liked it here so much and they have been here ever since. There are four identical palaces here with different royals living in different palaces. This photo is currently the Queen’s Palace. The courtyard is between the palaces and the center of the square features a statue of Amalienborg’s founder, King Frederick V. The queen was not in the day we visited but we got to watch the changing of the guards.

The Borsen building in the fourth photo was built in the 1620’s and is one of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen. King Christian IV built it as an official trading center. It’s been a stock exchange, marketplace, and today is the head office of the Danish chamber of commerce. It’s still a beautiful building and a part of what makes Copenhagen such in interesting place to see.

The Church of Our Saviour is in the last photo. It’s a baroque church most famous for its helix spire with an external winding staircase that can be climbed to the top. We seemed to see this spire over and over from many points in Copenhagen and it looks so unique. Copenhagen actually has lots of spires and they really helped us with directions as we walked our way around town. We never walked up this spire as we never got to this church, though we traveled all around it multiple times.