Copenhagen, Denmark (Day 2)

Today we took the local train to Hillerod to visit Frederiksborg Castle.

Frederiksborg Castle

Frederiksborg Castle was built as a royal residence for King Christian IV between 1602 to 1620.  The current castle replaced another castle that was built by Frederick II.  Frederiksborg Castle is the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia.  It is located on three small islands in Slotsoen (Palace Lake).

Today the castle is the Museum of National History and houses a collection of historical paintings and portraits. 

The King's Prayer Chamber or Oratory contains paintings of the life of Christ by Danish artist Carl Bloch.  

Another view of Frederiksborg Castle

King Frederik VII was living in the palace when a fire broke out on December 16, 1859 and it destroyed a large part of the palace's interior.  The interior of the castle was reconstructed after the fire.

We wanted to take the train to Helsingor to see Elsinore Castle.  We missed the train by one minute.  The next one wasn't until an hour later.  We decided to go to Dragor instead.

Dragor is a quaint little fishing village just outside Copenhagen.  After wandering around the town for a while, we got back on the bus to the train station, and headed back to Copenhagen.

Copenhagen, Denmark

We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark this morning.

We disembarked the ship and headed by taxi to our hotel.  We're staying in the Hotel Bethel in the historic Nyhavn district.

Hotel Bethel

After checking in, we walked down the Stroget, a pedestrian lane.  Then we visited the Cathedral of Our Lady.  The nave is lined with statues of the Twelve Apostle (all clad in Roman togas).  They were sculpted by Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen.  At the front of the church is the statue of Christ, also clad in a Roman toga and sculpted by Thorvaldsen.

We came across this statue of Hans Christian Anderson as we continued our walking tour...

Then we took a canal boat tour, which departed from Nyhavn.

Nyhavn (across the street from our hotel)

Taken on the canal cruise.

Also taken on the canal cruise.  Notice the church steeple is made up of crocodile tales that have been twisted together.

 Another view on the canal cruise...