Europe 2023, August 29

Ran across the river and into Amager Faelled park instead before breakfast this time. It's a huge park but has so many different twisty paths surrounded by trees so you can't tell exactly where you are. I managed to do a loop without getting lost, helped only slightly by the route map screen on my watch because it's zoomed in too far to show the whole journey.

Was still working out a plan for the day after finishing breakfast, I purchased a daily travel ticket so planned to make use of it with a few longer trips. Was going to start at Christiansborg Palace but realised some parts don't open until late morning or even the afternoon.

Instead travelled over to Amager Strandpark. There was a small fort on the other side of the road to the park (Kastrup Fort) but mostly it was just an abandoned area. Decided to walk up Amager Standpark along the beach, but the walk felt like it too forever. Was a nice area next to the sound (Oresund) water way, with lots of wind turbines but not much else to see.

Got the train across to the other side of the city to a shopping area for lunch. Came across a Lidl which finally has a good bakery compared to all the other supermarkets - it's almost identical to an Aldi in all other regards. Also had a Nike store and amazingly the only place where prices weren't outrageous - but only after the advertised discounts like buy 3 get 30% off. Didn't buy anything but might go back on the last day if I change my mind.

It was getting towards mid afternoon now so headed back to the city centre for Christiansborg Palace. There's a free tower at the entrance you can walk up to overlook the city, but it was closed...

I was somewhat pessimistic about the ticket price being over $30 for the four areas you get to visit, but took a gamble since I had no alternative plans. First was the royal stables, some white horses hanging out and a collection of expensive looking carriages, as well as a room with various artifacts - pretty average.

Next was the royal reception rooms and tapestries, an English guided tour was about to begin so I waited for that. You have to wear those plastic coverings over your shoes to not damage the wood floors for the whole visit - like being in a hospital. The tour guide was great, spoke English well and gave a much better explanation of Denmark and the palace than just walking around by yourself.

A room of tapestries sounds pretty boring, but they were these huge multi-year artworks packed which hundreds of small Denmark and world history events for different time periods. This quarter of the ticket alone made the visit worthwhile.

Next was the underground ruins which I expected to be good but was a little repetitive. It's interesting though to see how the basements still contains many different layers of walls of old iterations of the castles.

Last was the royal kitchens which was the low point of the visit, it's just a recreation of a few kitchen rooms with no interactivity at all. If you didn't buy the combo ticket for all four places you could have paid nearly $15 just to see a kitchen as a single ticket.

It was already after 5pm so I headed back to the hotel and grabbed dinner on the way, since I still had to plan out the Malmo 'international' trip for the following day.