10-Night France, Iceland, and Norway Cruise - Day 15 Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen

Nobody slept particularly well. The beds weren’t super comfortable and the room temperature wasn’t quite right. I always sleep well on the ship but this bed just didn’t feel right. It was like sleeping on a trampoline. Every time Roger moved, I felt every little tiny adjustment like a ripple across the bed. It was awful. 

So we slept in a bit and got up around 8 AM and went down to breakfast which was included at the hotel. It was a decent breakfast, actually. Many things about the hotel were great, like how close it was to the central train station. We hopped on the metro and went to get tickets for the 10 AM canal boat tour. I had purchased the Copenhagen Card prior to the trip. With the card we paid around $300 for the three of us for three days to have unlimited public transportation and entrance into just about every museum, castle, and attraction you could imagine in and around Copenhagen. We probably saved close to $100 by using the Copenhagen card as opposed to buying transit cards and admission tickets to each thing. Plus we didn’t have to figure out the transit ticket machines (which we saw several people trying to sort out with frustration) and at some of the museums and attractions there were long ticket lines we were able to bypass since we already had the Copenhagen card (Rosenborg Castle and Tivoli spring to mind). Though some places we did have to wait because we had to scan our cards to get separate tickets for entry. Anyway, if you’re going to Copenhagen, this card is the way to go.

The canal boat tour was actually really nice. It was a relaxing little ride around the city and various things were pointed out to us. It was about an hour long. After that was done we went over to Christianborg Palace and started with the old castle ruins (12th-14th century) underneath the current palace (which was built in 1907). It was cool to see some of the old castle underneath. After that we went up top into the royal reception rooms which were, of course, very over-the-top and lavish. 

For lunch we went to a little burger restaurant. We were able to eat outside and it was so pleasant and beautiful. The weather on this day couldn’t have been more perfect and everyone loved their burgers. I even liked my veggie burger that was mostly beets and I don’t like beets very much! After lunch we went to a pastry shop. It took forever to get our dessert and the pastries were…fine. I was surprised because it’s a very popular place that often has a line out the door. There wasn’t a line when we got there, but there was when we left. It was also really expensive. We should have skipped.

For the rest of the day we went over to Tivoli, which is an amusement park right in the heart of the city. Tivoli actually inspired Walt Disney as he was building Disneyland. I have to say, it’s a beautiful park with amazing gardens all around. Tivoli is a little strange because you have to pay to get in, but that only grants you admission, you then have to pay for each ride individually (sort of like it used to be a long time ago at Disneyland) or you can get a wristband that gets you on all the rides. Our Copenhagen card got us admission in (without waiting in a long line) and then I picked up our wristbands that I had already purchased ahead of time from a little kiosk once inside the park. 

My favorite ride of the day was Rutschenbanen (which translates to “roller coaster”). This ride is one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the world and has been operating since 1914. It still has a brakeman that rides in the middle of the train! Emmaline met up with one of her cruise friends and rode a couple of rides with her and we hung out with their family for a little while. I didn’t want to pay the crazy prices at Tivoli for dinner, plus we needed a stop at the hotel, so we went out for wraps for dinner. It was fine. Maybe we would have been better off at Tivoli. You win some, you lose some.

We were back at Tivoli for the rest of the evening until it began to rain and we were all just feeling sort of done for the day. We went back to our hotel room and watched another episode of the Tour de France documentary on Netflix before turning in the for the night. 

Click here for Day 16.