Easter Weekend - Friday 22nd April 2011

Well just about everything closes in Denmark for the Easter weekend so there were no eel farms or Universities to visit but it was nice to spend a bit of time with my family.

Up early and packed a picnic for Amager beach, a few metro stops to the North of the city.  Literally 500yds out of the station you come across this wide expanse of bays and inlets with little bridges going across to a larger sand bar.  The whole area was joined with walk-ways and cycle-paths.

We crossed the bridge and set up camp near the very calm waters edge and had lunch.  The kids had a lovely time collecting shells and building sand castles and after about an hour and a half we took a short stroll round to a coffee house for light refreshment before heading back into town.

First stop was the impressive Rundetarn, or Round Tower built in 1642 as an observatory.  The most impressive bit was the tower where you walk up a big spiral pathway, all the way to the top, over 100ft.  The views of the city were fantastic!  The rest of the church building was used as an art gallery, museum of historical artefacts and a function room for occasional concerts.  Apparently it used to be part of the University Library where Hans Christian Anderson himself came to study.

After this we plotted a course across town that would take us to the Little Mermaid statue, a sort of pilgrimage for anyone visiting Copenhagen.  On the way we passed through the Kings Gardens (Kongens Have) which is similar to Hyde Park.  It was a beautiful day but we couldn’t believe how many people were there, almost every blade of grass was taken up with picnic blankets and all permutations of families, friends and individuals were represented.  It must be a  bank holiday tradition for locals there.  The kids had a nice play in the park whilst Sharon and I rested wearily on a bench.

Then, like a well planned expedition, we donned rucksacks, called the children to order and fixed our sites on crumpled maps for the next landmark.  I didn’t know it was there until I spotted it on the map, it seemed like a very strange twist of fate but also so appropriate on this journey to come across … “Churchill Park!”  This became our next destination.

Across the other side of the park and out onto the breakwater we could see several people milling around what was obviously the Little Mermaid.  We queued politely as Brits do, for our turn, then not so politely as every other folk just pushed in!  After the obligatory photos we trudged into town and hit the nearest eatery that the girls could stagger to.  Then we jumped onto the metro and back to our hotel for a well earned rest.