Beck's Blog: Optional Tour of Copenhagen

We were up early again today. Slept much better last night, but still awake at 6:00 am. We got up and showered, and then headed for breakfast so that we could be ready for the bus that was to pick us up at 8:30 am. All of our tour group was now here, and this was the earliest that most people had to get up, so there was a good crowd at the breakfast buffet.

Once on our bus, there was some confusion. Our tour guide was changed. This new one was named Helka, and she was similar to Isabella, but older. She also talked a lot. Gail McDonald, one of the leaders for Destiny Tours is on our bus, and so was Neil the entertainer. Gail was rushing around making sure everything was ready for us to go, and once Neil took attendance, he told Helka that we were all there, and we could go. So, off we went.

Helka started talking immediately, telling us (again) about the area we were driving past. We were about 5 minutes gone from the hotel, when the driver's phone rang, and while Helka was talking, he answered the phone. It turns out that we had left someone at the hotel, so we had to go back to get her. The someone was Gail, and she had all the passes to the places we were going to visit during the tour, so she was important to have on the bus. She was also somewhat POed about the bus having left without her - when she found out it was Neil who told the driver to go, she told him off (in a polite, but firm way). This is one of the problems of having two people who both think they are the leaders.

Entrance to the Tunnel


Speed Limit Right Now

So, off we went, onto the bridge and over to Denmark. We had another interesting tour of some of the places we had already seen - the Queen's castle, some of the downtown, the Little Mermaid, and Tivoli. We also went to the Royal family's summer castle, Rosenborg Castle, which is now mainly a tourist attraction, although it does hold the Crown Jewels in the Treasury. We were warned not to touch anything in the Treasury as alarms would go off, and we would likely spend some time in their

Royal Crowns

Royal Sword

Danish prison. They had military guards here, too. We did see some with the fancy head wear that was worn by the guards at the Queen's palace. The ones walking their post at the Treasury were regular soldiers, with their rifles and bayonets. Must be a boring job. They likely hoped that someone would try something so they could get "some action".

From there, we went off to a tour of the Carlsberg Beer Brewhouse. This was a guided, historical tour, explaining the history of the founding of the brewhouse. It was built quite a ways outside of Copenhagen in the 1800s, because the water was good there, as opposed to the water in Copenhagen at the time.