Puplett Family Trip to Sweden (6 Dec - 23 Jan 2022) - 3 - Copenhagen and Tivoli Gardens (10-Dec-22)

We spent the Friday recovering and resting, checking out a few shops before heading to a friend's place for the evening. 

On Saturday we were up early and heading out to Copenhagen by train.  Our plan was to check out a few of the sights then end up in the Faraos Cigarer set of shops (5 shops - comics, board games, figure/card games, Anime, LARP/costumes and merchandise) and then Tivoli Gardens for the Christmas theme.

Crossing the bridge and looking back at Malmo - Turning Torso on the left

The first stop was Rosenborg Castle - this was one of the castles we often missed (as it wasnt on our normal Copenhagen walking route), so we got off at Nørreport Station and walked down to the castle

Built in 1606 the castle was initially a summer house for the royal family of Denmark:

Outside the castle, in the park was a statue "Kamp med en Slange" (Fight with a Snake) by Thomas Brock, picturing a native American trying to spear a snake that is attacking his horse.  When we had visited on our previous trip, we had taken a picture of Tomas being attacked by the snake, so now was our chance to recreate the picture:

The original

After the castle, we walked down to Amalienborg, the man castle and home of the Danish royal family, first passing by Frederik's Church - one of my favourite buildings in Copenhagen:

We then wandered down to the water to check out the pillars which had a cool biomech design:

 

While there, we noticed that a warship was in dock, the HDMS Esbern Snare, an Absalon class frigate that was launched in 2005. The Esbern Snare is an anti-submarine as well as command and support ship, with a large deck for helicopter and roll-on/roll-off transport.

We then walked down to Nyhavn to check out the Christmas markets, which are always nice to see, but were super crowded:

Unfortunately the exchange rate didn't help either - it was 1.5SEK to a Danish crown or about 5DKK to an Aussie dollar, so buying churros for the five of us would have ended up about $100.

After the markets we picked up some Max Burger for lunch and headed to the Faraos Cigarer set of shops.  The Faraos Cigarer is named after a Tin-Tin Comic, Cigars of the Pharaoh:

and is a set of six shops: 

Manga,

Comics & Harry Potter,

Card and Figure (Miniatures) Games,

Board Games and Roleplay Games, 

Live Roleplay and Dress Ups, and 

Film and Merchandise.  

The exchange rate meant that we didn't end up buying anything, but it was fun to look:

StarWars Masks at the Film and Merchandise Store

StarWars at the Film and Merchandise Store

One shelf of Warhammer at the Card and Figure (Miniatures) Games,

Card and Figure (Miniatures) Games

After browsing the stores for a bit, we then headed into Tivoli for the Christmas theme. At this point we were all a little tired and Tivoli was packed! There was a line from the entry booths all the way back to the main road and we waited about 30 minutes to get in.  But it was worth it.  The Christmas theme was pretty cool at night and while the kids were disappointed that we didn't do any rides, they were happy with the hot chocolates.

The side entrance - not showing the line

A little bit of the line...

By the time we finished at Tivoli we were all pretty tired, so we stopped for a brief check of the attached Lego store (and ended up spending way too much on Lego), before catching our train back to Malmo.