We are really getting lucky with weather this week! It was a cloudless sunny, warm day in Copenhagen. Our day started with a tour with a local guide (Cathy) who is American, but had lived in Denmark for many years and is a Danish citizen.

Just after our tour started, Cathy noticed some motorcycle police and remarked that it was rare to see them two by two. As we walked on, she exclaimed that the royal yacht was in port and that she had never seen it that close. She quickly discerned that the queen must be coming or going. So we started walking quickly to get closer. Cathy was clearly on a mission! Her microphone went off and when I motioned to her that it was off (and she kept talking), she shooed me away. I then realized that she was doing a video commentary about the arrival of the queen’s yacht. Soooooo. We got pretty close and could see that someone was taking a dachshund onboard – the queen’s dog. Then the royal chauffeur appeared and we could see the royal cars lined up right at the gangplank. There were maybe fifty people gathered around to see the queen. Members of the crew (maybe the navy?) were moving around, but there was not a lot of security presence. Her lady in waiting came out and waited by the car and then – there was the queen! She came down the gangplank while doing a little wave and got right into her car. It was pretty exciting! And even more exciting because Nina and Cathy were so excited for this opportunity to show off their queen during a routine tour! [Let’s just count this as today’s CURIOUS siting!!!]

The rest of the tour was kind of anticlimactic and since we had been in Copenhagen before and knew some of the history and buildings, it wasn’t that compelling. When we got to the palace square, there was another interesting and unexpected sighting. The ceremonial guards came out in two small groups and did some kind of formation. It wasn’t the changing of the guard and Cathy didn’t seem to know what they were doing.

We had the rest of the day free to do whatever we wanted. Nina had pointed out a boat along the harbor that served fish lunch so we headed there. It such a nice day to be outside! From there we went to Rosenborg Castle where the Crown Jewels are kept. The main part of the castle didn’t have a lot of English captions so we browsed through that pretty quickly. There was an area with a very large ivory collection that belonged to the royals – some were actually made by royalty. Apparently ivory carving was a royal pastime.

We had a nice coffee break in the castle gardens and then stopped back at the hotel for a phone charge. We ran into a couple from our group and ended up having a glass of wine with them in the courtyard.

Our next planned stop was the Royal Library. This library has a very modern addition on the waterfront which connects to the original old library. Amazing architecture! The old card catalogs are just outside the old part and they contain handwritten catalog cards – incredible! We couldn’t go into the old reading room, but we could peek in the windows to see it. It’s not as grans as the LoC and looks more like the Boston Public Library’s reading room, which I love.

After the Royal Library, we took a walk to city hall, but it was closed. So we decided to get dinner at a place called Restaurant Tight. We ordered some starters and they were delicious. The idea was to save room for “The Best Cheesecake” which was just down the street. It was a yummy! There is always a nice stroll to end the day and this one was a beauty. It will be difficult to leave Copenhagen behind, but we will get one more chance to see it before this tour ends.