Got up this morning at 8.00am to see blue skies and fluffy white clouds out of our window, as well as a perfectly calm Baltic sea (or were we back in the North Sea now). I wasn’t sure.). As we were not due to dock in Copenhagen until one o’clock this afternoon, we had a pleasant morning at leisure.
After getting washed and dressed we went, as usual, to the Palms Café for our breakfast, and I enjoyed some porridge with raisins, washed down with some good hot coffee.
Despite this being our sixth visit to Copenhagen, there is always something to see and do. We originally hadn’t booked any excursions but, because we had quite a lot of on-board credit to use up, we decided to book a 5-hour tour called “Royal Copenhagen”, which sounded very interesting.
After breakfast we went out on deck. It was very pleasant and the sun shone brightly, reflecting on the sea with little sparkles and twinkles as the Balmoral glided along. One of the lovely things about this ship is that she has the fantastic, cascading rear decks, allowing you to have fantastic sea views no matter where you are sitting. We decided to have a stroll around the decks, then go up to the topmost deck and just enjoy being there and watching the sea going past – a very pleasant way indeed to pass the time.
Around 10.45am we went down to the Neptune Lounge where the entertainment manager, Tom, was holding an “Audience with the Balmoral Show Company”. Each of the fabulous singers and dancers were brought onto the stage and, prompted by questions from Tom, explained about their lives on board, how they got into musical theatre and dancing, and where they had studied. It was all very interesting; I bet they have the most amazing job – work hard, but play hard too! 🙂
This took us nicely up to lunchtime, and we made sure we were one of the first ones in as we had to meet in the Neptune Lounge at 1.15pm for our tour, not long after docking. I enjoyed a plate of cold meats and salad washed down with a glass of chilled cava.
Afterward we returned to the open decks and watched briefly as the land ahead of us grew closer and closer as the Balmoral approached Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen. Then we had to return to 6009 to get ready for our tour around the royal palace and royal reception rooms.
When we were in Copenhagen in April 2023, we visited the impressive Rosenborg Castle and its gorgeous manicured gardens, but didn’t have the time to go inside. Today, however, that’s exactly what we were going to do, see inside the royal palace which contains the treasury that houses the Danish Crown Jewels. We’ve never even been inside our own Buckingham Palace, but here we were about to have a good look around the official castle of HM King Frederik X of Denmark.
The King’s mother, Queen Margrethe II, is still alive but she abdicated in January of this year at the age of 84 to pass the throne to her eldest son.
Anyway, we boarded the coach for the short ride to Rosenborg Castle (you can actually walk it from the port, which is what we did last time). As we were booked in as a group, there was no need to queue, which was just as well as there were quite a lot of people about.
Inside, we gazed at the opulent decor in the elegant rooms, of which there were many. The castle was originally built as a summer house for Christian IV in 1606, and you could tell that many parts of it had been added later on. We walked through the different rooms with their amazingly ornate ceilings, windows and furniture. Lots of paintings and other artwork adorned the walls, including massive portraits of previous kings and queens.
Some of the wonderful things you can see inside Rosenborg Castle
Presently we came across an intriguing item of furniture called the Trouser-Wetting Chair. This plush red chair dated from the time of Frederik III, and showed that he had a wicked sense of humour as the chair was ingeniously constructed to grab hold of guests using hidden tentacles in the armrests. A bound person would then be subjected to running water, which ran from a container in the backrest through a pipe in the seat. When the victim was released and could stand up again, a parp sounded from a trumpet hidden in the seat: it was not to be kept secret that the person had been for a ride in the king’s “trouser watering chair”. 🙂 🙂
Afterwards, we descended to the dimly-lit basement to see the Danish Crown Jewels. I have never even seen the British ones yet, but here we were, looking at all the priceless jewels and swords and the actual ceremonial Crowns themselves, as well as lots of jewellery with precious stones as worn by the queens and princesses over the years. I cannot imagine how much money we were looking at, here in this basement – phenomenal.
Ascending to ground level again, we exited the palace and blinked in the sunlights, after the dimness of the basement. After using the restrooms it was time to go back to the coach for our next visit, this time to Christiansborg Palace. Once the home of kings and queens, the palace now houses the Danish Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Ministry of State. This is where any visiting statesmen, presidents and prime ministers are received by the King.
Once again, the rooms were large, high-ceilinged, ornate and full of beautiful furniture and art work. I especially liked the painted ceilings and crystal chandeliers. In one room was a series of paintings on the wall, all featuring ducks, swans and other aquatic birds. It turned out that one of the palace servants was a particularly talented wild bird artist, and these were his paintings! Makes you wonder why he was content with his humble job when he had such a gift.
Around the fabulous Christiansborg Palace
Continuing on our tour, I found the Great Hall to be the most impressive room in the Palace, with its incredible collection of Queen Margrethe II’s tapestries. They were HUGE, and covered all the walls around the room. Each tapestry told a story; one of them featured famous world leaders, including Winston Churchill. We could stand and look at them for ages, as there was always some other little detail to find. In the Grand Hall was a series of benches down the centre of the room, and I was glad of a chance to sit down for a few minutes, as we had been walking/standing for hours.
Once we’d finished our fascinating tour around the palace, we returned to the coach for the final part of our excursion – to the world-famous Little Mermaid which is arguably a symbol of Copenhagen itself. By now, it was after 6.00pm so we would miss our dinner in the dining room tonight, but no matter – we could always grab a bite to eat in the self-service buffet.
The coach dropped us off near the harbour front, and we walked along to the rock on which rests the Little Mermaid. We have, of course, seen it several times before, but when you go to Copenhagen it has to be done, doesn’t it? 🙂
As ever, there were crowds of people around, but perhaps not as many now as there would have been earlier on today. It allowed me to get some good photos, one of which forms the featured image for today’s blog. 🙂
Back on the Balmoral we hotfooted it along to 6009 and dumped our bags, then got washed and changed in record time before heading up to the Palms Café for dinner. I enjoyed some beef stew and vegetables, followed by some cheeses and washed down with a glass of chilled cava and some cold water.
We then took a look at the Daily Times events programme to see what was on tonight; the Featured Showtime presented the talented illusionist / musician Marc Oberon once again.
We took our regular front-row seats in time for the show (we’d missed our dancing as we were obviously later back on board) and enjoyed Marc’s show immensely. When he got to the “mind-reading” part again, featuring his partner Emily Yarrow, he went around in the audience asking people to hand him objects so that Emily could “guess” what they were. Trevor made me laugh out loud when he suggested I remove my platinum blonde wig and hand that to Marc – no doubt it would have brought the house down. 🙂
We spent the rest of the evening doing the usual – up to the Lido Lounge for the quiz (which we didn’t win) and a couple of drinks. They do a good Aperol Spritz on board. 🙂
As it had been such a beautiful sunny day today and the Balmoral was remaining in port overnight, we decided to go out onto the rear decks for a walk about, taking our drinks with us. It was a perfectly still night, and we could still see the orange tinge at the horizon where the sun had set an hour or so ago. The stern of the Balmoral looked lovely against this backdrop, with its backlit pool and suble lighting around the gorgeous fantail decks.
On the other side of the ship, an almost-full moon shone down and, along with the lights from other ships, it cast a golden path on the sea. Absolutely stunning.
As there was no entertainment in the Lido Lounge tonight apart from a 70s disco, we decided to go down to the Morning Light pub and perch on a couple of bar stools while we enjoyed a couple of drinks. What a full and interesting day we had had, and we would be here in Copenhagen until midday tomorrow.
We returned to 6009 around 11.45pm, and settled down in our comfortable bed, where we slept soundly.