Touring Copenhagen, First by Boat, Then by Bikes- June 18, 2016

We start the day later than normal, as we slept in until 10:00. Jet lag would not let us get up any earlier.  Since we missed breakfast at our hotel, we had to make do with a bakery across the street. But don't feel sorry for us...

First up on our fun-filled day was a canal and inner harbor tour. 

So there's Red Bull Cliff Diving going on off the roof of the Opera House. 

The Little Mermaid Statue from the backside. (Photos from the front side coming up later)

After the boat tour, we rented bikes. We have them 24 hours, so we can ride to all the places we want to see and save ourselves some walking. While I was a little nervous at first, it was a total blast riding around the city. There are legitimate bike lanes to ride in and it really felt like there were more bikes around than cars. 

The bike shop was pretty cool inside. 

We rode the bikes back to the Cliff Diving. If you look really close you can see the diver on his way down. 

Our next stop was St. Albans Church and the Gefion Fountain. 

You can see the church and fountain behind us. 

You can see here how "small" the Little Mermaid" is. But she sure draws a large crowd!  Here's a better picture of her:

We decide it's time for lunch. Mike suggests finding a pizzeria. Just our luck, we come upon Fantasia Pizzeria. It was delicious, however, we should have only ordered one pizza to share. 

Feeling refreshed and energized, we rode to Rosenborg Castle and Gardens. Here we got to see the royal thrones and Crown Jewels of Denmark.  

We enjoyed the rose garden. 

Yes, I experienced a little bit of rose garden envy. These were the biggest roses I've ever seen.  They were sooooo beautiful!  The pictures don't really show how gorgeous they were. 

Cheesy, yes, but we stopped to smell the roses!  

Not a bad view as we took a break in the rose garden. 

This evening we rode our bikes to Tivoli Gardens, the 2nd oldest amusement park in the world. We enjoyed walking around and watching the lights come on in the park as it got dark. Mind you, we were there from 9-11p.m. The sun doesn't set until 10:00. We rode two rides, an old time roller coaster that was over 100 years old and the Ferris wheel. The roller coaster had an operator with each train working a hand break. It was a mild ride, but crazy to think that the operator was controlling our speed and breaking. 

What a day we had!  So much fun and we're just getting started!