Copenhagen
Rick Steves' Europe: Episode # 510
Denmark's capital is the most fun-loving in Scandinavia. As we get to know Copenhagen, we'll discover reminders of its Viking history and see reflections today of its proudly independent ways. We'll stroll down Europe's first great pedestrian boulevard, ogle crown jewels in the palace treasury, and take a bike ride through an inspirational hippie squatter community, finishing at Copenhagen's full-time carnival, Tivoli Gardens.
- Read the script from the show.
Travel Details
National Museum
Focus on this museum's excellent and curiously enjoyable Danish collection, which traces this civilization from its ancient beginnings. Exhibits are laid out chronologically and described in English (free, enter at Ny Vestergade 10, tel. 33 13 44 11).
Rosenborg Castle
This finely furnished Dutch Renaissance–style castle was built by King Christian IV in the early 1600s as a summer residence. Rosenborg was his favorite residence and where he chose to die. Open to the public since 1838, it houses the Danish crown jewels and 500 years of royal knickknacks. Tour the ground floor room by room, then climb to the third floor for the big throne room. After a quick sweep of the middle floor, finish in the basement (enter from outside) for the jewels (S-tog: Nørreport, then 5-min walk on Østervoldgade, tel. 33 15 32 86).
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The museum has intoxicating artifacts from Egypt (mummy cases, a 5,000-year-old hippo statue), Greece (red-and-black painted vases, statues), the Etruscan world (Greek-looking vases), and Rome (grittily realistic statues and portrait busts). The sober realism of 19th-century Danish Golden Age painting reflects the introspection of a once-powerful nation reduced to second-class status. The "French Wing" (just inside the front door) has Rodin statues. A heady, if small, exhibit of 19th-century French paintings (in a modern building within the back courtyard) shows how Realism morphed into Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and includes works by Géricault, Delacroix, Manet, Degas, Pissarro, and Gauguin before and after Tahiti. Linger with marble gods under the palm leaves and glass dome of the very soothing winter garden. Designers, figuring Danes would be more interested in a lush garden than in classical art, used this wonderful space as leafy bait to cleverly introduce locals to a few Greek and Roman statues. (It works for tourists, too.) One of the original Rodin Thinkers (wondering how to scale the Tivoli fence?) is in the museum's backyard (behind Tivoli at Dantes Plads 7, tel. 33 41 81 41).
Tivoli Gardens
Tivoli doesn't try to be Disney. It's wonderfully and happily Danish. You pay one admission price and find yourself lost in a Hans Christian Andersen wonderland of rides, restaurants, games, marching bands, roulette wheels, and funny mirrors. It's a children's fantasyland midday, but it becomes more adult-oriented later on. Since it's is across from the train station, if you're catching an overnight train, this is the place to spend your last Copenhagen hours. The park is open from mid-April to late September and reopens for a week in mid-October, then for a Christmas market with ice skating on Tivoli Lake mid-November–Christmas (tel. 33 15 10 01).
For up-to-date specifics, see the latest edition of the Rick Steves' Snapshot: Copenhagen & the Best of Denmark travel guide or the Rick Steves' Scandinavia travel guide — or join us on one of our free-spirited Scandinavia tours.