• The Scandic Front, our hotel in Copenhagen, is located in Nyhavn, meaning 'new harbor'. Copenhagen is a very walkable city.

• We had a nice room overlooking a main waterway

• The harbor canal at Nyhavn

• Near the Nyhavn canal

• Many restaurants and bars, with indoor and outdoor seating, line the harbor canal at Nyhavn

• Nyhavn restaurants and bars

• Nyhavn restaurants and bars

• This statue of C. F. Tietgen, a Danish financier and industrialist, was near our hotel. Someone saw fit to provide him with a dust mask.

• A statue of Christian V in Kongens Nytorv ('King's New Square')

• There was a lot of construction in Copenhagen. Most of it was attributed to a new ring Metro line that is being built. This is at Kongens Nytorv which was just a few blocks from our hotel. This was also the location of the Metro station that was closest to our hotel.

• More construction in Copenhagen

• Rosenborg Slot (castle), a former home to Danish royalty that is now a museum

• Rosenborg Slot (castle), a former home to Danish royalty that is now a museum

• Kathryn outside Rosenborg Slot

• Bike paths and bicycles were everywhere. It was as dangerous to step into a bike path without looking as to step into the street without looking.

• A bike 'parking lot' near the main train station

• 'I Bike Copenhagen'

• Bikes and cars on the main street next to City Hall. That is Tivoli Gardens in the background.

• City Hall square was always hosting something. One day it was a concert festival. On this day it appeared to be an equivalent of Corvallis' Hoop Jam.

• The Lur Blowers sculpture, near City Hall, honors the earliest warrior Danes

• A famous statue of Hans Christian Andersen. That is City Hall behind Mr. Andersen.

• Three American fast food joints sit on City Hall square and 'welcome' you into the Strøget

• The Strøget (pronounced STROY-et) is Copenhagen's grand pedestrian boulevard, beginning at City Hall and ending at Nyhavn, about a twenty minute stroll.

• The Fountain of Charity has provided drinking water to locals since the 1600s. During the Victorian Age, the water squirting from Charity's breasts and the urinating boy was stopped.

• Entrance to the famous Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park in the heart of the city

• One of the rides in Tivoli Gardens

• This copy of the Little Mermaid statue is located in Tivoli Gardens while the original is on loan to China for EXPO 2010

• Ducks in Tivoli Gardens

• Peacocks in Tivoli Gardens

• We took this canal boat tour

• Our guide, Giuseppe, was not a native of Copenhagen, but was informative and entertaining

• The Royal Danish Theater's new Playhouse was very near our hotel, but the view of it from the canal boat tour was much better than that from our hotel.

• A view of our hotel, on the left, from the water

• The new Copenhagen Opera House was across the waterway from our hotel

• The Copenhagen Opera House was completed in 2005 by Henning Larsen and was a $400 million gift to Denmark from shipping magnate Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller.

• At one point in the tour, canal boats pass under this bridge. It is a very tight fit and passengers near the sides of the boat need to duck their heads.

• Nikolaj Church tower

• The Old Stock Exchange

• The dragon tail spire of the Old Stock Exchange

• An official (lifeguard?) at a swimming competition in Copenhagen's waterways. We were told they were not canals since they are mostly natural waterways throughout the city.

• One of the competitors

• Bishop Absalon, the city's founder, on horseback

• Part of our tour with Copenhagen native and historian Christian Donatzky. His tours received a well-deserved recommendation from Rick Steves.

• There were just two other people on our tour with Christian. As coincidence would have it, they were two men from Portland who also saw the recommendation in Rick Steves' guide book.

• The 'Round Tower' was built as an astronomical observatory in 1642 by Christian IV.

• A corner near our hotel (which is located behind me about two blocks). Amalienborg Palace is down the street to the right. Apparently we stayed in a good neighborhood.

• Guide Christian Donatzky. We learned that he is running for the Danish Parliament.

• Amalienborg Palace and Square is the current home of the Danish Royal Family

• The building in the center of this photo is the home of Queen Margrethe II and her husband. As the flag is not flying, she was not home when this photo was taken.

• The Palace Guard

• The Palace Guard

• Frederikskirke, better known as the Marble Church

• Sarah Culler, our tour videographer, being reprimanded by a Palace Guard for using a tripod in the square

• Sculpture in a park near our hotel

• A columnar sculpture in the park

• Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is an art museum founded around the personal collection of Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914), the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries.

• A staircase in the original part of the art museum

• A staircase in the new part of the art museum. We spent our limited time here to see the Impressionist paintings.

• Vincent van Gogh, Landscape from Saint-Rémy - 1889

• Claude Monet, Windmill and Boats near Zaandam, Holland - 1871

• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Portrait of the Painter Suzanne Valadon - 1885

• Berthe Morisot, The Wet Nurse - 1880

• A water feature/sculpture outside the Thorvaldsen Museum

• This fresco on the outside of the Thorvaldsen Museum shows Thorvaldsen's return to Copenhagen after years of training and working in Rome. The first person to greet him as he steps off the boat is Hans Christian Andersen.

• A comprehensive collection of Thorvaldsen's neoclassical sculptures are on display in the Thorvaldsen Museum

• Self-portrait of Thorvaldsen

• Venus

• Mercury

• Risen Christ

• Thorvaldsen's tomb

• The Cathedral of Our Lady. Thorvaldsen scultped Risen Christ and the Twelve Apostles specifically for this cathedral.

• Cathedral of Our Lady

• A statue of Moses located outside the Cathedral of Our Lady

• Cathedral of Our Lady interior. The sculptures are by Bertel Thorvaldsen.

• Risen Christ

• Risen Christ

• Angel baptismal font

• Matthew

• Jacob

• Foot detail

• Wall decoration detail

• Cathedral of Our Lady organ pipes

• In the Cathedral of Our Lady

• This statue of King Christian IX stands in front of Christiansborg Palace

• The Tower at Christiansborg Palace. This, the third Palace at this location, was finished in 1928. The Palace houses the Parliament, the Royal Reception Rooms used by the Queen, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court.

• The 'pavement' in the coach entrance to Christiansborg Palace was made of wood parquet rather than cobblestones in order to reduce the noise from coach wheels

• The Gefion Fountain, Copenhagen's largest monument, is located at the end of Amaliegade, near the Kastellet. Like the Trevi Fountain in Rome, it is used as a wishing well.

• The Gefion Fountain

• The Gefion Fountain

• Gefion Fountain detail

• A view into the Kastellet, one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe, from our ship, the National Geographic Explorer. It is now used as a park and historic site.

• Another view from our ship, still in dock. Wind turbines are common in this area. In fact, Vestas, the world's leading producer of wind turbines, is headquartered in Denmark and has its USA headquarters in Portland, Oregon.