Denmark
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
5
12
Trip End
Aug 22, 2008
Copenhagen,
Zealand,
Denmark
Friday, July 11, 2008
Tuesday July 8
Today we arrived in Korsor, Denmark! We were greeted by a band playing music and even a red carpet laid out in front of our gangway. We traveled by bus to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. Our tour started at Christiansburg Castle which is where the Parliament resides. It was built in 1167 and is the city's first fortress. A tour was guided by a member of parliament who was more than glad to show us around. The first 'Dane' we met proved what we had been told that Denmark is home to the happiest people in the world. On the other side of the fortress we were guided through the royal reception rooms, royal library, and balls rooms. Here is where the Royal Danish Family once resided. From there we traveled across the city to the famous Little Mermaid statue, commemorating Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale
Bodies Exhibit
. After the tour we stayed in Copenhagen to do a little exploring on our own. We met up with some friends from the ship and had dinner and drinks. We walked around the different strips of shops and cafes before heading to the central train station. Wednesday July 9
Today we got up early and took two trains to Malmo, Sweden. We went with three of our good friends Kate, Eden, and Abby. All together it took about two hours to get there. Malmo, Sweden is much like Copenhagen but a little smaller and less touristy. We spent half the day walking around and doing a little souvenir shopping. We also got some Swedish ice cream which was delicious!! It was a wonderful day because it wasn't hard for us to get there and we had a great time just relaxing. After a while we decided to take a train back to Copenhagen. Here we spent some more time souvenir shopping and roaming the city. We came back to Korsor early that night because we had a tour the next more of Roskilde Denmark.
Thursday July 10
This morning we took another bus ride to Roskilde, Denmark. Our first stop was to Roskilde Cathedral which is the oldest cathedral in Denmark. It holds the tombs of 39 Danish queens and kings. It was much different from that of the cathedrals that we visited in Russia. We took a short walk from the cathedral to the Viking Ship Museum of Roskilde. During this walk, all of the bugs in sight flew to Jessie's bright yellow shirt. It was pretty funny. Once arriving to the museum, we watched a short film which explained that the museum held five Viking ships. These ships were found in the Roskilde fjord and were excavated piece by piece in 1962
Central Station in Malmo, Sweden
. It took 25 years to put the ships back together. After touring the museum, we had a picnic lunch outside. The bus then dropped us off at the train station. We caught the next train station to Copenhagen with a few friends. We decided we wanted to see the famous, world traveling "bodies' exhibit. We had seen advertisements of the exhibit all over Copenhagen and it had been recommended by other students who had already seen the exhibit. This exhibit had real human bodies somehow chemically treated so they do not decompose. These bodies were skinned so they showed muscles and organs. Other exhibits showed different body organs and blood systems. No words can really describe what we saw; you're just going to have to see the pictures. After visiting the 'Bodies' exhibit, we headed back to the ship in Korsor.Friday July 11
Today we walked around the very small town of Korsor. There really wasn't much to see. When the ship was supposed to depart, it seemed the whole town; probably 200 people came to see us off. They even had the marching band playing music for a good hour. We were supposed to depart at 9PM. However, the crew decided to change route and go though the Kiel Canal in Germany. This would save us time on our way to Antwerp, so we did not leave until 4AM. Eventually, the ship made an announcement telling the people waiting outside. We felt really bad for them, but it was amazing how welcoming the Danish people are. It was really amazing to see the town outside our ship.
