We traveled to Denmark in 2004 to attend Graham’s cousin Joanna’s wedding to Jesper. This was to take place in Arhus at the end of the Half Term week. The rest of the family were flying out on the Friday ahead of the Saturday wedding. However, we decided to incorporate this into a much longer holiday in Denmark and celebrate our 9th Wedding Anniversary. We arranged flights into Copenhagen and out of Arhus. The idea was to traverse the country from East to West by train, spending time in Copenhagen, Odense and Århus.
Tuesday – Copenhagen
Hotel
We arrived in Copenhagen in the morning. Our hotel was located close to the centre of the city. It was simple and functional but perfect for what we wanted. The only problem we had was that the room was 4 flights up and they had no lift. Not much fun with two heavy cases.
Boat Tour Having unpacked we headed straight to the waterfront where we embarked upon a boat tour of the harbour. It was the perfect way to see Copenhagen (Kobenhavn).
Spiral Tower
From the boat we had spied a tall tower with a spiral staircase around the outside. So we decided to visit this next. This was the Church of Our Saviour. We climbed the tower and we got some great views of the city.
Little Mermaid
The most famous place in Copenhagen is the Little Mermaid statue. This was our next stop. The actual statue is quite small and is located on the harbourside. Even so it is so iconic that it was a must visit location, and we passed near to the Royal Palace on route.
Round Tower (RundeTaarn)
Our final stop of the day was the Round Tower of Runde Taarn – which housed an Art Gallery. The Gallery was located at the top of the tower which was accessed via a winding sloping path which was wide enough to take horses and carts in times gone by. We admired the various pieces of art work and got another great view of the city.
Anniversary Meal
We finished the day at a Canalside Restaurant where we had a lovely evening meal for our 9th Wedding Anniversary.
Wednesday – Copenhagen
City Streets
We headed off into the centre of Copenhagen which was fairly close to our accommodation. Our route took us past the Opera House and it’s ornate frescoes and archways. Finding the shopping presinct we wandered the streets taking in the atmosphere.
Botanical Gardens
We saw signs to the Botanical Gardens and reading the guide book we thought that this would be a really good place to spend a couple of hours.
Tivoli Gardens
Tivoli Gardens are the site of the World renowned Amusement Park and the place we decided to spend the late afternoon and evening. The prices were remarkably reasonable and the Park was remarkably empty given that it was a lovely summer’s afternoon. We went on one ride the Daemonen – the biggest and fastest roller coaster in Denmark. At 300m above Tivolo gardens and with speeds of 77kmph, with three wild loops. It was great fun and only a 10 minute queue in which to wait. There were gentler rides of course and plenty of attractions to keep us busy. At night the gardens shone magically with neon light and the fountains in the lake glowed every colour of the rainbow.
It was a magical way to end our stay in Copenhagen.
Thursday – Odense
Train to Funen
Leaving our hotel we made our way to the railway station to catch our train. We had tickets for Arhus but had built in a stop over in Odense which allowed us the chance to see the town famous as the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. We arrived early afternoon after a very comfortable train journey on the high speed train. This train crosses the country from Copenhagen which is on the Island of Zealand. In three hours we were in Odesnse, located on the island of Funen. We made our way to our guesthouse for the night and dumping our bags headed out into the warm afternoon sunshine.
River Cruise to ‘Den Fynske Landsby’
We saw signs for a river cruise from Odense to ‘Den Fynske Landsby’ (The Funen Village) which is an open-air museum showcasing a typical Funen village in the time of Hans Christian Andersen. The village contained 30 buildings dating from the 17th to 19th Centuries.
Evening Walk
We returned by boat and then continued to walk in to Odense where we roamed the streets looking for the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen we found the house he grew up in from the age of two as well as many statues depicting his famous stories. His actual birthplace is located in the museum which we decided to visit the following day.
Friday – Odense
Hans Christian Andersen Museum
The weather was dull and cloudy with spots of rain but this did not bother us to much. We had an afternoon train to catch to Arhus but ahead of this we had time to visit the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in the centre of Odense and the location of his birthplace.
Weekend – Århus
Århus
Since much of the weekend was devoted to celebrating the wedding which is not the purpose of this blog. I will focus on the town of Århus which we visited on Saturday morning and on Sunday afternoon. The latter visit being taken by bus which was a routine regular service efficiently run in true Scandanavian style. On the Saturday we travelled to the harbour and had a coffee on the dockside. After which we changed and went to the wedding – I include a small number of shots for context. The reception went on until the early hours and since we were there in early June and given its Northern location the sunset very late (after 10pm).
On the Sunday after a lazy morning we went into town ans explored the city centre. The centre of Århus is very attractive with modern buildings set alongside canals and wide precincts.
Tanza-Longs 
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