Last day in Copenhagen :( The plan for the day was to go out with the drawing teacher at 10 and draw a few areas of the town for a couple of hours. Then we were able to have free time to do some last minute exploring before meeting at the hostel at 5 to head to the airport, our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:55. So we got up, feeling well rested from the night before, josh actually went running this morning and went to the site along the water that had the workout area (the orange object in yesterday's post). So I ate breakfast and packed up our things and put them in a locker downstairs, met up with josh and then we waited around for everyone to show up (everyone was suppose to go, not just the students in the drawing class which caused major confusion to everyone so only half the group showed up). We walked to a town square, not far from the hostel, and Jim (Josh's drawing teacher, who does spectacular watercolor illustrations) was asking everyone to draw items or spaces in the area and focusing on people and their actions. So while josh began drawing, a walked down to the main shopping street, not too far away, and wanted to see if the Pandora store was open today since it was Sunday (I spotted the store Friday on our bike trip, but didn't have a chance to go in). Unfortunately they were closed today, bummer...I was hoping to get a charm, since pandora began in Copenhagen. So I walked back to the site and sat with josh while he drew and I people watched! It seems like we were there forever so to make time go by quickly, I began sketching a few things as well. Then Jim asked everyone to draw the same view and he helped everyone individually to understand scale in their drawing. As he was helping josh, he made it look so easy and even though he was rough sketching, it made the whole drawing look ten times better!
So after another 45 minutes, we were able go and do our own thing. We met up with RC, and decided to visit The Marble Church again, josh saw that you could climb to the top of the dome on Sundays, plus RC hasn't visited it yet. We head in that direction and visit Amalienborg Palace again and find out that the tour is only in the summer months, bummer. Then we decide that we should visit Grundtvig's Church that was highly recommended to visit in the presentation the other day which was a little out of the city and we had to take a bus to get there. We began walking to the bus stop, thank goodness for technology these days, it was so much easier to navigate with Josh's phone and it told you what bus number you needed to get on and all the stops between you and your destination. On the way to the stop, we passed by the Rosenborg Castle which is a renaissance castle that was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606 and now is a tourist site and contains Crown Jewels and the Danish Crown Regalia inside. We stopped, took a few pictures then continued to the bus stop. We got on the bus and rode for about 10 minutes before getting off. This church is a rare example of an expressionist church in architecture and is one of the best known churches in the city due to its unusual appearance. What makes this church special from the exterior is how the buildings and scenery relate and help enhance its beauty. Buildings on each side of the church help place symmetrical context and enhances its visual impact as well as the long tree lined road that leads through Bispebjerg cemetery directly in front of the church which creates a view of just the church, nothing else is in the picture, quite interesting. The interior was inspired by gothic architecture yet had a minimalist modern feeling to it, very unique and worth seeing! We headed back to the city by bus and did not have much time left before heading back to the hostel so we were limited on what to do. First we ate lupper at a Mediterranean fast food type place, we have been eating a lot of this type of food while over here, and decided to head to the Rundetårn. This round tower built in the 17th century is located in central Copenhagen. It was built as an astronomical observatory and is most known for its spiral ramp leading to the top. It was another site to see based on that presentation and it was our last, cause after this we needed to head back to the hostel. There was a fee for entering, just a few dollars so we decided to go for it and climb to the top. Along the way up, they had different exhibitions and stops, like a view of the church that is attached, a museum and another level with artifacts. We continued round and round until we got to the top and was able to step outside and see the city. Similar views to what we saw when we climbed the spiral church steeple the other day, not as tall but still a nice view. We stayed up there for a few minutes before heading back down to the bottom. We were told, by Josh's professor, that it was built for a king that was too large to walk up stairs therefore his horse drawn carriage could bring him to the top but I was never able to find that information while researching so I don't know if that was true or a myth. But a fun fact that I found while researching is that they have a tradition every spring which is to have a unicycle race where you have to go up and down the towers spiral ramp and the world record was set in 1989 in 1 minute and 48.7 seconds, that's crazy!
By this time we headed back to the hostel, picked up our belongings, and was able to relax and chill for a few minutes while waiting on everyone. We walked together to the train station, boarded the train for the 15 minute ride and then arrived at the airport. We checked in, went through security without any problems, thank goodness, and then had a hour or more to wait for our flight (I guess always better to be early). We shopped around a few stores, saw the little mermaid bookcase that BIG designed for one of the shops and I found a pandora store! We had to go in! It was a tiny store but had a lot of merchandise! Knowing that pandora doesn't make charms for particular areas, I asked anyway for charms that were related to Denmark or something that they have exclusive. She pulled out a few charms and explained each one, all of them I knew that we had except for one that is retired at home, the Pandora Crown charm. It has been retired since I've worked there and since we traveled to Denmark, it was only right for me to get this charm to remember this trip! It will go on my travel bracelet that will remind me of this trip! We continued to wait around in the airport for another half hour to 45 minutes waiting for at least a gate number. Finally it showed up, we went to the gate and realized that our plane was 20 minutes behind schedule and that we would be leaving later than 7:55, after a long day, all I wanted to do was sleep in my own bed! We finally boarded the plane and got home around 10:30ish, we were both exhausted but this trip was well worth it! We enjoyed Denmark a lot!! No wonder it is awarded the happiest place to live!
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