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Kastellet (the “Citadel”), just north of the city center, was commissioned by Frederick III in 1662 to defend the port of Copenhagen. The pentagon-shaped structure is today one of Northern Europe’s best-preserved forts. On our fifth day in Copenhagen, we walked north of Nyhavn to visit Kastellet. On the way, we toured Amalienborg Slot and…

Danish architects and designers have long been internationally known for their innovative and striking creations. The iconic Sydney Opera House, for example, was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon. Copenhagen, of course, is full of spectacular examples of their work and a great way to see many of them is from the water. On our…

Amager Bakke is a cutting-edge waste-to-energy plant with a year-round, no-snow ski hill and walking and running paths built onto the roof. The slope-roofed structure, completed recently this year, dominates the skyline northeast of Copenhagen and was a prominent landmark when we approached the city from the north. The innovative design is the product of…

Christiansborg Palace, now the seat of the Danish Parliament, is the fifth castle built at the same location in Copenhagen. The first, built in 1167 the city’s founder Bishop Absalon, was destroyed in the 1300s. A second castle, completed later in the 14th century, was demolished to make way for Christian IV’s grandiose baroque palace…

Copenhagen has been the capitol of Denmark since the 15th century and is the largest city in the country, with more than two million people living in the metropilitan area. It also is the governmental, economic and cultural center of the nation, and has a wide variety of museums, theaters and galleries. Despite its size,…

We’d enjoyed watching the electric ferries running back and forth from Helsingor, Denmark to Sweden and and decided it would be fun to take one and visit Helsingborg, SE for a day. We also were keen to watch the robotic arm that attaches the charging cable at each end. Helsingborg is the oldest city in…

Kronborg Castle at Helsingor, Denmark evolved from a 15th-century medieval fortress to a magnificent Renaissance castle. The Danish King Frederick II constructed the castle in the mid-1500s using funds gathered from the tolls that ships had to pay Denmark on passing through the Oresund. It was these tolls that prompted the Swedish to build the…

Denmark’s National Maritime Museum is built on the site of an old dry-dock in Helsingor. One of the stipulations of the design competition was that the museum be contained entirely in the dry-dock and not extend above street level. Where most designs proposed building the museum inside the dry-dock with a roof on top, the…

Frederiksborg Castle, a Dutch-Renaissance palace built in the early 1600s as a residence for Christian IV, is one of the most impressive buildings in Denmark with over 80 rooms full of paintings, tapestry, furniture and spectacular gilded decor. After a fire in 1859 destroyed much of the castle, Carlsberg brewery founder J. C. Jacobsen was…

The tiny island of Anholt is 7 miles (11 km) long and about 4 miles (6.4 km) wide and is 80% desert, making up the largest desert in Northern Europe. Just to the west is the 400-megawatt Anholt Offshore Wind Farm, the largest in Denmark and one of the largest wind farms in the world….