There's something rotten at Kronborg Slot

My host parents took me to my first Danish Castle!!! It was built during the Renaissance (1420) in Helsingør, Denmark and renovated by King Frederick II in the 1500s. It is perched at the smallest passage between Denmark and Sweden and when the Danes owned both sides of the pass it was the perfect location to collect tolls from passers by. This castle is most famous as the castle Elsinore in the play Hamlet! Sadly I found out that Hamlet was a completely fictional character.

This was the bridge over the moat

The lovely cannons as the first defense!

The first view of the beautiful spires. This castle is under pretty serious renovation.

I loved the Baroque style on the roofs.

This is a miniature representation of the whole castle grounds.

This day was absolutely FREEZING! So I captured the ice frozen on the walls.

 This is a panorama of the inner courtyard. The perspective is a little off but imagine it as a square with the big beautiful spire right in front

These two photos are under the castle (Peter, my host dad walked into bottom photo) where the soldiers ate, trained, and slept. I was extra excited for the tour we went on because I'd never seen this part of a castle before. It was small, damp, and cold, but centuries old. You really can't get much better.

This is Ogier the Dane, a kind of Danish King Arthur. Besides looking totally viking and awesome it is said that he is buried under this castle and when Denmark is truly in trouble he will live again! 

This photos are of the chapel on the castle grounds. There was a huge fire in the castle at some point in the past but this church was saved. It was amazing. The carvings on the outside of all the pews were different and there is even a pew for the King and Queen should they ever come to this chapel. It is mostly a museum but it can be opened for weddings, events, and the like.

The cannons above are ceremoniously fired (I don't remember for which major event though) and the swan is the national bird of Denmark and this was my first glimpse. They must have been really cold though!

Copper

In the area of the city where DIS is there is a LOT of copper. It seems like every building has some sort of copper decoration on it. I think it goes to show how luxurious this part of the city is because copper is not cheap. The trains also run on copper and one of my professors told me that there are actually copper thieves who steal the cables that make the trains run. I can't decide if walking on a train track or scaling a roof is less risky.

Here are the photos I took of the copper embellishments on buildings in this area.

These two pictures are a fountain in a square on Vestegade, which is the main street that DIS has buildings on.

I don't know what a lot of these buildings are (some are obvious like the clock tower below) but they all have the copper theme.

 This wolf is on a beautiful brick library (a lot of things are made of brick here and nothing is built of wood)/

I really love these lions. They are in the same square as the fountain.

I'm fairly sure this is a church, but this is as close as I got to it (not very).

Beautiful Parliament! This is called Christiansborg Slot and was once inhabited by a king of Denmark but is now used as the Parliament building. It's very cool because you can just walk inside without anyone looking twice at you. Inside it's all marble and there are no guards, metal detectors, or people giving you bug eyes.

Also part of the Parliament

I'm not sure what this building is but the spire is absolutely beautiful

Copenhagen Day 1

Today was my first day in Copenhagen. Mostly I attended orientation but I did snap some beautiful photos of Nørreport (the part of the city where the Danish Institute for Study Abroad - DIS is located).

My room:

The opening Ceremony at the Danish Royal Academy of Music. The DIS Strings ensemble played pieces from West Side Story.

Nørreport:
I explored the area around the Danish Royal Academy of Music and the DIS buildings. It's a city campus

This is the Tycho Brahe planetarium. It was designed by Knud Munk and is made of sand colored bricks. I read that it looks best from across the river and it was totally an accident that I stumbled on it.