Day 16 - 27 August - Copenhagen - day 12 of the cruise

Today began just after midnight.  To sail into Copenhagen we had to sail under the Oresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark.  We sailed under it when we first entered the Baltic early last week, but that happened at around 2am.  This morning though it was scheduled to happen just after midnight, so I stayed up to watch, as did quite a few people judging by the number of people I could see on balconies around ours.  There was also a party on the top decks waiting for it.  This is because the ship has only a tiny amount of clearance; less than they get under the Gateway or Harbour bridge, so it's pretty exciting to watch.

The Emerald Princess went through right in front of us, then we did.  The bridge is definitely really close but unfortunately my camera wasn't up to photos; there's just not enough light.

We have been to Copenhagen before, so we decided just to get a shuttle into town, have a look at the shops, and then get the shuttle back.  But, when we got onto the shuttle they gave us a tourist guide which included some places of interest to Paul - so we decided we would also look at the Royal Arsenal Museum, the Museum of the Danish Resistance, and the Kastellet (Citadel).

Unfortunately, even though we had some trouble finding the Arsenal museum, it wasn't due to open for an hour, and we didn't want to wait that long.  So, we had a look through the shops and then went on to check out Nyhavn.  After this we went hunting for the Resistance Museum and finally found it after seeing some other sights as well. 

Unfortunately it turns out that the museum is currently a grassy piece of ground with temporary fencing around it, because it burned down in 2013!  They're going to rebuild it but it won't be ready until 2018 at the earliest and although they saved all the exhibits they aren't in any place where you can actually see them.  It's probably past time that the shuttle company updated their map!

However, the Kastellet was very interesting.  We took the usual obligatory photos of Paul with cannon of course:

This one gives you an idea of the sorts of earthworks involved in creating the Citadel:

Once we made it to the Citadel, we were basically back at the ship.  There is a big row of shops all along the pier - as well as the usual souvenir shops there are factory outlets.  We had a look through these and bought a couple of things, but then we realised that we still had some Danish money so we went back to the end of the pier where we had seen a small kiosk.  There we purchased an iced coffee - not the travesty that they call iced coffee on this ship (and for that matter, anywhere that Americans make coffee!!) but a real iced coffee.  Yum.

We then wandered back on board for lunch, after which I went upstairs to book a haircut, which I really needed by now.  Because it's a day in port, they had 25% off salon services today, and I got my hair cut straight away.  The hairdresser was a nice young man called Johann, from South Africa, and he has done an excellent job - he was aiming for a haircut that will look good no matter how messy - he reckons it will look ok even first thing in the morning - but we'll see about that tomorrow  :-)    And, even with a fairly generous tip added, it still didn't cost much more than a haircut at home!

We don't leave Copenhagen until midnight, but Paul and I didn't go out again after our earlier explorations.  We have since watched the Emerald Princess leave port - there were people on balconies and open decks on both ships all waving to each other and shouting farewells:  

Next time we see them will be in Southampton on Saturday when the cruise is all over  :-(