We started today off with a short run to keep our legs ticking over ready for parkrun next weekend. The route I planned took us around the outside of Kastellet, and through the courtyard of the Amalienborg Palace to Nyhavn, and then looped back, this time running along the other side of Kastellet to make it a little over 5K. I would have like to have run around Christiania Freetown a little, but felt five miles today would be too far, and would use too much time when we’d got sightseeing to do as well.

On our way back we stopped by Netto where Carmen bought us some Gulerodsbrud - a Danish carrot bread, to have for breakfast. The carrot really isn't that obvious when eating it.

Once ready for the day ahead, we headed back out for our first sight of the day: Rosenborg Castle. I’d read it’s possible to get a combined ticket for this and the Amalienborg Palace for 215 DKK, so it seemed worthwhile doing both in one day. The latter however is only open until 15:00, so we needed to keep an eye on the time.

What I hadn’t realised is that they both have timed entries in order to control numbers. For Rosenborg Castle we got a ticket for 11:20, so we walked around the gardens for a while first. This was one of the cooler days of the trip where it wasn't quite t-shirt weather.

The castle was built as a summer house for Christian IV, but has only been used as a royal residence twice since 1710. Inside, it felt very dark, but the thick wooden beams of the ceiling gave it some character. There is wooden panelling on the walls here, and each one has multiple paintings lined up from floor to ceiling. Despite the restoration work being undertaken, we could still get a feel for Christian IV's winter room and the large fireplace as its focal point.

It did feel to us though that the layout of the rooms in the house made little logical sense, at least in part. I think perhaps the darkened rooms impacted our opinions of them as many were furnished in elaborate styles, and some with tapestries, but things in some rooms didn't necessarily feel like they belonged with the theme of the room.

The second floor is split up into apartments and studies with corridors to get to them. On one side you may need to go through a study to reach an apartment, but then in the next part you need to go through an apartment to reach the study. The third floor is then mostly open plan as this is the throne room.

After we’d finished, we headed downstairs to the Treasury and spent some time looking around that. This includes a number of crowns, so is behind heavy doors, and is monitored very closely by a guard in there.

On our way back out we had to wait for the changing of the guard, but could then continue on our way to China Box, a food place not far from the Round Tower. It was 65 DKK per person for a selection of five dishes in a box. I went for noodles, rice, sweet and sour chicken, spring rolls, and sour pork. There was so much food I felt full afterwards, and for sometime later too. I should probably have gone for the three or four dish option.

We walked to Amalienborg Palace and got there around 13:15, where we were directed to the counter in the gift shop to get a ticket for a time entry. I hadn't realised that would be the case here either, but fortunately we got one for 13:00 meaning we'd visited on a quiet day.

Amalienborg Palace has been the official residence of the Danish Royal family since 1974, and is a lot brighter than Rosenborg. Many of the rooms are completely sealed in Perspex so you're in like a viewing bubble. So whilst you can walk through the rooms there's no danger of anyone damaging what is in them. It does make photography a little more challenging.

One of the most notable pieces in here was 'The Hen in the Egg' which is assumed to be the inspiration for the very first Easter egg that Gustav Fabergé made for Alexander III to give to Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1885. It felt like a nice link to one of my previous trips, when I'd visited the Fabergé museum in Saint Petersburg.

It didn’t take us long to walk round, so we headed over to Christiana, looking for a café to try some locally-made cake. We took the bridge over from Nyhavn, and explored from there. Carmen found a place called Les Amis where we got a drink and cake each. I went for Earl Grey and some apple crumble, but the crumble was more like flapjack.

Carmen pointed out we were near that church with the spiral tower we'd seen from a distance, so we felt we might as well walk over to it to photograph. When we got outside we could see we could go up the spire of the Church of Our Saviour. The sign did however say that they were currently full, but provided a QR code to look at bookings. I thought I'd take a look to see at least what the cost was, and found it's 69 DKK per person, and we could book to go up in about twenty minutes time. I knew Carmen isn't fond of heights, but asked if she wanted to anyway. She thought she might not reach the top, but didn't seem to be against the idea of taking a look; so I bought some tickets.

Whilst we waited, we walked over to the partly-autonomous commune known as Freetown Christiana. It was once a military base, but was taken over by squatters in 1971. Today it's a more formalised neighbourhood of Copenhagen, with the police force having helped residents in the removal of Pusher Street. We found a few places there to take photographs and headed back to the church in time for our booking.

To start with, the steps are very normal, and what most people would be used to. At a landing you then go through a door and from there you've got wooden steps up to a wooden floor, and then floor after floor of these narrower steps until you reach what is pretty much a ladder in terms of steepness. This took us out onto the roof where we could look out over the island of Amager, and also back towards Zealand: the island that most of Copenhagen is on.

To go up further we would need to start on the 15o steps of the narrow spiral staircase that leads to the top. Carmen was far from comfortable with the idea of that, and didn't want to go higher. I could understand why; it was a bit crowded up there and wouldn't have felt as safe. I figured the view from up there wouldn't have been that different to where we were now, so I stuck with her on this part of the roof.

Once we'd taken some photographs we headed back down, and began our walk back to the apartment. It's quite a journey back after having been on our feet for most of the day, so we paused in the Amalienborg garden again for a while, and sat on one of the benches near a waterfall.

That evening we had snacks instead of a proper meal, still feeling quite full from the food we'd had whilst out.